SILENT FILM IMPROVISATION

“Improvisation extraordinaire..” read the full Artsdesk.com review of Phantom of the Opera here

In the last few years Darius has been increasingly in demand as a silent film accompanist on both organ and piano.  After a sell-out performance of Nosferatu in 2009 at the Sheffield Festival, he has accompanied Phantom of the Opera, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde on the organ, and on the piano has played for the premieres of the newly restored Helen of Four Gates. For several years he played for a monthly series of films at the National Media Museum, and he makes regular appearances at the Leeds International Film Festival, and has also appeared at the Mayfield Festival, Deer Shed Festival, and many other venues throughout the UK.  This year sees films in Sussex, Leeds, London and Newcastle.

Films performed

A Cottage on Dartmoor (UK 1929) Anthony Asquith

Asphalt (Germany )

Battleship Potemkin (USSR 1925) Eisenstein

Berlin, Symphony of a City (Germany 1927) Walter Ruttman

Blackmail (UK 1929) Hitchcock

Bleak House (UK 1920) Maurice Elvey

Crossways (Japan 1928)

Dawn (UK 1928) Herbert Wilcox

Downhill (USA 1927) Hitchcock

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (UK 1920)*

Easy Street (USA 1917) Chaplin

Explosion of a motor car (UK ) Cecil Hepworth

Four Sons (USA 1928)

Girl Shy (USA 1924) Harold Lloyd

Haxan (Denmark 1923)

Helen of Four Gates (UK 1922) Cecil Hepworth

Hindle Wakes (UK 1927) Maurice Elvey

How it feels to be run over (UK 1901) Cecil Hepworth

Metropolis (Germany 1927)* Fritz Lang

Nanook of the North (USA 1922)* Robert J Flaherty

Nosferatu (Germany 1922)* F W Murnau

One Week (USA 1920) Buster Keaton

Our Hospitality (USA 1923) Buster Keaton

Pandora's Box (Germany 1929)

People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag) (Germany 1930)

Rescued by Rover (UK 1905) Cecil Hepworth

Safety Last (USA 1923) Harold Lloyd

Steamboat Bill Jr (USA 1928) Buster Keaton

The Adventurer (USA 1923) Chaplin

The Black Pirate (USA 1926) Douglas Fairbanks

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Germany 1920)*

The Champion (USA 1918) Chaplin

The First Born (UK 1929) Miles Mander

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (USA 1921)

The General (1926) Buster Keaton

The Goat (USA 1920) Buster Keaton

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (USA 1921)*

The Immigrant (USA 1917) Chaplin

The Lodger (UK 1927)* Alfred Hitchcock

The Mark of Zorro (USA 1920)

The Passion of Joan of Arc (Denmark 1928)* Dreyer

The Phantom of the Opera (USA 1923)* Rupert Julian

The Pleasure Garden (UK 1925) Hitchcock

The Rat (UK 1925) Ivor Novello

The Ring (UK 1927) Hitchcock

The Vagabond (USA 1918) Chaplin

To’lable David (USA )

Underground (UK 1928) Anthony Asquith

Voyage across the impossible (France ) Meliés