Movie magic - with music played live – at museum

SCREENINGS AS PART OF SILENT FILM FESTIVAL

LEICESTER’S New Walk Museum hosts three special events this week as part of a five-day celebration of silent films.

As part of the 20th British Silent Film Festival, the museum’s Victorian art gallery was the venue for a screening of From Morn to Midnight (Von morgens bis mitternachts) yesterday – one of the most radical and avant-garde films of the German Expressionist movement.

On Saturday, there’s a chance to enjoy the best of Laurel and Hardy, as TV broadcaster, musician and writer Neil Brand presents his entertaining family show.

Fully illustrated with clips – both silent and sound – and accompanied by Neil on the piano, the show promises gales of laughter and two of the duo’s best silent films.

The final event at New Walk Museum – on Sunday – is a stunning programme of Victorian short films, restored to Imax quality and showing extraordinary detail.

Made towards the end of Queen Victoria’s reign, the films show late Victorian life in all its splendour, from great sporting events and military pageants to scenes from everyday city life.

Presented by Bryony Dixon, curator of silent cinema at the BFI National Archive, Screening the Victorians gets under way at 4pm on Sunday.

Neil Brand’s Laurel and Hardy Show starts at 11am on Saturday. The events are taking place as part of this year’s British Silent Film Festival, which will be hosted by Leicester’s Phoenix Cinema once again.

Now in its 20th iteration, the festival will feature a total of 26 rarely-seen and rediscovered silent films, as well as films from the early days of sound.

Films include treasures from the BFI national archive, as well as some remarkable films from Sweden, the USA and Germany – which produced many influential films from 1919 onwards.

All the silent films will be accompanied by live music from some of the world’s leading silent film musicians.

Tickets for the events are available from New Walk Museum and cost £5. Children’s tickets for the Laurel and Hardy Show are available for £2.50. More information is available from the museum on 0116 225 4900.

More information and the full festival brochure are available at: