To clear up an old misconception: silent films were not silent films at all. On the contrary, they often sounded louder than the talkies that would later replace them. This was mainly due to the technology, since in the early years of the cinema the film projectors rattled so loudly that they could even be heard in the auditorium. That’s why the cinema operators hired musicians to accompany the film screenings with piano, violin or so-called cinema organs. Orchestras with up to 80 musicians even played in the big premiere cinemas. So nothing was quiet or mute here, the audience got used to the music, the soundlessness of the films was already irritating back then.
That hasn’t changed to this day, with public screenings of such films there is always musical accompaniment. The Regensburg Silent Film Week is no exception, for its fortieth edition the pianists Martin Rohrmeier and Vsevolod Pozdejev as well as the Regensburg multi-instrumentalists Bertl Wenzl and Rainer J. Hofmann could be won. Opening on Tuesday, August 16, the Aljoscha Zimmermann Ensemble will perform with violin and piano to accompany Buster Keaton’s 1923 film “Our Hospitality”. The focus is on a young man who falls in love with the daughter of a rival family clan.
Buster Keaton hanging from a waterfall
Buster Keaton not only directed, but also played the leading role – and with full physical effort. Once he was caught in the water by a rapid and swept away (which you can also see in the film). Another time he was hanging in a waterfall and swallowed so much water that he had to have his stomach pumped out. Keaton is considered one of the most creative minds in silent film cinema, and he also has a loyal fan base in Regensburg: no director has played more films in the past four decades.
The working group film, which emerged from a group of students and which organizes the event and has just received the “German silent film award“, has scheduled six film evenings for the anniversary edition: When the weather is nice, they take place in the open air in the arcaded courtyard of the Thon-Dittmer-Palais, when the weather is bad in the “Leerer Beutel” film gallery. Classics are shown that are also used in other such Events can be seen at the Stummfilmtage Bonn (Erich von Stroheim’s “Blind Husbands” from 1919) or at the Munich Stummfilmtage (Czech director Gustav Machatý’s “Erotikon”, which caused a scandal in 1929). Gabrielle will be shown exclusively in Regensburg Pinkert’s documentary “The early cinema is alive! 40 years of the Silent Film Week in Regensburg”: In 2021, the filmmaker followed the preparations for the Silent Film Week with her camera, and the result can be seen in the afternoons in the columned hall of the Thon-Dittmer-Palais. Admission is free, and there is also an accompanying exhibition .
40th Regensburg Silent Film Week, Tuesday, August 16th to Sunday, August 21st, www.stummfilmwoche.de