Nosferatu

The church was packed. There were tables at the back where "Vampires' Blood" (wine) and fruit juice were being sold, and quite a jolly atmosphere. I saw quite a few of the usual Sunday congregation in attendance, too.
The film was introduced by Jo Eliot of the Film Society, who helped to make the whole event happen. She was putting the film in its context for us, of 1922 German Expressionism - so it's not "hammy acting", the director was making a conscious choice to film it in that way, because he wasn't striving for realism, but to make a certain effect.
The lights went down, and Father Richard came down the side aisle in his cloak and sat at the organ - and improvised beautifully. There were nice little touches like a bit of Morning by Greig when the hero woke up. So our innocent young hero, Hutter, left his charming wife and little German town to travel to Count Orlok's creepy castle.
And in the second half the Count travelled by ship (with his coffins and his plague rats) back to the German town (with a little bit of For Those in Peril on the Sea woven into the music there).

During the interval, several people slipped outside for a fag break (under a full moon, in the graveyard). I overheard Father Richard saying that he hoped to do more silent films in the future - but next time, he'd go for full make-up. Black lipstick, whitened cheeks...."just an ordinary Friday night at the vicarage!"

To start the second half, Jo explained that we were lucky to be seeing this film at all. When it came out, the very first film made by that German studio, the estate of Bram Stoker sued them for breach of copyright in court - and won. Changing the characters' names and moving the action to Germany wasn't enough to keep them out of trouble. The studio were supposed to destroy every print, and had to pay such a big fine that they immediately went out of business. However, some prints of the film had already been sent out, and could not be recalled, so those were copied and kept over the years, or we would have no idea of the masterpiece that had been made.
And it is still a fascinating film, with some genuinely creepy special effects (like the Count's shadow coming up the stairs with his long fingers reaching out....).
And at the end, Father Richard got a well deserved standing ovation for his music.
CDs will be available from the church (raising more money for the organ fund) and they hope to do it again, with another film, for Hay Festival.