The Genius of Hitchcock – The Ring

A boxer threatens the relationship of a young fighter and his fiancée in this Hitchcock melodrama. Photograph: BFI

Alfred Hitchcock holds one of the prime spots in the pantheon of cinema for thrillers such as Vertigo, Psycho and The Birds. Less well known are the nine silent movies the East End-born filmmaker made in the 1920s.

Now courtesy of the British Film Institute (BFI), a restored version of one of these films will presented at the Hackney Empire to the accompaniment of a specially-commissioned musical score by award-winning jazz artist Soweto Kinch.

The second of the nine films to be performed as part of the BFI’s Genius of Hitchcock project is The Ring (1927), which will premier at the Empire on 13 July.

The film, set partly in East London, revolves around a love triangle between two boxers and the woman they both love. BFI curator Robin Baker describes The Ring as “one of the three greatest silent films Hitchcock made”, and he praises the film for its visual inventiveness.

The screenplay of The Ring is unique in Hitchcock’s career in that it is the only one for which he took full authorial credit. The film was also one of the inspirations for The Artist according to its director Michel Hazanavicius.

The Hackney Empire is a particularly appropriate venue for the premier of the restored version of the film, as Hitchcock frequented the venue in the early years of the 20th century. Though there is no record of precisely what he saw, it is likely he attended musicals, films and even boxing matches, according to Baker.

When Hitchcock returns to the venue in July, the Soweto Kinch score is bound to attract as much attention as the film itself.

Baker is keen to emphasise that the musicians engaged to compose scores for the series of silent films have been given a minimal brief. “We want them to stay within the sounds worlds they are already engaged in”. Beyond that, they were asked to “be as true and honest to the film as possible” and to “follow the moods of the film.”

Soweto Kinch has taken to The Ring with alacrity. Asked about his initial reaction to the idea of writing a film score, he said: “I’ve done quite a lot of work for the theatre […] it’s new but familiar at the same time.”

He says he approached the work by focusing on characters, motifs and key moments: “my approach is to capture the emotions”.

The result is a combination of jazz mixed with more modern sounds: “I think it will be something really fresh”, says Kinch. “One of the most exciting qualities of the project is that the potential audience for it is broad enough to not be pinned down to a single genre, but the themes and location in East London provide a wealth of inspiring sounds.”

The Ring
13 July
Hackney Empire
291 Mare Street
Hackney
E8 1EJ
020 8985 2424