Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, selection from the 2026 Pordenone festival

One often wonders if, after forty-five editions, the Giornate del Cinema Muto have already screened most silent films worth seeing. The answer is a categorical 'no'. There is still so much to discover, as this year's selection proves.

We think we know Weimar cinema well, but this certainty proves unfounded as soon as one delves into one of this year's most important sections: 'Weimar Uncensored: Taboos and Transgressions in German Cinema, 1919-1920'. In Die Teufelskirche, a sensual woman sells her soul to the devil to have a child, while a pastor's desire for a new church prevents him from seeing the consequences of his alliance with evil. The plot of Heddas Rache is even more surprising: it features a young woman seeking revenge on the man who forced her mother into prostitution. This section is completed by the new restoration, carried out by the Munich Film Museum, of Robert Wiene's film Genuine, an expressionist reverie in which Fern Andra, playing a lustful vampire, thirsts for the blood of attractive men.

We continue the series launched last year dedicated to the Italian diva Italia Almirante Manzini with two new titles: La grande passione (1922), a beautifully performed story of romantic rivalry, and the super-production L’arzigogolo (1924), released in France under the title La belle dame sans pitié. Still in Italy, we are screening two films produced by Film d’Arte Italiana: Stellina, la pêcheuse de Venise (1912), with magnificent stencil colors, and Il Romanzo di Maddalena (1913), filmed amidst the monuments of Rome. Outdoor shots also play a key role in the German-Italian co-production Villa Falconieri (1928), directed by Richard Oswald.

Heading North, Gyurkovicsarna (1920) is a charming Swedish adaptation of a Hungarian novel, directed by John A. Brunius and starring his wife Pauline Brunius, who also co-wrote the screenplay with the famous actor Gösta Ekman.

Gloria Swanson called American director Marshall Neilan the 'most bewitching man in Hollywood', but he was much more than that: he was an excellent director, highly appreciated by his actors and crew. We are showing two rarities: The Girl at Home (1917), featuring Jack Pickford, and Diplomacy (1926), adapted from Victorien Sardou's play Dora and starring Neilan's wife, Blanche Sweet.

French-American relations take center stage in the splendid new restoration, carried out by the Cinémathèque Française, of Léonce Perret’s film N’oublions jamais!, in which Rita Jolivet relives her poignant experience aboard the Lusitania. Another great diva – Pola Negri – is in the spotlight thanks to a film fragment from 1920, otherwise lost: Die Marchesa d’Armiani, which highlights the star's feline grace and physical presence.

Finally, with Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925), we savor the pure joy of swashbuckling adventures embodied by Douglas Fairbanks at the peak of his energy, thanks to a vibrant restoration by the Danske Filminstitutet.