HippFest announces line-up

The Blue Bird will open the festival Photo: Courtesy George Eastman Museum/HippFest

The Hippodrome Silent Film Festival - aka HippFest - has announced the programme for its 13th edition - which will open on March 22 with a screening of The Blue Bird , Maurice Tourneur’s fantasy fairy-tale of two children’s quest for happiness, and run until March 26.

Scotland’s only festival dedicated to silent film takes place in the country’s oldest purpose built cinema, the Hippodrome in Bo’ness..

The opening film will be accompanied by the world premiere of a new commission by Sonic Bothy, an award-winning Glasgow-based inclusive ensemble that explores, composes and performs experimental and contemporary music.

Earlier in the day critic and filmmaker David Cairns will be joined by Chris Heppell, a Campaigner with Changing Faces, the UK’s Visible Difference and Disfigurement charity for a talk “All Faces are Masks”: Visible Difference in Silent Cinema. The talk will examine the ambivalent attitude of Hollywood to themes of disfigurement and difference with images and clips from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Man who Laughs, explore the early origins of the “horror” genre, and discuss the I Am Not Your Villain campaign, which calls out those in the film industry using scars, burns or marks as a shorthand for villainy. The Man who Laughs will be shown as part of the HippFest Community screening programme.

Conrad Veidt's look in The Man Who Laughs is said to have been an influence on The Joker Photo: Courtesy Park Circus/Universal/HippFest

Other films in the line-up including The Accidental Anthropologist: Benjamin T. Gault, footage captured by the American naturalist from his time in west Kerry and Cork in the 1920s, and The Silent Enemy (1930), which features an all-Native American cast and follows the tribe as they struggle to survive. The film will be accompanied by Günter Buchwald on piano and violin, with Frank Bockius on percussion.

The Friday night Gala will be What Happened To Jones (1926), a farce staring Reginald Denny, which will feature live accompaniment from Neil Brand and Bockius.The dress code for the evening is cops and bishops - or your finest HippFest glamour. Audience members will be invited to stay for post-screening film-themed entertainment plus a vintage clothing pop up, complimentary single malt ‘giggle water’ courtesy of Ian Macleod Distillers.

Among the other films is Rin Tin Tin starrer Where The North Begins and 1929 Kyiv portrait In Spring, which will feature a new score from Ukrainian musicians Roksana Smirnova and Misha Kalinin.

HippFest 2023’s Encore screening on Saturday evening is The Man Who Laughs (1928); a thrilling, historical melodrama starring Conrad Veidt. The distinctive ‘look’ of Vedit’s character Gwynplaine is cited as a major influence for the visual aesthetics of Batman’s grinning nemesis: the Joker.

The festival closes its 2023 edition with Shooting Stars (1928), Hollywood Babylon - UK style. A behind-the-scenes film-biz satire in which the glitz and glamour of a 1920s British movie studio is the setting for seediness, betrayal and intrigue. D

HippFest at Home also returns with a selection of online events for those looking to join in with the festival from afar.

HippFest Director, Alison Strauss said: “HippFest has grown to be a world class festival for silent film, cultivating a real community of people who share an adventurous appetite for extraordinary cinema and live music. We can’t wait to welcome everyone to explore the programme with us, and to come and be part of the unique atmosphere of the Festival, of Bo’ness and of the Hippodrome itself. The team has worked incredibly hard to pull together all the ingredients of HippFest that our audiences love, and this year the mix of great films, great fun and great music will be hard to beat.”

Further information about the Festival Pass, the shuttle bus to and from Linlithgow, programme, and individual tickets can be found on the official site