Breaking the Silence; the "talkie" revolution

Breaking the Silence; the ‘talkie’ revolution

With Jonny Best, Artistic Director of Northern Silents

Supported by Harrogate Civic Society and Harrogate Film Society

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For thirty years, audiences had marvelled at moving pictures, but the arrival of synchronised sound redrew the map of filmmaking overnight. The exact synchronisation of sound to image - actors’ voices, sound effects, and music - created an almost entirely new experience, sweeping away the techniques of silent storytelling and demanding that filmmakers reinvent their art.

Using clips from across the silent and early sound era—including both the silent and sound versions of Hitchcock’s Blackmail—this lively illustrated talk explores how filmmakers imagined sound before the talkies, how audiences reacted to it, and how its arrival transformed the art of film.

Join us for an engaging journey through one of the most dramatic turning points in film history.

·      Capacity is limited to 80, so book early.

·      Your ticket price includes refreshments (tea/coffee)

·      Access for those with mobility issues, including wheelchair access. All seating unreserved.

Jonny Best studied piano at Chetham’s School of Music and drama at University of London, a combination that led him eventually to silent film. Founder of Northern Silents, he is one of the UK’s leading improvising silent film pianists, performing nationally and internationally. His career has ranged from cabaret in London and New York to the original West End production of Les Misérables, and work with the National Theatre, RSC, Royal Opera House, Opera North and the BBC. He holds a PhD researching silent film accompaniment.

Harrogate Civic Society and Harrogate Film Society have teamed up to research the life and work of Claude Hamilton Verity - supported by the Verity family. During September, the two societies will be unveiling a plaque to Claude in East Park Road, at the house where he lived and carried out many of his experiments.

This event has been timed to run alongside a long overdue exhibition on Claude Hamilton Verity’s life and work to be held on certain days between the 10th and the 30th September in the Royal Hall and, separately, in the West Park Centre (the United Reformed Church on Victoria Avenue). This exhibition is the vision of Terry-Mike Williams of the New Park Heritage Centre; the man whose previous work has included both “Harrogate Railways 160” and “the War Memorial Centenary”. 

Claude Hamilton Verity was an extraordinary man - a serial inventor. During a lengthy career he registered patents for scores of inventions ranging from improvements to stoves, revolving doors, electric radiators and low-temperature carbonisation to an “apparatus for the inhalation of medicated vapours”. But it is for his work in the complex and fascinating field of sound and film synchronisation that he should best be remembered.

Please click on the link below for more information on opening times and locations for the (FREE) exhibition

Upcoming events | HCS