Fri 19 March

With music accompaniment from Neil Brand (piano)

Introduction with Alison Strauss 19:00 (5m)

Film 19:05, 1h 14m (ava 48hrs)

With its satisfying blend of humour, romance, and heroics The Eagle is the ideal HippFest Friday Night Gala… starring silent-era sex-symbol Rudolph Valentino strutting his stuff in 18th century Russia.

Handsome lieutenant Dubrovsky (Valentino) catches the lascivious eye of Czarina Catherine ‘The Great’ (Louise Dresser), but our hero only has eyes for the beautiful Mascha. Having spurned the Czarina and invoked her full fury, Dubrovsky is forced to go on the run. The solution? Conceal his identity behind a mask, of course, and gallop around righting wrongs! The film boasts everything you could want from a period drama: impressive camera work, sumptuous sets, gorgeous costume design, and a starry cast.

Allow yourself to be carried away by this classic romantic adventure and come to your living room dressed for the occasion…

Dress code: masked crusader or HippFest glamour.

Dir. Clarence Brown | USA | 1925 | BBFC cert U | b&w | 1h 12m | English intertitles
With: Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Bánky, Louise Dresser, James A. Marcus
Music Accompaniment: Neil Brand
Screening material courtesy Kino Lorber

Neil Brand
Neil is one of the UK’s most established silent film accompanists, composers, writers and broadcasters. His achievements are too extensive to list, but recent touring work includes ‘Neil Brand presents Buster Keaton’ and Neil Brand presents Laurel and Hardy’. Neil presented the highly acclaimed BBC 4 series 'The Sound of TV with Neil Brand' in 2020, and regularly performs at silent film festivals worldwide.
www.neilbrand.com