“Charlie Chaplin: Charlot. The king of comedy” [The Cure 1917 – The Vagabond 1916 – Laughing Gas 1914]

Runtime in total: 62’ – Slides in Greek
Direction: Charlie Chaplin
Original Score: Robert Israel
Cinematography: Frank D. Williams
Editing: Charlie Chaplin
Cast: Charlie Chaplin, Fritz Schade, Alice Howell, Slim Summerville, Josef Swickard, Mack Swain

Yet again, the great directors of the silent film get to have their… ‘say’.
Their films though without voice, speak through art which, like a
revolution, was born in the 20th century. These amazing creators were
enchanted by the arrival of innovation in their times … pioneers of
cinema and film who experimented with the boundaries of its technical
nature… initiators in its evolution from practice to art. Enlightened
minds to whom we were introduced via darkened cinemas… the people who
gave today’s cinema its artistic essence.

For the 5th consecutive year, from Monday 7th to Wednesday 16th of July, the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation is organizing the Silent Film Festival accompanied by live music with free entry and presenting the second part of the tribute to the great directors of silent film. As every year, the 5th Silent Film Festival has been organized in cooperation with the STUDIO-Parallilo Kykloma and its president, Christos Papadimitriou, as well as with the Film Scoring workshop under the artistic direction for musical accompaniment of Alexandros Mouzas, coordinating professor.

For yet another year, the Silent Film Festival provides the common ground
for the history of the seventh art to be brought into the present. In
the cinema hall of the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, once again, Michael Cacoyannis’
love for the origins of the art he served with such passion and the
artistic value of these silent masterpieces are met by hundreds of
cinephile.

Nine evenings in July and 12 great directors, amongst them; Charlie Chaplin, Carl Theodore Dreyer, Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Alexander Dovzhenko and Rex Ingram,
provide an occasion for the audiences of the Festival – maybe for the
first time, maybe not – sometimes with nostalgia and sometimes with
a pleasant surprise,  to view 21 films that, as forerunners, made motion picture the most widespread art form of today.

At the same time a new approach will be applied to the works of these great artists via on-stage, live musical accompaniment by composers and musicians of the new generation who find yet another area for expression and an opportunity to showcase their own work. The unique style of expression of each composer, articulated in direct reference to the cinematic language of each director, reinforces the silent messages brought by these “silent” film texts. And it is somewhat like this that these silent films of yesterday acquire yet one more reason to have their ‘say’… today.

Opening film each evening, before each screening or group of screenings:

“The Search for Inspiration Gone” by Ashley Michael Briggs

Genre: Experimental – Animation – Fiction/ Fantasy – Silent
Runtime: 8 minutes
Cast: Charlie Macgechan, Poet – Yuliya Fytsaylo, Goddess – Michael Grinter, God
Directed, Written, Produced, Photographed & Edited by Ashley Michael Briggs
Produced by A.Briggs & Dee Meaden
Original Idea by Rob Makin
Original Score by Tom Hickox

Synopsis:
A poet awakens within a strange garden in need of his notebook, pencil
& inspiration. A divine couple, breakfasting, observes. A debate
unfolds; would inspiration arise from help or hinder? Will the poet find
his inspiration?

The Filmmaker (Director’s Biography):
Ash is mostly concerned with creating bespoke moving image techniques to
effectively serve a particularly given narrative wholly and without
compromise. He’s extremely excited that his directing debut is having
continued top-tier international festival success.