Northern Silents: The Woman Men Yearn For

Jonny Best brings a silent film to the National Centre for Early Music on Wednesday 28 October, as part of his Northern Silents series. The film is The Woman Men Yearn For, a 1929 German silent directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Marlene Dietrich. It runs about an hour and forty minutes, and Best will be improvising the soundtrack live on piano throughout.

If you're not familiar with the film, it's a story of two lives crossing paths. Henri is a young man who marries a wealthy heiress to save his family business, but on the eve of his honeymoon he catches a glimpse of a mysterious woman through a frosted train window. The print comes from the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung in Wiesbaden, so it's a proper archival screening rather than a home video rip. The whole thing is presented by Northern Silents, the series Best founded, and because he's improvising on the night, the score will be different every time it's played.

It's a long one, so you'll want to settle in for the evening. The screening starts at 7.30pm and runs until around 9.30pm, with an interval in the middle. Tickets are £21, with concessions at £19 and under-35s at £8, plus a £1.50 administration fee per transaction. You'll find it at the NCEM, St Margaret's Church, Walmgate, YO19TL.