The Hitchcock 9: Easy Virtue

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s nine surviving silent films has been the biggest and most complex restoration project undertaken by the BFI National Archive to date. Decades of damage and wear have been removed; the sharpness of the images restored; new shots discovered and intertitles and tinting restored . The BFI used film elements borrowed from seven international archives in the restoration process. Hitchcock’s silent films are essential to an understanding of his later work and these restorations now enable them to be seen afresh and discovered by new audiences across the world. They have been traveling the globe and now they’re coming to Toronto for the exclusive Canadian premiere.

Easy Virtue 1927

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Starring: Isabel Jeans, Robin Irvine, Franklin Dyall, Ian Hunter

Pursued by scandal from London high society to the south of France, the heroine is faced by the narrow-minded hostile family of her new in-laws. The stringent sexual politics of the day closely defined what women could and could not do in life and the dangers of misinterpretation were very real.

It was a difficult challenge to adapt the dialogue driven Noel Coward play into a workable screenplay. The solution was to rearrange the chronology of the play’s events to reveal the backstory.

As he did in his directorial debut and in Champagne, Hitchcock opens the film with an innovative trick shot using mirrors and creates a memorable climax with a grand entrance from the top of a staircase. Of all the restorations of his silent films, this one proved to be the most challenging to the BFI due to lack of original 35mm elements and the varying quality of the remaining 16mm prints.

Live piano accompaniment by composer Jordan Klapman

Single Tickets: $15 available in advance online or at the door

Revue Screening Pass (3 films-Easy Virtue, The Manxman, The Lodger) $40 in advance online or at the door

Full Hitchcock 9 Screening Pass (all 9 films): $100

The Hitchcock 9 runs November 1-16 see website for details

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