'Maria do Mar' Silent Film with Live Musical Accompaniment

We’re on a roll with silent films - another remastered classic, with live harp and piano accompaniment, turning a super film into a very special event.

Maria do Mar (1930) is an astonishing silent film shot entirely on location in the Portuguese fishing town of Nazaré. It is both a poetic love story saturated with the eternal quality of a fable, as well as an unforgettable portrayal of a Portuguese fishing community from almost a century ago.

Many of the film's actors and extras were drawn from the local population - the wrinkled faces of the old women and weather-beaten fishermen will stay with you forever, their hard, impoverished lives etched on their faces. It’s a document of a time and a place, and of a people, deeply rooted in the traditions of the sea.

The Film

The waves are big on the Atlantic coast and a fisherman’s boat has foundered. Crew members have died. Tempers run high, the captain is blamed and the incident creates deep divisions in the fishing village. Fate throws two young people together and they fall in love. The only trouble is they belong to families on opposite sides of the feud.

So far, so Shakespearean but there’s so much to enjoy about this film: the sumptuous cinematography, the director’s eye for the beautiful and the grotesque, and the way the narrative pulls away from the Shakespearian set up.

The Live Accommpaniment

The critically acclaimed musical score will be performed live by Elizabeth-Jane Baldry (harp) and Stephen Horne (piano, flute, accordion). Having performed the film in both Zürich and the Internationale Stummfilmtage in Bonn, Germany, this Chagford screening will be the first in the UK.

"...sublime accompaniment...Stephen Horne’s flute, piano and accordion is mixed with Elizabeth-Jane Baldry’s harp with telepathic cohesion as they ride the unfolding waves from stillness to storm. Elizabeth has only one instrument but a huge range of sound from the thunderous deep notes to the high-end beauty of her strings and the thumping dread of the harp’s frame. The two work so well together...creating a mix that has such sympathetic force with the action on screen.”

Director: Leitão de Barros, 1930, B&W, silent, 94 mins
Starring Roa Maria, Oliveira Martins, Adelina Abranches
Restored by Cinemateca Portuguesa in 2021
Live musical score by Elizabeth-Jane Baldry (harp) and Stephen Horne (piano, flute, accordion)
BAR AVAILABLE

Digitization by Cinemateca Portuguesa - Museu do Cinema, under the frame of the FILMar project, part of the European Financial Mechanism EEA Grants 2020-2024.