Last Days of Pompeii (Bloomsbury Theatre)
Details
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.