René Clair’s satire on middle-class pretension is one of the great landmarks of French silent cinema. A young man in 1890s Paris is on his way to his wedding, when his horse chews the straw hat of a philandering married woman. Complications inevitably abound, as he offers to replace the hat whilst trying desperately not to jeopardise his wedding arrangements. The tale unfolds in an endless series of comic misunderstandings, “so expertly timed and so elegantly directed that farce becomes ballet”.  (Pauline Kael).  A sparkling comedy of errors starring the great French film actor, and Clair regular, Albert Préjean.

(France, 1927, Dir René Clair, 74min), with live musical accompaniment by Andrew Youdell.