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| Five more British silent films Unesco should register | Five more British silent films Unesco should register |
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| If, when you consider our national heritage, you think of murder, guilt, sex and cheeky humour – well, somebody out there agrees with you. The decision to add Alfred Hitchcock's nine surviving silent movies to Unesco's UK Memory of the World register puts his early work on a cultural par with the Domesday Book and Field Marshal Douglas Haig's war diaries – also selected for the list this year. | If, when you consider our national heritage, you think of murder, guilt, sex and cheeky humour – well, somebody out there agrees with you. The decision to add Alfred Hitchcock's nine surviving silent movies to Unesco's UK Memory of the World register puts his early work on a cultural par with the Domesday Book and Field Marshal Douglas Haig's war diaries – also selected for the list this year. |
| The nine silents were all directed by Hitchcock in the 1920s and include better-known films in the director's classic thriller mode such as The Lodger and Blackmail as well as comedies (Champagne, The Farmer's Wife) a boxing movie (The Ring) and dramas (The Pleasure Garden, Downhill, Easy Virtue and the lush, rustic romance The Manxman). The collection was nominated by the BFI, which has recently restored all nine films, and showcased them, many with newly commissioned scores, during its Hitchcock retrospective last summer. | The nine silents were all directed by Hitchcock in the 1920s and include better-known films in the director's classic thriller mode such as The Lodger and Blackmail as well as comedies (Champagne, The Farmer's Wife) a boxing movie (The Ring) and dramas (The Pleasure Garden, Downhill, Easy Virtue and the lush, rustic romance The Manxman). The collection was nominated by the BFI, which has recently restored all nine films, and showcased them, many with newly commissioned scores, during its Hitchcock retrospective last summer. |
| This year, the films have embarked on a global tour, screening in the US, China and New Zealand among other places. I recently saw the gleaming restored print of Hitchcock's rural rom-com The Farmer's Wife at a festival in Bologna, Italy, where the film's very British battle-of-the-sexes humour translated surprisingly well to an international audience. For Unesco, it's clear that these films are to be treasured for what they tell us about Hitchcock and his later international success, but in its offical statement there's also a nod to the importance of film restoration itself: "Excitingly, the restorations have not only revealed the films looking crisper and fresher than ever, but also new layers of meaning have been uncovered. The restoration of Hitchcock's silent films has enabled the discovery of extra material as well as a deeper appreciation of the precocious genius at work." | This year, the films have embarked on a global tour, screening in the US, China and New Zealand among other places. I recently saw the gleaming restored print of Hitchcock's rural rom-com The Farmer's Wife at a festival in Bologna, Italy, where the film's very British battle-of-the-sexes humour translated surprisingly well to an international audience. For Unesco, it's clear that these films are to be treasured for what they tell us about Hitchcock and his later international success, but in its offical statement there's also a nod to the importance of film restoration itself: "Excitingly, the restorations have not only revealed the films looking crisper and fresher than ever, but also new layers of meaning have been uncovered. The restoration of Hitchcock's silent films has enabled the discovery of extra material as well as a deeper appreciation of the precocious genius at work." |
| And despite the director's solid-gold fame, these films are more precious than you might assume – there is a 10th Hitchcock silent, The Mountain Eagle, which has been lost and currently sits at the top of the BFI's Most Wanted list. | And despite the director's solid-gold fame, these films are more precious than you might assume – there is a 10th Hitchcock silent, The Mountain Eagle, which has been lost and currently sits at the top of the BFI's Most Wanted list. |
| The Hitchcock films are not the first British silents to appear on the Unesco Memory of the World register. In 2010, the lost-and-found biopic The Life and Times of David Lloyd George made the cut, as well as the Scottish documentary St Kilda, Britain's Loneliest Isle. The international register includes the haunting filmed record of the first world war, The Battle of the Somme. Silent films on the register from other countries include Metropolis and the pioneering films made by the Lumière brothers. | The Hitchcock films are not the first British silents to appear on the Unesco Memory of the World register. In 2010, the lost-and-found biopic The Life and Times of David Lloyd George made the cut, as well as the Scottish documentary St Kilda, Britain's Loneliest Isle. The international register includes the haunting filmed record of the first world war, The Battle of the Somme. Silent films on the register from other countries include Metropolis and the pioneering films made by the Lumière brothers. |
| But there is something joyous in the selection of the Hitchcock silents, a recognition of film-for-film's sake. Now, the floodgates have opened, there are a few other British silent films I would like to nominate for representing "documentary heritage of global significance and outstanding universal value". | But there is something joyous in the selection of the Hitchcock silents, a recognition of film-for-film's sake. Now, the floodgates have opened, there are a few other British silent films I would like to nominate for representing "documentary heritage of global significance and outstanding universal value". |
| 1. Edward Turner's colour films | 1. Edward Turner's colour films |
| Children wave sunflowers in the air as they watch a goldfish twist in a bowl, soldiers march in formation, a macaw wiggles on its perch … these, from 1901 and 1902, are very probably the world's first colour moving images, filmed using a process patented in 1899 by Edward Raymond Turner. Recently rediscovered and reconstructed using the original complex system, these scenes are historically important and just a little bit gorgeous. | Children wave sunflowers in the air as they watch a goldfish twist in a bowl, soldiers march in formation, a macaw wiggles on its perch … these, from 1901 and 1902, are very probably the world's first colour moving images, filmed using a process patented in 1899 by Edward Raymond Turner. Recently rediscovered and reconstructed using the original complex system, these scenes are historically important and just a little bit gorgeous. |
| 2. Rescued by Rover | 2. Rescued by Rover |
| The greatest British film ever made? Many believe so – and it was first filmed in 1905. it's a simple tale in which a dog (director Cecil Hepworth's own dog Blair) saves the day by sniffing out a babynapper and returning a lost infant to the bosom of its distraught family. The movie is now praised for its development of storytelling on film, the slick editing of its chase sequences, the natural lighting techniques – and for popularising the name Rover for canines across the country. So popular did the film prove with audiences at the time, Hepworth had to remake it – twice – to replace the original's worn-out negative. | The greatest British film ever made? Many believe so – and it was first filmed in 1905. it's a simple tale in which a dog (director Cecil Hepworth's own dog Blair) saves the day by sniffing out a babynapper and returning a lost infant to the bosom of its distraught family. The movie is now praised for its development of storytelling on film, the slick editing of its chase sequences, the natural lighting techniques – and for popularising the name Rover for canines across the country. So popular did the film prove with audiences at the time, Hepworth had to remake it – twice – to replace the original's worn-out negative. |
| 3. Hindle Wakes | 3. Hindle Wakes |
| Maurice Elvey's David Lloyd George film is already on the list – but this proto-feminist northern romance from 1927 is my pick of his silents. American star Estelle Brody plays the rebellious textile worker, John Stuart the mill-owner's son who seduces her in Blackpool. There have been other screen adaptations of Stanley Houghton's play, but this one is sharp, funny – and exquisitely judged. Sex, class and rollercoasters combine in a film that will sweep you off your feet – even if you can never fancy Llandudno again … | Maurice Elvey's David Lloyd George film is already on the list – but this proto-feminist northern romance from 1927 is my pick of his silents. American star Estelle Brody plays the rebellious textile worker, John Stuart the mill-owner's son who seduces her in Blackpool. There have been other screen adaptations of Stanley Houghton's play, but this one is sharp, funny – and exquisitely judged. Sex, class and rollercoasters combine in a film that will sweep you off your feet – even if you can never fancy Llandudno again … |
| 4. The Great White Silence | 4. The Great White Silence |
| "Global significance and outstanding universal value" abound in Herbert Ponting's haunting 1924 film of Captain Scott's fatal expedition to the South Pole. The breathtaking photography of Antarctic oceans, glaciers and penguins give this film documentary importance as well as cinematic beauty. As an unimaginably close up look at the bravery, ambition and some would say recklessness of a famed British hero, The Great White Silence has to be on this list. See also South, Frank Hurley's 1920 documentary of Ernest Shackleton's ill-fate voyage across Antarctica. | "Global significance and outstanding universal value" abound in Herbert Ponting's haunting 1924 film of Captain Scott's fatal expedition to the South Pole. The breathtaking photography of Antarctic oceans, glaciers and penguins give this film documentary importance as well as cinematic beauty. As an unimaginably close up look at the bravery, ambition and some would say recklessness of a famed British hero, The Great White Silence has to be on this list. See also South, Frank Hurley's 1920 documentary of Ernest Shackleton's ill-fate voyage across Antarctica. |
| 5. A Cottage on Dartmoor | 5. A Cottage on Dartmoor |
| Hitchcock was not the only young British director turning the critics' heads in the 1920s. Noted competition came from Anthony "Puffin" Asquith, who like Hitch parlayed influences from European and Soviet cinema into very British settings. His silent work outshines his sound films in many ways, and recent restorations and fresh scores have done the thrillers A Cottage on Dartmoor (1929) and Underground (1928) proud. The former, originally shot as a part-talkie, nudges it on to my list because it captures the transition from silent to sound cinema from the audience's perspective. It's a great film that also tells us something about how British people went to the pictures in the 1920s – and the "universal value" of silent cinema. | Hitchcock was not the only young British director turning the critics' heads in the 1920s. Noted competition came from Anthony "Puffin" Asquith, who like Hitch parlayed influences from European and Soviet cinema into very British settings. His silent work outshines his sound films in many ways, and recent restorations and fresh scores have done the thrillers A Cottage on Dartmoor (1929) and Underground (1928) proud. The former, originally shot as a part-talkie, nudges it on to my list because it captures the transition from silent to sound cinema from the audience's perspective. It's a great film that also tells us something about how British people went to the pictures in the 1920s – and the "universal value" of silent cinema. |
| Those are my nominations. Over to you … | Those are my nominations. Over to you … |
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