DARIUS BATTIWALLA
SILENT FILM IMPROVISATION
For upcoming silent film shows see the 'concerts' page
“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. Darius now teaches improvisation at the Royal Academy of Music.
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