London Silent Film Group

### Presented by: Kennington Bioscope

29 April @ 19:30
£8

https://cinemamuseum.org.uk/scheduled/erotikon-1929/

Erotikon (Czech 1929) Digital restoration. Directed by Gustav Machatý with Ita Rina and Olaf Fjord. Cinematography by Václav Vích. Based on a screenplay by the poet Vítězslav Nezval.

Now regarded as a landmark Czech silent film, shooting started in November 1928 with exterior scenes shot in Prague and Karlovy Vary. Machatý and his Czech cinematographer Václav Vích used modern American lenses making the image very soft. Vích worked on over a hundred films in different countries during his career. In the 1930s, he was one of the top technicians in the Italian film industry and often worked with the director Max Neufeld. The production designers on Erotikon were Julius von Borsody and Alexangr Hackenschmied.
Erotikon tells the story of Andrea (Ita Rina) the beautiful but unsophisticated daughter of a rural railway worker. When rich, sophisticated womaniser George Sydney (Olaf Fjord) misses his train connection one stormy night he persuades the railway worker to let him stay at their house. When the railway worker is called away George seduces his daughter. Leaving the next morning, George has soon forgotten Andrea and embarked upon a new relationship with the married Gilda (Charlotte Susa). Andrea remains infatuated with George but, on discovering she is pregnant, leaves her village to avoid the shame.

Erotikon will be introduced by Ellen Cleary.

The first half of the show, introduced by Dave Glass, will include a rare Czech comedy short Lady with the Small Foot (Dáma s malou nožkou) (1920), which marked the screen debut of Anny Ondra (pictured), later to become a leading actress in many European features, including Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929). There will also be some more newly discovered film fragments in our regular ‘Fragments First’ section, many of which need identifying please!
Live Piano accompaniment. Cyrus Gabrysch will be playing for Erotikon, and Colin Sell will be playing for the first half.

https://www.bloomsburytheatre.com/event/2026/05/experiencing-last-days-pompeii-through-silent-cinema

## Experiencing the last days of Pompeii through silent cinema

Presented by UCL Department of Greek and Latin

Enjoy an early evening screening of a rarely seen yet extraordinary Italian epic from 1913, about romance and menace during the last days of Pompeii, ending with the terror of its citizens as the volcano Vesuvius erupts and destroys their city in spectacular fashion - Jone or The Last Days of Pompeii.

A beautifully tinted digital print has been leased especially from the Museum of Cinema in Turin and will be accompanied on piano and percussion by two internationally acclaimed professional musicians: John Sweeney (piano), Jeffrey Davenport (percussion).

The Italian feature film displays the monumental aesthetics, beautifully rich material detail and the exciting drama that was created in the silent era of cinema to imagine the last days and the destruction of the ancient city of Pompeii. Epic films from the silent era made the distant past come alive through their attractive use of gesture and facial expression, exotic sets and extravagant costumes, colour, movement and emotive live music.

As a performance, this event replicates the scale of exhibition frequent in the silent era (epic films were often first shown in opera houses) and the means by which live music once engaged audiences emotionally with cinema’s classical worlds.

The screening will be introduced by members of the UCL Museum of Dreamworlds research project and will be followed by a Q&A.