“No silence, please” silent film festival starts this week in Bucharest

The Czech Center of Bucharest will organize a mute film festival called “No silence, please”, which will feature screenings of early cinema masterpieces , accompanied by live music. The program will begin at 20,00 hours on Thursday, February 3, with the Czech movie “Ecstasy” made in 1933 by director Gustav Machatý - the world’s first film that contains a nudity scene. The film will be accompanied by a live guitar performance from Hanno Hofer, Nightloosers band leader. On February 9, the program will continue with the famous German horror “Nosferatu” (1922 – trailer below), directed by F. W. Murnau, accompanied by a guitar and piano performance from Catalin Grigoriu. The Czech Center will also present other classic masterpieces like Faust, Potemkin Battleship, Dr. Caligari’s cabinet or Eroticon in the upcoming weeks (trailer below). “We want to offer viewers the magical atmosphere of a cinema at its beginning era, when films were accompanied by live classical music . We will invite artists from Romania, Czech Republic and other countries to accompany the movies in their own style, from classical music to jazz and electro, "says the Czech Center director, René Kubášek. Ecstasy is a Czech film made in 1933 by the director Gustav Machaty. The movie is celebrated as the first motion picture containing a nude scene. It is also considered the first non-pornographic movie to portray sexual intercourse, although never showing more than the actors’ faces. The film was banned in the United States and many other countries, but still made actress Hedy Lammar a leading sex symbol of her time. Hanno Hofer is a Romanian musician, member of two jazz and blues bands - Nightlosers and Harry Tavitian’s Orient Express. He plays guitar, harmonica, washboard and vocals. Besides that Hanno is a film director. Vlad Condurache, vlad@romania-insider.com