This was a World premiere of a stunning new restoration that once again proved the power of late British silent film… The Informer was directed by a German and starred a Swede, was made in Elstree and was all about Ireland. We have always been so European and long may that continue!
Like Blackmail,
A Cottage on Dartmoor and others, The Informer was made as both a silent and
a talkie and was shot separately for both formats. Bryony Dixon, introducing,
showed a clip from both that illustrated perfectly the backwards step talking
pictures were – like some sort of cinematic Brexit. A change in one aspect led
to a long list of negative consequences as those who brought the noise, focused
on the one thing at the expense of all the others: camera fluidity,
performance, shot-making and overall cinematic elegance.
In the talking sequence a group of Irish republicans
interrogate a young woman, there’s shouting, flat lighting and clod-hoping pace
whilst in the other the atmospherics come first and the narrative actually
moves ahead more effectively through quickness of expression and thought - clearly it
was early days and the silent way was the skills-preference of a crew including
noted German cinematographers Werner Brandes and Theodor Sparkuhl but… how
many decades did it take to truly get all of the magic back?
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| Lya De Putti and Carl Harbord |
This is a powerful film that pulls no punches, taking the
hard road with a cast able to carry its opening lightness of tone forward into
the dramatic depths of betrayal: of love and of country. It proves, if proof
were needed, that Lars Hanson was one of the supreme actors of his age as he provides
as perfect an example of naturalistic pantomime as you’ll see in the film’s emotionally
exhausting closing sequence.
The archive gala is usually the silent film highlight of
the Festival and this was no exception with the BFI team having done a superb
job on a mix of source materials. The sound version was restored ten years ago but,
after seeing this I can’t think of a single reason to watch it.
As is usual, the restoration was accompanied by a new
score this time from Garth Knox with a crack six-piece ensemble featuring Garth on viola/viola d'amore,
Eliza Marshall flute/alto flute/whistles, Frode Haltli on accordion, Joby Burgess percussion, Robert White uilleann pipes and Mary Scully on double bass. Top players from across the spectrum of
classical, folk and the West End.
The result was emotionally-intellgent and stirring, working in perfect tune with
the tumult of the performances and the narrative flow. Amongst many highlights there is one especially clever scene where Katie Fox (Lya
De Putti) puts on a 78 to cover the sound of smuggling the fugitive Francis
McPhilip (Carl Harbord) out of her flat and the group created a perfect
simulation of a poorly-wound record player – violin bow scratches and skips and
a slowing down of tempo as the tension mounts and the record slows down to
reveal the sounds of getaway.
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| Lars Hanson and Lya De Putti |
This attention to detail was matched by some thrilling Celtic
lines, the insertion of Danny Boy (natch!) and a punchy performance that flavoured but didn’t
overwhelm the moving images above.
Based on Liam O’Flaherty’s 1925 novel, the story focuses
on a group of revolutionary working class Irish republicans. The Informer is
overwhelmingly more about the group's human frailties than their politics
which, given the film’s Elstree routes, you might expect but still, these are
principled people and not monsters: imagine a contemporary film about terrorists…
One of the group, Francis, accidentally shoots the chief
of police and has to go on the run. He can’t stick it though and returns in
secret to the house of Katie Fox his ex-sweetheart. Katie has moved onto the
slightly more dashing Gypo (Lars, returned to Europe and fresh from Lillian
Gish in The Wind and Greta Garbo in The Divine Woman) and yet still tries to
hide Francis’ presence. It doesn’t work though as Gypo sees more than he ought
to and jumps to all of the wrong conclusions… He confronts Katie who out of spite
tells him everything he doesn’t really want to hear.
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| Lars Hanson outside the studio Cinema (production still from the Townley Cook Collection) |
It doesn’t take much to tip Gypo over the edge – remember
what Lya did to Emil Jannings in Varieté?! – but here she makes double sure
forcing him to make the rash decision to gain his revenge by telling the police
where his former friend is hiding. The
scene is well constructed as the camera follows Hanson as he marches through
Dublin streets towards a cinema just disgorging its audience, to the police
station where he is rewarded with twenty pound notes (not pieces of silver…).
No good can come of this but it will not be the last
telling betrayal in the film…
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| On the run. Photo from BFI |
The police surround Francis’ mother’s house and he falls to
his from the roof after a desperate struggle. Too late, Katie tells Gypo that she made it all up to
hurt him… but the die is cast. The finger of suspicion is pointing firmly at Gypo
now and it’s his own side he needs to worry about as the moral course of events
becomes the focus of the film’s intense conclusion.
The Informer’s intimacies
serve its broader narrative well and you are left trying to grasp the
complexities of wider conflict when these fragile, passionate lives are lived
so much based on truth and trust. Irish nationalism was more than just the context
for this story and for understandable - 1929 English - reasons the film strips out the more
overt references to the Free State and republicanism from Liam O'Flaherty’s
novel.
In Britain then as now you need to smuggle out the
meanings any way you can.
Arthur Robison was an American brought up in Germany and
who directed the expressive (if not strictly expressionistic according to Lotte Eisner’s definition) Warning Shadows. Here he brings dark
Germanic moods to the set-streets of Dublin aided by his camera men.
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| Lya De Putti and Carl Harbord (BFI) |
The multi-national cast excel and there are noteworthy turns
from the Brits too - chiefly Warwick Ward as Dan Gallagher as the rebels’ leader, Janice Adair
as Bessie – a small but crucial part – as well as Johnny Butt as a disreputable
publican. Daisy Campbell is also heart-breaking as Mrs McPhillip mourning a son
killed by misunderstanding and jealous betrayal.
We all need to listen to each other and now as then to
truly comprehend ourselves. Don’t just believe what you feel…
The Informer
will be released on DVD/Blu-ray in February 2017. Details are on the BFIwebsite along with notes on the restoration of what Bryony Dixon has described
as “one of the finest films produced in a
British studio in the 1920s”. It is.
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| The band pre-performance |
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