Boiler bursting, belly laughs and blood sucking in Bo'ness for Hippfest silent taster screenings

HippFest – Scotland’s Silent annual film festival – is preparing to unveil another succulent selection from cinema’s silent era with its Taste of Silents season.

Following the success of the five-day festival held back in March, which was supported by Falkirk Council, Film Hub Scotland, Screen Scotland and National Lottery funding, HippFest’s Taste of Silents 2024 spin off will run for three Saturdays from October 12 to November 2.

The special series of screenings builds up steam on Saturday, October 12 with another chance to see the winner of the HippFest 2024 Audience Award – the rare, fully-silent version of The Flying Scotsman (1929).

Filmed on board the most iconic train in British railway history, the action features plenty of footplate close-ups and daredevil shots of the heroine Pauline Johnson performing her own stunt – in high-heels.

Jane Gardner will reprise her live piano soundtrack for this exciting runaway train thriller.

Those who are loco about locomotives can make it a really steamy weekend by heading along to the Scottish Railway Preservation Society Steam Gala at Bo’ness and Kinneil Railway.

Comedy comes-a-calling on Saturday, October 26, when three of the greatest film comedians – and stunt performers – of all time come together for one awesome show presented by piano man and much-loved broadcaster Neil Brand.

Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd will appear in a triple-bill of pure gold featuring The Rink (1916), The High Sign (1921) and Never Weaken (1921).

Chaplin’s Tramp works as a waiter in a high-class restaurant, bunking off work to go roller-skating in The Rink, while Buster Keaton unwittingly becomes a paid assassin while looking for work on the beach boardwalk in The High Sign and Harold Lloyd navigates a half-built skyscraper in Never Weaken, dodging girders and cranes to reunite with his girlfriend.

Neil Brand presents, telling the stories behind these slapstick classics and accompanies on the piano in his inimitable style.

HippFest’s Taste of Silents finishes on Halloween weekend on Saturday, November 2 with Nosferatu (1922) – the first-ever screen adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

An iconic example of German expressionist cinema, F. W. Murnau’s surreal 1922 cine-fable remains the original and landmark entry in the tradition of “the horror film”.

A simple real-estate transaction leads an intrepid businessman deep into the superstitious heart of Transylvania where he encounters the creepy as an eerie earwig wearing a Michael Myers William Shatner mask Count Orlok.

The nasty count subsequently embarks on a cross-continental voyage – check out the scene when he emerges from the ship’s hold – to take up residence in a distant new land.

This definitive restoration, complete with original intertitles and live accompaniment by Hugo Max on viola performing his HippFest debut, continues to haunt — and, indeed, terrify — modern audiences with the unshakable power of its images.

For further information on the Taste of Silents season and to purchase tickets visit the HippFest website.