Hazel ffennell's Days of Chivalry to be reshown with new music

A rediscovered silent film made almost a century ago is set to feature in a cinema screening with a new soundtrack.

Hazel ffennell directed Days of Chivalry on land owned by her family around Wytham, Oxfordshire, in 1928.

She recruited friends and local villagers to mount the ambitious medieval epic.

"There can't be many films made by non-professional people in 1928 that were as good as that," historian Mervyn Hughes told the BBC.

The film is set to be screened at the Phoenix Cinema in Oxford on Wednesday evening with a soundtrack arranged by local musician Sebastian Reynolds.

Ms ffennell, who also excelled as an artist, musician, and producer of plays, made several amateur films between 1924 and the mid-1930s.

Days of Chivalry features large numbers of extras and horses, with the director herself taking on the modest role of a goatherder amid the fantasy action.

Some scenes were also shot at Scotney Castle in Kent.

Mr Hughes said: "It's a 90-minute film and there's a lot going on.

"It's like a Jacques Tati film, you've only got to look away and look back again and you've missed something."

He described Ms ffennell's filmography as "very creative" and "real [Rudolph] Valentino-type stuff".

Her works were typically shown at Wytham Abbey or the village hall, attended by the local community and those who featured in them, including the servants.

One event raised £100 for charity, the equivalent of more than £5,000 in today's money.

She later became ill and died aged 33. Her parents bequeathed the 1,000-acre Wytham Woods to Oxford University in her memory.

"It was considered to be the greatest gift the university had ever been given since the medieval ages," Mr Hughes explained.

Mr Reynolds said when scoring Days of Chivalry he wanted a mixture of his usual "spooky atmospheric sounds" and a "bright brass fanfare" and "big upbeat melody".

He previously wrote a song called For Hazel after being inspired by a walk in Wytham Woods, also now included on the soundtrack.

He said: "The film was done to the highest standards of the day… but there's a lot about it that has a very endearing amateur dramatic vibe.

"My intention with this score was to try and tread a line between giving it a finesse and making it beautiful, but not too slick, because that would jar with the ramshackle naivety of the film."

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