Piccadilly

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION


Piccadilly (Blu-ray)
Directed by E A Dupont

One of the pinnacles of British silent cinema, Piccadilly is a sumptuous showbusiness melodrama seething with sexual and racial tension. Chinese American screen goddess Anna May Wong stars as Shosho, a scullery maid in a fashionable London nightclub whose sensuous tabletop dance catches the eye of suave club owner Valentine Wilmot. She rises to become the toast of London and the object of Wilmot's erotic obsession – prompting the bitter jealousy of Mabel, his former lover and star dancer (played by Ziegfeld Follies star Gilda Gray). Contemporary fears and temptations of miscegenation are played out through Shosho as the subject of fatal passions.
This stylish evocation of Jazz Age London, directed by German émigré E A Dupont, boasts the dazzlingly fluid cinematography of Werner Brandes and atmospheric sets by Alfred Junge - ranging from the opulent West End nightclub to seedy Limehouse. Beautifully restored by the BFI National Archive, Piccadilly is accompanied by Neil Brand's evocative score, performed by some of the UK's leading jazz players.

Special Features:


* Presented in High Definition, featuring Neil Brand’s jazz-influenced score
* Prologue to Piccadilly (1929, 5 mins): sound prologue screened in US cinemas
* Return to Piccadilly (2021, 17 mins): a newly recorded video essay on the film by silent-film expert Bryony Dixon
* Talk of the Town (2021, 53 mins): a new, in-depth video biography of Anna May Wong by author and film critic Jasper Sharp
* Scoring Piccadilly (2004, 20 mins): composer Neil Brand reflects on his approach to creating music for the film
* Cosmopolitan London (1924, 10 mins): the cultural melting pot that was London in the 1920s is captured on camera in this fascinating period piece, with a score by John Sweeney
* Image gallery
* **FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Fully illustrated booklet with new writing on the film by BFI curator Bryony Dixon and an essay on the core by Neil Brand

UK 1929 black and white 109 minutes original aspect ratio 1.33:1 Cert PG (Contains mild violence) BD50: 1080p, 24fps, LPCM 2.0 stereo audio (48kHz/24-bit)





REVIEW
'It's a bold, beautifully crafted, modern picture. one of the truly great films of the silent era' --Martin Scorsese