Step into the dreamworlds of George Méliès and Buster Keaton with the improvised music of Frame Ensemble
Two pioneers of visual fantasy meet in a specially created cine‑concert.
To set the stage, we celebrate Georges Méliès, whose imagination and technical ingenuity carried cinema beyond the simple recording of everyday life and opening up its magical possibilities for the first time
A quarter of a century later, in Sherlock Jr., Buster Keaton plays a humble projectionist who literally steps into the film he is showing, tumbling through a world where the laws of physics yield to the imagination.
Both Méliès and Keaton came to film through the theatre; Méliès as a creator of extravagant illusion shows at the Théâtre Robert‑Houdin in Paris, and Keaton as a vaudeville performer touring with his family act, The Three Keatons. Each was inspired by the possibilities of film to extend their screen worlds beyond the physical limits of live theatre.
Join us in York for a specially curated programme celebrating cinema’s power to astonish and transform.
The music
Frame Ensemble, Northern Silents’ resident quartet, brings films to life with music created in the moment. No two performances are ever the same: each score emerges spontaneously as the musicians respond to the film in real time alongside the audience. This immediacy makes each Frame Ensemble screening a vivid, one‑of‑a‑kind experience where sound and image become thrillingly alive.
Doors 7.00pm
Frame Ensemble: Jonny Best (piano), Elizabeth Hanks (cello), Susannah Simmons (violin), Trevor Bartlett (percussion)
The films will include a selection of George Méliès’ trick and illusion films and:
A Trip to the Moon
Director: Georges Méliès
Year: 1902
Length: 15 minutes
Sherlock Jr.
Director: Buster Keaton
Year: 1924
Length: 45 minutes
Thanks to FPA Classics
