Halloween Silent Film Night

Piccadilly (1)

On Halloween night, Saturday 31 October, at 7 pm, St Giles’ Church will be showing 1929 silent film Piccadilly with a live band and Camberwell Community Choir.

Directed by E.A. Dupont, Piccadilly is a story of ambition, desire and jealousy. Nightclub and restaurant owner Valentine Wilmot (Jameson Thomas) is enjoying tremendous success, largely due to his dancing stars Vic (Charles Laughton) and Mabel (Gilda Gray). That success begins to waver when Vic leaves for Hollywood after a heated argument and Valentine is forced to try out a new act, a scullery maid from his own kitchens, Shosho (Anna May Wong). Set in roaring 1920’s London, Piccadilly is notable for qualities not typically associated with British silent films: opulence, passion and a surprisingly direct approach to tackling the issues of the day.

It’s the third time St Giles’ has put on a silent film with live music — and this year’s screening hopes to build on the success of last year’s film, Hitchcock’s The Lodger: A tale of the London Fog. The film will be accompanied with jazz played by a live band and a solo pianist together with Camberwell Community Choir. Some of the songs which are due to be performed were original hits for the band featured in the film itself — The Savoy Orpheans led by Debroy Somers.

Tickets for the film will be available at the door (£8, or £5 concessions). Or you might want to buy combined tickets online at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/334999 where for £12 you can buy film tickets and tickets for a speakeasy-themed night in St Giles’ crypt, featuring the band after the film screening till late.

Halloween / period outfits welcome! 

4 thoughts on “Halloween Silent Film Night”

  1. Hope last night went well for the silent film. I made Mr Eilean stay in so that we could greet Camberwell’s children as they ‘Trick or Treated’ their way around the streets. It was the most quiet, well behaved evening that we can recall. No groups of teenagers wearing half heartedly constructed costumes and grabbing whole handfuls of chocolate before running away. Just small groups of under 10s with apologetic parents hovering in the background. Maybe all the teenagers were at the rave in Whitgift Street.
    I note also that the Peacocks/Woolworths building is now only a frontage. The whole site has been razed to the ground, presumably making way for…

  2. … a brothel, a gay sauna, an abattoir. Actually, some of those clubs in Vauxhall are all three.

  3. I went to Communion Bar for the first time in a while the other weekend. It seems to have gone downhill slightly. The table service element seemed to have ended, and instead of a DJ playing very good music (one of the biggest draws for me) the barmen were playing some slightly naff stuff over Spotify or whatever. I suspect both of these things can be explained via the desire to cut costs — as usual, it wasn’t very busy. That’s a shame, as the drinks are still very nice.

    I also find it curious that they always have 2 security men there, no matter how quiet — one on the door upstairs, and one just standing in the corner of the bar itself. Did they have some trouble kick off there once or something?

Comments are closed.