The Kennington Bioscope is a regular cinema event featuring live accompaniment to silent films that takes place at the Cinema Museum.

The main feature is a 35 mm print of Maciste in Love (Maciste innamorato) (1919), directed by Luigi Romano Borgnetto. This is one of a series of films starring Bartolomeo Pagano as Maciste, the slave with superhuman strength, first seen in the 1914 film Cabiria. 26 sequels followed, with Maciste becoming a character who could appear in any time and place, acting as a propaganda figure in films made during the period of the First World war, and later as a fantasy figure. A further series of sound films appeared between 1960 and 1965, featuring a number of American bodybuilders in the title role.

Frederico Fellini claimed that Maciste in Hell (Maciste all’inferno) (1926) was the first film he saw as a child, and this may have lead to the strongman character featured in La Strada (1954).

The first half of the programme will feature a 35mm screening of the short The Slave of Phidias (L’ Esclave de Phidias) (1917), directed by Léonce Perret. Both prints are courtesy of the BFI.

Anyone interested in silent film should visit the website for more info.

Tickets & Pricing

£4 (£3 of which goes to the Cinema Museum). Seats are limited, so please request an invitation using the email kenbioscope@gmail.com.