With this story of emancipation, a sensation at the time, the film simultaneously presents a look at the first global capitalist economy, the cotton industry. It shows a spinning mill in Lancashire, where the work is directly connected to that of slaves on the cotton plantations in the American south. We don’t see them here (see DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST and BELOVED in the festival programme), but the film is nevertheless a twofold documentation, of the women’s movement in the early 20th century and the situation of workers in the English cotton industry. Director Maurice Elvey’s declared purpose was to combine the story with documentary aspects, as Lucie Bea Dutton writes: „ [...] Hindle Wakes combined a play that Elvey regarded highly with his desire to show 'real locations' onscreen to create 'dramatized documentary'. This combination resulted in one of Elvey’s most celebrated films, both at the time of its original release and 90 years on. Having spent the last 14 years researching Elvey and his career, I believe he would have been delighted, proud, and somewhat astonished to learn that composer Maud Nelissen took the trouble to visit Blackpool and to see what remains of the cotton mills of North West England when creating the new score for this marvellous film.“ (Lucie Bea Dutton, Festival Publication Views of History, 2019)
Maud Nelissen is one of the most important international silent film pianists and composers. She performs in Europe, the USA and Asia, and regularly appears at the Il Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna and Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone. She has worked for many years with Kinothek Asta Nielsen, often in cooperation with ZDF/arte, and she is the founder of the silent film orchestra “The Sprockets”.
For her new composition for Hindle Wakes, Nelissen’s task was to remain true to the film and to tie Elvey’s lively direction to a certain melancholy. The result is „a modern lyrical score with proud, honest elements referring to the folk music of the Lancashire area“ (Nelissen).
GB 1926/1927, D Maurice Elvey, SC Victor Saville based on a stage play by Stanley Houghton, C Jack E. Cox, William Shenton, E Gareth Gundrey, P Victor Saville, Maurice Elvey, Cast Estelle Brody, John Stuart, Norman McKinnel, Irene Rooke, Marie Ault, Humberstone Wright, Arthur Chesney, Gladys Jennings, Alf Goddard, Cyril McLaglen, Peggy Carlisle, Print b/w, 35mm, 116 min, silent, English INT and electronic German SUB, BFI National Archive
Text 2018:
In Maurice Elvey‘s Hindle Wakes, factory worker Fanny Hawthorn (Estelle Brody) gets involved with Allan Jeffcote (John Stuart), son of the factory owner, during an annual holiday to the traditional seaside resort of Blackpool – the British counterpart to Coney Island. (…) When their families pressure them to marry, Fanny refuses and calls Allan her “little fancy”, taking the liberty of being sexually licentious beyond romance and marriage. Astonishment and horror on both sides. (…) the way she flips the lever on a machine to set the spindles rotating, in one of the last shots of the film, is more than a symbolic image. It crystallises her commitment to work and the decisive role she plays in it – as it does in her. In the same scene, she accepts the invitation of a factory colleague to go to the cinema, thus the world of work and the leisure culture of the New Woman come together in one image. Hindle Wakes is one of the few films that lets work triumph over marriage, romance and love, forming a bridge between the concerns of the first and second women’s movements regarding self-determination in professional life and sexuality (Annette Brauerhoch, City Girls – Frauenbilder im Stummfilm, 2007).
Text 2019:
Young Fanny Hawthorn works in a cotton mill in Hindle, Lancashire, England. During the yearly company outing, she enjoys an affair with the son of the factory owner. From her family’s point of view, the only thing that can restore her honour is a wedding. But Fanny won’t give up her freedom just because of her “little fancy”. Sexual self-determination is – in the spirit of Emma Goldman – part of the pride of the working woman.
| Acronyms | |
|---|---|
| amer. | American English |
| b/w | Black and white |
| OV | Original version |
| SUB | Subtitles |
| +SUB | electronic live subtitling (below the image) |
| INT | Intertitles |
| Countries | |
|---|---|
| AT | Austria |
| FRG | Federal Republic of Germany (historic) |
| BLR | Belarus |
| DE | Germany |
| CAN | Canada |
| GDR | German Democratic Republic (historic) |
| EGY | Egypt |
| FR | France |
| GB | Great Britain |
| URY | Uruguay |
| BRA | Brasil |
| SWE | Sweden |
| UKR | Ukraine |
| PL | Poland |
| IDN | Indonesia |
| PRT | Portugal |
| HRV | Croatia |
| ECU | Ecuador |
| HUN | Hungary |
| AUS | Australia |
| IT | Italy |
| MEX | Mexico |
| IND | India |
Accompanied on the piano by Maud Nelissen
Nelissen is a Dutch composer and pianist with a special interest in music for silent film. She worked in Italy with Charlie Chaplin's last music arranger, Eric James. She is now a much sought-after silent film pianist and composer at festivals in Europe, the USA and Asia.
Maud established her own silent film music ensemble, The Sprockets, and has performed with them as well as other ensembles at home and abroad. Maud Nelissen has collaborated with Kinothek Asta Nielsen many times in the past; for Remake 2021 and 2019 she composed the music for SHOES (1916, Lois Weber) and HINDLE WAKES (1927, Maurice Elvey). The composition for NORRTULLSLIGAN was also commissioned by the Kinothek.
