We are delighted to welcome Stephen Horne back to the IFI to perform at this screening of Buster Keaton’s immortal comedy The General. Keaton plays a Civil War engineer who chases the titular locomotive when it and his girlfriend are kidnapped by the Union Army. Stephen has long been internationally considered one of the leading silent film accompanists. A house pianist at London’s BFI Southbank for over thirty years, he regularly performs internationally and in recent years his accompaniments have met with acclaim at film festivals in Pordenone, San Francisco, Cannes, and Hong Kong, amongst many others.

Notes by Kevin Coyne