Lights, action, melodrama! Silent films get new reel at London haven

The black-and-white silent movie flickered into life as the pianist started up with a dramatic flourish. Cue the latest exploits of daring master criminal Three-Fingered Kate. The head of a gang behind a string of audacious robberies, Kate -- who is missing the last two digits of her right hand -- always manages to outwit her rival, Sheerluck Finch, aka fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Nearly a century after the first "talkies" displaced silent movies for good, a society of London cinephiles still gather regularly to celebrate these largely forgotten works from the dawn of cinema. The Kennington Bioscope searches out rare films from the era—many not seen for many decades—and screens them with live improvised piano accompaniment, just as they would have been a century ago.

In a curious twist, the cavernous venue where the Bioscope meets—now home to London's Cinema Museum—was formerly the chapel of the 19th-century south London workhouse to which a young Charlie Chaplin was sent. "It's an amazing synchronicity," silent film devotee Alex Kirstukas, 32, told AFP. Chaplin, the legendary British comic actor and director, grew up in poverty nearby before beginning his career in the silent era. Along with his struggling theatre hall artiste mother and elder brother, he was sent to the workhouse -- grim institution for the needy -- twice before the age of nine. Now a cornucopia of film memorabilia, the building is crammed with vintage projectors, publicity posters, and other pieces of cinematic history.

Glamor

Bioscope regular Kirstukas said "bringing together rarities" in a place where "decades and decades" of film history had been assembled made it a one-off. "There is such a strange charm and uniqueness to the place," the American postgraduate film student said, adding that he had loved silent movies since discovering them as a child. "It's a different world, a different type of story-telling with an incredible variety and imagination," he said. The Bioscope's Michelle Facey said she was initially attracted by the "glamor" of the silent movie stars. But she soon realized just how vital the films were, both in their own right and for their influence on later filmmakers.

"They were innovating all the time because it was early film, and it's still a quarter of all film history in this silent film period," she said. "If you watch 'The Trial' by Orson Welles, there's an overhead shot of a massive space with all these desks. "When I saw King Vidor's 'The Crowd' from 1928, there was that shot- that's where he got it. It's so interesting to see the clear line between these things," she added. The silent movie era is generally considered to have begun in 1894. By the early 1930s, it had had its day. The first feature-length sound film, "The Jazz Singer," was released in 1927, kicking off the industry's transformation.

Lost movies

The "Three-Fingered Kate" short film -- "Kate Purloins The Wedding Presents" -- was a classic Bioscope find. Kate, played by French actress Ivy Martinek, and her fellow reprobates tunnel through a fireplace to swipe gifts from a neighboring house. Martinek starred in dozens of films by the British and Colonial film company, including the series of seven "Kate" crime capers made between 1909 and 1912, only one of which survives. According to Ian Christie, professor of film and media history at Birkbeck College University of London, her appeal as a convention-flouting "gang leader" lay in not being a "goodie." But despite her star status, Martinek and other silent movie stars remain "shadowy" figures due to the loss of so much of their work.

Only a tiny proportion of silent movies have survived. Christie said there is a "great gap" between 1906 and the early 1920s for British movies, making the work of groups like the Kennington Bioscope to find and show long-lost gems all the more critical. The small gatherings of several dozen dedicated silent movie lovers are a world away from the heyday of silent films. In the early 20th century, huge crowds visited cinemas to see their favorite stars. Few films these cinema-goers enjoyed exist, so the search goes into dusty archives and private collections. "Until recently I despaired of ever seeing any of 'Three Fingered Kate'," Christie said. Sometimes, "no sooner do you find something and it disappears again," he added.