Hitchcock Silent Film Week to be held in Almaty

The restoration of Alfred Hitchcock's surviving silent films has been the biggest and most complex restoration project undertaken by the British Film Institute (BFI) National Archive to date. Made from 1925 to 1929, the silent films are among the greatest achievements of British silent cinema, and are blueprints for the rest of his body of work, containing the motifs and obsessions we have come to recognize as Hitchcockian, the British Council Kazakhstan said. The BFI has used elements borrowed from seven international archives in the restoration process but film materials from the BFI National Archive - including a number of original negatives - have been central to the project. Decades of damage and wear have been removed; the sharpness of the image improved; new shots discovered and inter titles and tinting restored. There will be an opening ceremony on 21 May at 8:30 p.m. in the Republic Palace square at which the first film, "The Pleasure Garden", will be shown. The film will be accompanied by live music performed by the State Orchestra Camerata of Kazakhstan and directed by the British conductor Christopher Austin. The music was written especially for the film by British composer Daniel Patrick Cohen, who will be attending the opening ceremony in Almaty. The remaining five films will be shown in cinemas "Caesar" and "Arman". The movie "Champagne" about the rich and spoiled Betty will be shown under Kazakh musical improvisation DJ Aero. "Manxman", "Farmer's wife " and "Blackmail" silent films will be accompanied by British pianist John Sweeney.