At the Teatro Verdi in Pordenone from October 4 to 11

Pre-opening October 3 in Sacile and a repeat of the closing night film at the Verdi on October 12

An intense close-up of Dorothy Mackaill, from Emmett J. Flynn’s film The Man Who Came Back, is the image of the 44^th edition of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, from October 4 to 11 at the Teatro Verdi. A gaze that expresses the charm and mystery of the golden age of cinema, as well as a sense of slight unease and melancholy. As always, the festival—directed for the tenth year by Jay Weissberg—is an opportunity for a formidable journey through time, offering countless opportunities for reflection and comparison with the present day, in the full awareness that without memory there is no future. Cinema is a mirror of life, reflecting its dramas and joys, but it’s also an occasion and a locale – the movie theater – where one can dream and be entertained. The festival’s offerings span all countries and genres, from blockbusters to arthouse films, from documentaries to animation, from avant-garde to the earliest days of cinema. In thirty years, moving pictures had already done everything said Mario Monicelli, a frequent guest at the festival. And certainly, every year the Giornate bestows new surprises, like a magical cornucopia that never ceases to pour out new treasures.

Let’s start with the special events, and the pre-opening at the Teatro Zancanaro in Sacile on Friday, October 3, featuring Buster Keaton‘s masterpiece The Cameraman (1928), directed by Edward Sedgwick and Keaton himself, with live musical accompaniment by the Zerorchestra.

The official opening, on Saturday, October 4, at the Teatro Verdi in Pordenone, features the 1922 Italian film Cirano di Bergerac, directed by Augusto Genina and based on Edmond Rostand’s famed 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac; the orchestral score by American composer Kurt Kuenne will be performed by the Pordenone Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ben Palmer.

For the closing on Saturday, October 11 (with a repeat screening on Sunday, October 12), we again welcome Buster Keaton, here alongside Natalie Talmadge, his wife at the time, in Our Hospitality, co-directed in 1923 with John G. Blystone. The musical score is by Slovenian composer Andrej Goričar, who also conducts the Orchestra of the Imaginary of Ljubljana live. This selection pays homage to the twinning of Gorizia (in Friuli) and Nova Gorica (in Slovenia), in the same year that sees these cities as European Capitals of Culture.

The traditional midweek event, on Wednesday, October 8, is divided into two parts: a documentary on one of the major battles of World War I, and a montage of newsreels entitled Palestine – A Revised Narrative. Of particular note is the musical component; in the case of The German Retreat and Battle of Arras, restored by the Imperial War Museum in London, the new score for 10 musicians and 16 choristers is by British composer Laura Rossi; for the films on Palestine, also preserved at the IWM in London, the collaboration between award-winning Lebanese composer and pianist Cynthia Zaven and leading sound designer Rana Eid has given rise to a multimedia work of great evocative power and artistic value, which promises to be one of the most impactful events of this year’s edition.

From Palestine to another current war zone, Ukraine. When the country was part of the Soviet Union, the production of children’s films played a key element in the nation’s cinema output, characterized by lively comedies whose protagonists represented role models for new generations to be “educated” in communism. The program for the Giornate includes four titles, among them Тroye [Three] (UkrSSR, 1928) by Oleksandr Solovyov, with a screenplay by Vladimir Mayakovsky, and Pryhody Poltynnyka [The Adventures of a Penny] (UkrSSR, 1929) by Axel Lundin, presented with a score by Belarusian composer Olga Podgaiskaya and performed by Podgaiskaya with Vitali Darashuk and members of the Orchestra giovanile Filarmonici Friulani.

At this moment in time it’s unarguably more vital than ever to deepen our knowledge of countries experiencing conflicts that no one seems willing or able to solve peacefully, but at the same time it’s equally important to remember that the best antidote to pessimism and depression is humor and laughter. The champions of comedy have always had a prominent place at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, starting of course with the genius of Chaplin – it shouldn’t be forgotten that David Robinson (director of the Festival from 1997 to 2015 and now director emeritus) was and is his official biographer.

Chaplin and beyond: the most extensive section of the 2025 program, entitled “The Chaplin Connection: Six Degrees of Charlie,” explores the world of Chaplin in all its forms, from the performers who inspired him and whom he inspired to his many imitators, as well as cartoons, newsreels and home movies. Of special note is one of the most eagerly awaited screenings of this edition, Chaplin’s anti-war comedy Shoulder Arms, in the world premiere of its new MoMA restoration. Chaplin’s 1918 medium-length masterpiece, made immediately after the carnage of World War I, is paired with another anti-war comedy, Soldier Man, shot in 1926 and released in 1928, directed by Harry Edwards, starring Harry Langdon and written by the young Frank Capra, who would become one of Hollywood’s greatest directors in the following decades.

It is a great pleasure and honor to welcome Jane Fleischer Reid, granddaughter of Max Fleischer, one of the pioneers of animation, and daughter of Richard Fleischer, director of blockbusters such as Barabbas and Tora Tora as well as noir, action films, and westerns. Thanks to the efforts of his granddaughter, much of Max Fleischer’s work has been tracked down and digitized. Sixteen short films featuring KoKo the Clown, made between 1920 and 1928, before the creation of the universally known character Betty Boop, will be presented in Pordenone.

This edition marks the start of a two-year retrospective dedicated to one of the most acclaimed Italian actresses of silent cinema, Italia Almirante Manzini (Taranto 1890 – São Paulo, Brazil 1941), a highly admired star of her time, both on stage and screen, whose films have rarely been seen in recent decades and who is long overdue for rediscovery. After appearing in the 1913 blockbuster Cabiria, the actress starred in dozens of films, many of which have been lost. This year we’ll be showing the sole surviving fragment of Femmina (1918), directed by Augusto Genina as well as five other titles, including Zingari (1920) by Mario Almirante, in a copy from the Cineteca Nazionale-CSC; L’innamorata (1920) by Gennaro Righelli, based on a story by Genina, restored by the Cineteca di Bologna; and La piccola parrocchia (1923), again directed by her cousin Almirante, in a new restoration by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin with the Cinematek / Cinémathèque royale de Belgique and the Cineteca del Friuli.

The journey through Italy that began in Sicily continues this year in Liguria, where a representative of the Lumière brothers began filming already in 1896. In addition to scenic views of the region’s beauty, the program includes a rare comedy directed by Mario Bonnard, La gerla di papà Martin (1923).

The section The World That Was, The World to Come takes us to New Zealand, the old city of Aleppo, towns nestled in the Korean hills, Brazil, Argentina, and Palestine. Even a hundred years ago, there was war tourism, as seen in a 1919 film of a tour of World War I battlefields to the east of Paris.

Among the classics of the “Canon Revisited” and “Rediscoveries and Restorations”, we find directors such as Abel Gance (Le droit à la vie, 1916), Maurice Tourneur (The White Heather, 1919), George B. Seitz (The Blood Ship, 1927), Louis Feuillade, with four shorts made between 1911 and 1913, Fritz Lang (Der müde Tod / Destiny, 1921) and Eleuterio Rodolfi (Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei, 1913), to name but a few. All this in addition to the aforementioned The Man Who Came Back, a masterpiece not seen for decades, starring Dorothy Mackaill and George O’Brien, protagonist of F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise.

Rounding out the program are sections dedicated to Belgian avant-garde, early cinema, unidentified films, and the world premiere of the newly restored 1913 British version of East Lynne, directed by Bert Haldane, based on the bestselling Victorian-era melodrama by Mrs. Henry Wood. The 1925 film version and Mack Sennett’s 1919 parody will also be presented.

Not to be left out is the special event on the afternoon of Sunday, October 5, featuring a program of 29 Japanese short films from the 1930s, shot on matte paper rather than celluloid and therefore extremely fragile, which have been saved and digitized by Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. Pordenone is the first European city to host this event, which will be accompanied by live music from Yoko Reikano Kimura (koto) and Hikaru Tamaki (cello).

For one week, Pordenone is the world capital of silent cinema, but it’s important that even those unable to attend in person can follow at least part of the program online. Thanks to our successful partnership with MYmovies, the Giornate continues to offer streaming programs every day for the entire duration of the festival, featuring a selection of films accompanied by the festival’s musicians. Each session is preceded by introductions that director Jay Weissberg recorded in recent days at the Teatro Verdi and in various locations around the city.

The Giornate del Cinema Muto is made possible thanks to the support of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Ministry of Culture – Directorate-General for Cinema and Audiovisual, the Municipality of Pordenone, the Pordenone-Udine Chamber of Commerce, the Friuli Foundation, and the participation of BCC Pordenonese and Monsile.