The Man Who Laughs

Released from Eureka Entertainment, this classic silent film garners a new restoration in 4K as a part of the label's ongoing Masters of Cinema series.

Made in 1928, the film was made by Paul Leni famous German Expressionist director from the early 1920s and his cinematographer Gilbert Warrenton who had made The Cat and the Canary (1927). This film is considered an early entry into Universal Studios now famous purple patch of horror movie classics under the stewardship of producer Carl Laemmle. From the studio head down, along with art director Charles Hall and make up guru Jack Pierce this collaboration was married with a defining performance at its centre by Conrad Veidt.

Veidt plays Gwynplaine, a carnival performer whose face is mutilated into a permanent ghoulish grin by his executed father's royal court enemies. Gwynplaine struggles through life with blind Dea (Mary Philbin) as his companion, and despite his disfigurement Gwynplaine still considers himself unworthy of Dea's affection.

The make up on Veidt's role has been acknowledged as direct inspiration for the first portrayal of the Joker in the DC Comics of Batman in 1940 and has become common place in screen portrayals through the years culminating in Heath Ledger's Oscar winning turn in The Dark Knight (2008).

Featuring moments of humour, tragedy, doomed romance and swashbuckling fight scenes, The Man Who Laughs remains as one of the most stylish entries into the American silent cinema era. With the sound era about to burst prominently onto the scene and the monsters of Universal pictures being able to talk come 1930-31 with Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster; it is wonderful to see the richness and detail within the film's production from costume to sets to narrative construction.

The film has been restored from Universal's 4K transfer to Blu-ray and features a score by the Berklee School of Music along with featurettes by horror expert Kim Newman and a booklet by Travis Crawford and Richard Combs.

The Man Who Laughs is available now on Blu-Ray from Eureka Entertainment

The Islands and the Whales

Scottish documentarian Mike Day's film about the Faroe Islands tells an evocative tale about the connection between the islanders and the need to live off the sea around them; the whales are a source of nourishment as well as income and livelihood.

Yet in recent years this relationship is coming under strain due to a depletion in numbers of whales being caught but the toxicity of the whales putting the well-being of the islanders at risk due to the high poisonous levels within them.

The film has brilliant access to the community showing how closely connected to the sea and to nature the people are embedded in terms of tradition, and how the news of toxicity is putting a conflict into many people especially in mind for the children and future generations.

The film has some wonderful landscape cinematography which coupled with an amenable eye on the community makes for a brilliant combination. It has been a labour of love for director Day, who has taken 5 years of covering the native Faroese to making this winning documentary.

Mike Day - Director

It reminded me of another film in the same vein Village at the End of the World (Sarah Gavron, Denmark/UK, 2012) which also showed the relationship between a village reliant upon the sea but the sea that bites back.  A tale for our times in light of recent news about the polluting of our worldwide seaways, and how we have to take greater care of our world and its creatures.

There is a special screening with Q&A taking place at Picturehouse Central with Mike Day and Channel 4's Jon Snow on March 29th in readiness for the cinematic release.

THE ISLANDS AND THE WHALES is released in UK cinemas on 29th March
http://theislandsandthewhales.com/screenings