Wednesday 28 October 6.30pm
£21 (£19 concessions | £8 under 35)

A silent film with live music

Jonny Best piano
Trevor Bartlett percussion
Directed by Curtis Bernhardt
Germany, 1929.

1 hour 40 minutes, + interval

Marlene Dietrich ignites the screen in a tale of passion, danger and desire

Henri, a young man adrift, marries a wealthy heiress to save the family business. On the eve of his honeymoon, he glimpses a mysterious woman through a frosted train window. Their eyes meet — a fleeting, spellbinding moment of silent‑film perfection — and from it unfolds a chain of passion and betrayal that hurtles toward disaster.Jonn

Based on a novel by Kafka’s editor, Max Brod, The Woman Men Yearn For is one of Weimar cinema’s most exquisite silent dramas, yet it slipped past critics and audiences in 1929 amid the rush to embrace sound. In her final silent role, Marlene Dietrich radiates the stillness, intensity, and allure that would soon make her a legend. Filmed just months before The Blue Angel, this forgotten gem captures the instant her star truly began to burn.

To set the scene, the evening opens with music and film evoking the restless spirit of Weimar Germany — an interwar world where creativity blazed against a backdrop of uncertainty.

Silent film pianist and Northern Silents founder, Jonny Best, will improvise a soundtrack, with Trevor Bartlett on percussion. Jonny and Trevor are among the UK’s leading silent film musicians and have performed together many times since they first collaborated at Leeds Film Festival in 2015.

A film from the holdings of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung (www.murnau-stiftung.de) in Wiesbaden

For any access requirements please email the Box Office on boxoffice@ncem.co.uk or leave a note on your booking.

Please note there is a £1.50 administration fee per transaction.