Piccadilly [Blu ray]

Import zonder Nederlandstalige ondertiteling. One of the pinnacles of British silent cinema, Piccadilly is a sumptuous showbusiness melodrama seething with sexual and racial tension. Chinese American screen goddess Anna May Wong stars as Shosho, a scullery maid in a fashionable London nightclub whose sensuous tabletop dance catches the eye of suave club owner Valentine Wilmot. She rises to become the toast of London and the object of Wilmot's erotic obsession – prompting the bitter jealousy of Mabel, his former lover and star dancer (played by Ziegfeld Follies star Gilda Gray). Contemporary fears and temptations of miscegenation are played out through Shosho as the subject of fatal passions. This stylish evocation of Jazz Age London, directed by German émigré E A Dupont, boasts the dazzlingly fluid cinematography of Werner Brandes and atmospheric sets by Alfred Junge - ranging from the opulent West End nightclub to seedy Limehouse. Beautifully restored by the BFI National Archive, Piccadilly is accompanied by Neil Brand's evocative score, performed by some of the UK's leading jazz players.