17th Silent Film Live Festival - 100 Years Silent Movies

The entire programme is free! (except the orchestra)

17th StummFilmLiveFestival

1926–2026: 100 YEARS

3–13 September

28 films, 11 days, 18 international guests, 1 orchestra

1926–2026 – 100 YEARS

GRAND OPENING

Thu 3 Sept, 7.30 pm: Keaton’s *The General* live with an orchestra

Timothy Brock will be at the Babylon for the festival’s opening night to perform his new composition for Buster Keaton’s *The General* live with orchestra (Thu 3 Sept, 7.30 pm).

The Iranian musical duo Peyman Yazdanian (piano) and Adib Rostami (kamancheh & tombak) will accompany the documentary *Grass*, in which a tribe threatened by drought sets out with its herds on an arduous, life-threatening journey to fertile regions – a highly topical issue (5 September, 7.30 pm).

The cinema year 1926 was one of the most successful and productive of the silent film era. More than two and a half billion Americans visited cinemas, equivalent to weekly attendance figures of around 50 million. The situation was similar in Great Britain, where people frequented the newly built ‘picture palaces’ two to three times a week.

Germany, too, is experiencing an unprecedented cinema boom. By December 1926, Ufa alone will own a network of more than one hundred cinemas across the German Reich, with around 100,000 seats. In Berlin, Essen and Munich, ‘picture palaces’ are being built to accommodate over two thousand spectators.

The production machine is running at full speed. After fifteen months of filming, Fritz Lang completes his masterpiece of the century, *Metropolis* (original version with subtitles), which premieres in January 1927; Alfred Hitchcock makes his debut with *The Lodger* – his ‘first proper film’, as he calls it.

Everywhere, innovative films – some of them aesthetically radical – are leaving the studios. In Japan, for instance, *A Page of Madness*, a horror journey through the inner workings of a psychiatric institution. From the Soviet Union come the psychological thriller *Atonement* and the late-Expressionist literary adaptation *The Overcoat* (based on Gogol). In Berlin, *The Adventures of Prince Achmed*, the world’s first silhouette animation film, celebrates its premiere. F.W. Murnau opens his brilliant *Faust* with a groundbreaking opening sequence in terms of animation technique – an adaptation of a German folk tale. For the first time, the theme of psychoanalysis is explored in a film with G.W. Pabst’s *Secrets of a Soul*.

All this is presented by the StummfilmLIVEFestival 2026 – and even more:

Ekkehard Wölk’s Trio Noir et Blanc blends oriental sounds with jazz.

Further highlights:

*So This Is Paris* by Ernst Lubitsch: two married couples who are friends flirt with the idea of swapping partners and experience an emotional rollercoaster, told through the language of silent film: with glances and gestures. Made in Hollywood: the Lubitsch touch at its best.

Jean Renoir’s *Nana*, based on Émile Zola’s novel of the same name, tells the dramatic story of a Parisian courtesan’s rise to become one of society’s most powerful women – and her downfall. Great epic cinema.

*Rien que les Heures*: Paris from early morning until late at night in documentary-style images, which, however, focus particularly on the poorer neighbourhoods. A model for Walter Ruttmann’s *Berlin – A Symphony of a Great City*.

In 1926, Berlin cinemas certainly didn’t just screen cinematic masterpieces such as *Faust*, but also flamboyant slice-of-life comedies: for example, *Gräfin Plättmamsell* starring Ossi Oswalda and Curt Bois – a quirky romance set amongst a laundry, a ready-to-wear shop and a luxury hotel. This is complemented by Richard Oswald’s *Eine tolle Nacht* (A Wild Night), in which an insect powder manufacturer from the provinces spends a night in Berlin and finds himself in a right whirl. Cheerful anarchy featuring the character actors Henry Bender, Mira Hildebrand, Paul Graetz – and Ossi Oswalda.

In the Swedish gender comedy *The Girl in the Tailcoat* (*Flickan i Frack*), a young woman confidently defies social conventions.

*Flesh and the Devil*, starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in a classic melodrama, reliably delivers a deeply moving cinematic experience.

A sombre drama: *Facing the Sea*. On a remote Finnish island, a visitor uncovers the family secret of a fisherman and his adult daughter.

No less dramatic: Lev Kuleshov’s *Atonement* (*Po Zakonu*), a psychological thriller based on a short story by Jack London, set in the Alaskan wilderness, where three people, cut off from the outside world, find themselves embroiled in an existential conflict with one another.

Anyone seeking (visual) relief from the heat of summer at the cinema will find what they’re looking for here: with sledges and reindeer in Inka Läntä’s *Winterland*. The film, with its innocuous-sounding title, depicts the Inuit’s gruelling struggle for survival in the barren expanses of the Scandinavian north.

In *Sparrows*, Mary Pickford breaks away from her image as a demure, childlike woman in wholesome family comedies. Amidst the unbearable conditions of an orphanage, she rises above herself and becomes the heroine of a group of underage residents. Not a children’s film.

Rather, the festival’s slapstick comedies: alongside *The General* [original version with subtitles], the Keaton classic *Battling Butler*, Frank Tuttle’s *Kid Boots* featuring the screen debut of stage comedian Eddi Cantor, *For Heaven’s Sake*: Harold Lloyd in full swing, trying to save a church under threat; and, last but not least, *The Caveman* – a romantic slapstick comedy about a rather mismatched couple.

More than 20 international solo artists will provide the musical accompaniment for the screenings at the StummfilmLIVEFestival 2026 – not forgetting the members of the Babylon Orchestra. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to them all.

Our special thanks go to Frederic Schladeur of Celluloid Heaven, who has long supported the StummfilmLIVEFestival in the often difficult task of sourcing material and who, this year, has managed to organise more excellent digital copies than ever before – whether from Vienna, San Francisco or Tokyo – and has even provided them with subtitles. THANK YOU!

• Festival Director: Timothy Grossman
• Curator: Friedemann Beyer
• Orchestra: Babylon Orchestra Berlin