ADAM SCHEFFLER
The last time I was in Eindhoven was 25 years ago, as a young student on summer vacation. I was hoping to find a temporary job in a coffee shop there, so that later I could see more European cities and meet more European girls. Unfortunately, there were no vacancies anywhere. As a consolation prize, I became a customer at Pink Coffee Shop.
After a quarter of a century, I returned to the same place, which is still full of life and laughter. This time, however, the main reason for my trip with my wife and daughter, Ola and Jagoda, was the eighth edition of the Nederlands Silent Film Festival. It`s the largest film festival in the Netherlands in the field of silent films and takes place annually in January in Pand P and the Parktheater Eindhoven. We were very impressed by the cultural pulse of Pand P and the dignity of the Parktheater.
The festival program was truly diverse. We decided to watch as much as possible on Saturday, January 18. We managed to watch most of them. I have to admit that I have seen many silent films in my life, but the organizers managed to surprise me. In the morning, the Pand P Grotte hosted a screening of the films of the first Italian female director, Elvira Notari. It was preceded by academic introduction, and began with recently discovered documentaries exploring Italian villages and local festivals. Then, there was a screening of her magnificent work, "A Santanotte" (At Night, 1922), with musical accompaniment performed by a trio - Emma van Dobben (accordion, vocals), Daan van den Hurk (piano, and director of the festival in one person), Gabriele Rigo (piano, guitar). The extraordinary theatricality of the acting combined with equally expressive music gave an explosive but also moving result. The icing on the cake was a song performed by Emma van Dobben, the once famous Neapolitan song, "Silent Night". Simply beautiful...
Next on our agenda was Slapstick Saturday at Parktheater. Despite the freezing cold (-1), we decided to walk there to take a look at the local architecture along the way. It is not without reason that Eindhoven is called the Dutch capital of design. A lot has changed since I last walked the streets of this city. Except for one thing. Cyclists still rush by without looking at pedestrians who panic and run out of their way to avoid health and legal troubles. The day before, a taxi driver had told us that "cyclists are always in a winning position here…"
Parktheater is a huge, multi-story hall. My neck hurts from looking around. It turns out, just like at Silent Cinema, that silent films attract people of all ages. We managed to get seats at the front, so we could see all the performers at work in detail, i.e. Daan van den Hurk (piano), Meg Morley (piano) and the Netherlands Film Orchestra (almost 70 people!) conducted by Sander Vredenborgh. First we watched shorts by Laurel and Hardy and Baby Peggy, and then a full-length film with Harold Lloyd, "Grandma`s Boy" (1923). Imagine musical accompaniment performed by dozens of professional musicians, from violinists, cellists and flautists, to a double bassist and drummer. Magic! And at the same time a lot of laughter, as intense as in the Pink Coffee Shop.
After leaving the Parktheater it was already -3 outside, but we were hot from the impressions. We returned to Pand P, where in the evening there was a screening of a true work of art, Japanese director Teinosuke Kinugasa's "A Page of Madness" (1926), with accompaniment by Meg Morley. Meg, like the other musicians taking part in the festival, deserve a separate article. Her artistry and imagination took us on a journey to other dimensions. Emotions, from joy to despair, poured out of the screen in the form of sounds. The piano keys proved to be a limitation for Meg, so in addition to them she also used the strings to take us, together with master Kinugasa, to the world of true madness.
After the screening Ola and I had to drink some wine in the bar downstairs to cool down. In the meantime we had a word with musicians Daan (the same one who is the festival director) and Gabriele. I also had a chat with one of the organisers, Evelien van der Kooi, who together with the rest of the festival`s organisers deserves a medal for what they have achieved. Oh, and I also met real timetravellers from the 1920s - the artist photographer with his muse. What a day it was. A feast for cinephiles and music lovers. Once again I was convinced that silent cinema is not silent at all. And it`s like riding a bike in Eindhoven. Once you learn to ride it, you ride it and you don't pay attention to pedestrians.
