Slapstick Festival 2023
Please note : this season finished in Feb 2023
Celebrating its 19th year, the annual Slapstick Festival offers a chance to see some essential comedies from cinema’s silent era, specially selected from archives across the world and paired with live musical accompaniment.
Kicking off in February, the festival features a packed programme which, amongst other treats, includes a talk about acrobat Fred Karno, a screening of Marlene Dietrich's only silent comedy and a screening introduced by Sir Michael Palin.
Slapstick 2022 takes place across multiple venues across the city. You can view the programme at slapstick.org.uk.
Previous screenings & events in this season
The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash
classified 12 Slapstick 2023
The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash is the cult classic mockumentary from Eric Idle and Neil Innes which paved the way for all others, including This Is Spinal Tap and The Comic Strip’s Bad News and More Bad News.
The Extraordinary World of Charley Bowers with Peter Lord
Slapstick 2023
Join Slapstick regular Lord as he hosts this event celebrating Bowers’ extraordinary life and work, along with some of his favourite shorts and clips - all with live musical accompaniment from Guenter A. Buchwald.
A Violin Over The Head: Slapstick Music in Variety Theatre
Slapstick 2023
In this talk, Head of Comedy and Popular Performance at the University of Kent Oliver Double introduces a dazzling array of historic footage featuring routines by some of the comedians, singers, dancers and special acts who mixed melody and pratfalls.
Harry Langdon: Tramp, Tramp, Tramp
classified U Slapstick 2023
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp follows the story of a poor boy who enters a gruelling cross-country hike in the hope of winning enough prize money to secure the love of a pin-up.
Raymond Griffith: Re-Mastered You’d Be Surprised
classified PG Slapstick 2023
As a companion piece to our Live From New York event, the Oscar-winning director, film historian and silent film champion Kevin Brownlow introduces another Raymond Griffith crime caper.
A Private Function
classified 15 Slapstick 2023
Set just after WW2, local bigwigs are planning a feast to celebrate the upcoming wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip by cooking a secret raised pig – which suddenly goes missing!
Live From New York - With Steve Massa & Ben Model Raymond Griffith in Paths To Paradise
classified PG Slapstick 2023
Silent film champions Steve Massa and Ben Model have a cunning plan to fill in the gap of the final reel missing from Raymond Griffith’s finest onscreen comedy Paths To Paradise.
I Kiss Your Hand, Madam (Ich Küsse Ihre Hand, Madame)
classified PG Slapstick 2023
As Marlene Dietrich’s only silent comedy, she plays a recent divorcee who pins her hopes on a future with a rich Russian count, disbelieving her ex’s claims that the man is penniless and working as a waiter.
Charlie’s London: A Success Story
Slapstick 2023
Join Ayşe Behçet for insights into how the discovery that she, her mother and grandmother were all born in the same part of London as Charlie Chaplin, which led her to become an internationally respected authority on the star’s early years.
East Of Ipswich
classified 12 Slapstick 2023
East Of Ipswich is a comedy coming-of-age film scripted by Michael Palin for BBC 2’s Screen Two series and was inspired in part by his family holiday to a sleepy seaside resort in 1959.
Onscreen Wonder Women
Slapstick 2023
Comedian and Slapstick favourite Lucy Porter and Jane Duffus, author of the What The Frock Book of Funny Women, present and discuss their picks from a new collection of rarely-seen silent comedy films in collaboration with Kino Lober.
Fred Karno: The Legend Behind The Laughter
Slapstick 2023
We are delighted to host an illustrated conversation between Andrew Kelly (Bristol Ideas) and David Crump - author of a definitive new biography of Fred Karno.
The Cigarette Girl Of Mosselprom
classified 12 S Slapstick 2023
The Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom is an endearing rom com filled with likeable characters and some self-effacing insights into the filmmaking process.