In collaboration with Istanbul Modern, the British Council presented Alfred Hitchcock’s nine silent films, for the first time in Turkey.
Hitchcock’s films from the 1920s silent cinema era have been restored by the British Film Institute (BFI) – the biggest and most complex restoration project undertaken by the BFI National Archive to date. Decades of damage and wear have been removed, the sharpness of the images improved and new shots discovered. These films are essential to an understanding of his later work, which made Hitchcock one of the most famous film directors of all time.
Presented under the title Hitchcock9, the films included The Pleasure Garden, Hitchcock’s first film as a director, and The Lodger, described by Hitchcock himself as ‘the first true Hitchcock movie’, also Blackmail, Champagne, Downhill, Easy Virtue, The Farmer’s Wife, The Manxman and the Ring.
Films were screened with live music by acclaimed silent film accompanists John Sweeney from the UK, Hakan Ali Toker and sound engineer and guitarist Erdem Helvacıoğlu.
As a series of parallel activities, British cinema critic and journalist Ian Haydn Smith presented a master class and a talk on Alfred Hitchcock’s 50-year cinema career at Istanbul Modern and Boğaziçi University. The screenings and activities ended on 17 November.
You can have a look at writer-journalist Ian Haydn Smith’s post on our blog to read more about the films and check our Flickr album to see images from the events.
If you’d like to discuss partnership opportunities with the British Council, please contact us.