Cine-concert The Unknown | TIFF 2023

Directed by Tod Browning, Music & performance: Stephen Horne & Martin Pyne

A fascinating and bizarre cult thriller set to original music and live accompaniment by two renowned musicians, Stephen Horne and Martin Pyne

The Unknown is a 1927 cult film by nonconformist Tod Browning - filmmaker, vaudeville actor, circus performer. Lon Chaney plays "Alonzo the Armless", a knife thrower who uses his legs to perform spectacular circus acts with Nanon (played superbly by Joan Crawford), a scantily clad carnival girl he hopes to marry. Alonzo, however, is no mere circus performer, but a killer on the run from the police. In his quest to win the woman he loves, Alonzo is prepared to give up everything and, to achieve his goals, resorts to extreme measures.

Pianist Stephen Horne is regarded as one of the leading silent film accompanists and has been a contributor to London's BFI Southbank for over 30 years. He has performed at many prestigious institutions in England, from the Barbican Centre to the Imperial War Museum, and has recorded music for DVD releases, screenings and museum installations of silent films. Martin Pyne is a composer, percussionist and musical improviser, playing mainly vibraphone, drums and other percussion instruments.