A Unique Silent Film Screening with Contemporary Jazz Accompaniment to Take Place on Sherlock Holmes’s Birthday

As part of the annual international city festival “Sherlock Holmes’s Birthday”, a screening of the 1916 silent film “Sherlock Holmes” will take place on 8 January 2017 at 6:00 p.m. at Cafe Film Noir (at the “Splendid Palace” cinema, 61 Elizabetes Street). This is one of the first screen adaptations of the famous detective’s adventures, and for many years it was considered lost. Only in 2014, one hundred years after its premiere, were film reels containing copies of the original film discovered in French film archives with the support of La Cinémathèque Française. An unprecedented musical arrangement for the Riga screening has been created by a contemporary jazz duo: saxophonist and leader of jazz ensembles Deniss Paškevičs and Lithuanian percussionist and performer of avant-garde jazz and contemporary music Arkādijs Gotesmans. For the first time, audiences will have the opportunity to watch the film accompanied by contemporary jazz music, which will allow them both to sense the spirit of the past and experience the moment. It should be noted that the cinema itself, “Splendid Palace”, will help recreate the atmosphere of the era depicted in the film. Opened at the beginning of the 1920s, it was the first cinema in Riga and for a long time was the largest cinema in the Baltics. It was here that the first film screenings accompanied by live music took place.

The film will be screened for Latvian audiences for the first time. It will be shown in English with subtitles in Latvian and Russian.

The film “Sherlock Holmes”, directed by American filmmaker Arthur Berthelet, premiered on 15 May 1916. Sherlock Holmes is played by American actor William Gillette. Although he played the popular detective on stage for almost 30 years, this was his only film role, while the discovered film reel is the only one in which he is preserved in this character. It was Gillette who added all the details so familiar to us to the detective’s image—details without which Holmes as portrayed in theatre and cinema is unimaginable. Gillette’s Sherlock Holmes wore a deerstalker hat, smoked a pipe and carried a cane. Moreover, it was this actor who began using the legendary phrase “Elementary, my dear Watson!”. The film consists of four episodes: “The Crown Prince’s Letter”, “Moriarty versus Holmes”, “A Tragic Night” and “The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes”.

The 1916 silent film “Sherlock Holmes” is an outstanding example of classic cinema. This screening will be especially appreciated by all connoisseurs and admirers of Arthur Conan Doyle’s works about Sherlock Holmes. Despite the fact that acting styles of that period differed from those of today—the actors could convey the story to the audience only through their gaze, facial expressions and gestures—the film is truly fascinating to watch. William Gillette gives a vivid portrayal of the detective now familiar to everyone, while Edward Fielding is also remarkable in the role of Holmes’s loyal companion, Dr Watson. Audiences will be interested to compare the image of Sherlock Holmes from the period when the books about him were still being written with modern versions of the detective, as interpreted by actors Vasily Livanov, Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Downey Jr and others. Moreover, this was the first and only film seen by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself.

The idea of combining cinema and music instead of a conventional film screening was inspired by the tradition of showing silent films with live musical accompaniment. The project organisers have chosen an innovative approach: contemporary jazz with elements of provocative improvisation has been selected as the film’s musical accompaniment. Audiences will be able to enjoy a film, a jazz concert and a jam session at the same time. 

Tickets for the event can be purchased at bilesuserviss.lv points of sale.

Follow information about the event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1619914314977627/

The project is being implemented by the marketing agency PR LĪNIJA and the company CREA Promotion, with the support of LIVE RIGA.