THE GERMAN RETREAT AND BATTLE OF ARRAS

AND

PALESTINE – A REVISED NARRATIVE 

Programme for Wednesday 8 October 2025 at Pordenone’s Teatro Verdi

The current age of sorcerers’ apprentices summoning scenarios of war served as the inspiration for the special event of the Silent Film Festival on Wednesday 8 October at 9 p.m. at Teatro Verdi.

The German Retreat and Battle of Arras documents the British Army’s great offensive on the Western front during the Easter period in 1917. This third instalment in a trilogy of official films on the French and Belgian campaigns was the most visually successful, as evidenced by the new digital restoration undertaken in a collaboration between the London Imperial War Museum (IWM) and the University of Udine.

The images of the Battle of Arras were filmed by four operators lead by Capitan J.C. Faunthorpe, officer of the military intelligence directorate and military director of the official cinematographers. An unusual feature of this documentary is its use of colour: hand coloured sections and red intertitles spotlight explosions while, to underscore realistic naturalism, blue is used for the river and sky, and brown for the ground. The score by British composer Laura Rossi for choir and chamber ensemble was inspired by poetry and texts written by soldiers who fought in the battle. She also arranged a number of war songs. In the film’s closing credits, we hear the recorded voice of a soldier talking about the songs he and his comrades sang, eventually breaking into song with these words: “When this wicked war is over”. Rossi’s score will be performed by Orchestra da Camera di Pordenone and Coro del Friuli Venezia Giulia directed by Andrej Goričar.

While the following programme remains during the WWI period, it takes us to a land that is currently suffering the most tragic time of its history. Palestine – A Revised Narrative is based on a montage of film clips from digitised newsreels filmed in Palestine between 1914 and 1918, and graciously provided by the Imperial War Museum. The live musical accompaniment was created by multi-award-winning Lebanese musician Cynthia Zaven, who combines performance and archival materials to explore the relationship between sound, memory and identity through interwoven narrations. Rana Eid collaborated with her on sound design. Known for her participation in major productions as well as in independent films, Eid is considered the most important sound designer in the Arab world. This performance at the festival is an Italian premiere.

At 10 a.m., as part of “The Chaplin Connection” retrospective, the festival presents “The Other Chaplin”, i.e.  Charlie Chaplin’s brother Syd, who stars in Giddy, Gay and Ticklish, from 1915.

We find him again in the following The Bond, filmed and financed by Charlie Chaplin in 1918 to promote American war bonds during WWI. In addition to Charlie himself, this short features Edna Purviance, Albert Austin and Syd Chaplin, and begins with a series of vignettes illustrating the bonds of friendship, love and marriage shot in a minimalist style which, as David Robinson’s wrote “gave this curious film a proto-Expressionist look”. “The Other Chaplin” also features Syd Chaplin’s only film produced by British International Pictures, A Little Bit of Fluff from 1928, a screen adaptation of a popular play by Walter W. Ellis directed by Jess Robbins and Wheeler Dryden. After this film, Charlie Chaplin’s elder brother’s film career was effectively ended by scandal.

At noon, Italia Almirante Manzini will be on screen in L’innamorata from 1920, directed by Gennaro Righelli and with a screenplay by Augusto Genina. The original title submitted to censors – L’orizzontale – was rejected, and permission was granted only if “all scenes of excessive sensuality or immorality, as well as any vulgar words in the intertitles” were removed. Here, Italia Almirante Manzini plays a capricious and unscrupulous ‘man-eater’, addicted to being a pleasure-loving socialite. She is also a woman of her times: shown in L’innamorata behind the wheel of a car, drinking alcohol and smoking. L’innamorata was a hit with audiences and and critics alike, including the British press.

Die Dame mit der Maske (GB: The Lady With the Mask, 1928), a German production directed by Wilhelm Thiele and presented at 2.30 p.m. in the Rediscoveries section, also encountered problems with censorship. The film is notable for its criticism of the male gaze on women’s bodies. The audience is led to sympathise with the protagonist, who cannot escape the lewd stares of the men watching her dance.

Also noteworthy in Tuesday’s programme is Louis Feuillade, master of serials. While we rarely associate his name with slapstick comedy, he actually cut his teeth directing gag reels at Gaumont in 1907. This year’s festival presents a few examples of Feuillade’s comic films, including L’homme aimanté (The Magnetized Man) of 1907 and Lysistrata ou la grève des baisers (Lysistrata, or, The Cessation of Kisses) from 1910, based on Aristophanes’ famous comedy and starring the great Parisian actress, Alice Tissot. In Feuillade’s version, the women decide to withhold their kisses to end the Peloponnesian War, whereas Aristophanes specifically states that they go on a sex strike. However, the biggest surprise is Lagourdette gentleman cambrioleur (Lagourdette Gentleman Thief) from 1916, a parody of Feuillade’s Les Vampires that stars the same serial actors, Musidora and Marcel Lévesque, and co-stars “Nasty Woman” Léontine. This actress’s identity has never been discovered, and after her absolutely brilliant comic roles with Pathé between 1910 and 1912, there was no further sign of her until she appeared in this Feuillade film.

The Jonathan Dennis Memorial Lecture will be delivered on Wednesday 8 October by Jane M. Gaines, Professor of Film and Media Studies at Columbia University, with her talk titled “Imagine!” The History of Global Silent Film with only Women.” 5.30 p.m. at Teatro Verdi.

Wednesday 8 October is a special day also for the Giornate online programme on MyMovies, offering a double screening: from 3 p.m., accompanied on the piano by José María Serralde Ruiz, you can watch Emilio Gallo’s documentary Colonia Alpina (1924-1929), on a summer holiday camp in the mountains for children from not well-off families, followed by Augusto Genina’s spectacular film Il siluramento dell’Oceania (1917), which depicts the sinking of an ocean liner during the First World War; and, from 9 p.m., George B. Seitz’s maritime drama The Blood Ship (1927)  accompanied by Donald Sosin.

The Pordenone Silent Film Festival / Le Giornate del Cinema Muto is made possible thanks to the support of the Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Ministry of Culture – Direzione Generale Cinema, the city of Pordenone, the Pordenone-Udine Chamber of Commerce, the Fondazione Friuli and with the participation of BCC Pordenonese e Monsile.