This is, I’m fairly certain, the first thing I’ve ever actually gone to as part of the Bristol Slapstick Festival. Every year there’s stuff that looks interesting, and every year I end up not going. But I spotted this, presented by one of Alasdair’s favourite comedians, on Valentine’s Day, and that was that.
Even Stranger Films is Alasdair Beckett King presenting a series of silent short films, dating back as far as 1898, with a bit of an intro to the evening, and then a little for each individual film.
ABK is very funny, but more than that, he clearly cares about the films he’s showing - his introductions aren’t jokes, fully, but filled with things to look out for, both laughable but also just interesting film techniques.
I’ll add entries to the films sections for the individual films later, but as a collection, it was a suitably varied selection of films, from the earliest adaptation of Frankenstein to something that arguably forms the kind of humour that would eventually be the kind of sitcoms we all like.
This was the first time that an audience was so bad that I actually broke and moved seats. The people behind us were just unbearable, and after the first two films I moved to the back of the room, where I had an equally good view and no one around me to ruin the experience. If anything, once Alasdair moved to sit next with me after the net film, I had someone around me to add to it.