The poetry of silent cinema returns to Cagliari with the autumn edition of Creuza de Mà – Musica per Cinema, which concludes its nineteenth edition on November 24 and 25, 2025, at the Teatro Massimo.
The festival, directed by Gianfranco Cabiddu, confirms its vocation as a creative laboratory in which music and images dialogue, challenge each other, and recombine in ever-new forms.
For years, the second part of the event has focused on the Campus – Music and Sound for Cinema project, a high-level training program conceived by Cabiddu in collaboration with the Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Scuola Nazionale di Cinema and supported by the Sardinia Region and the Sardinia Film Commission.
A privileged meeting place for young musicians and filmmakers, invited to engage with the ever-present ritual of live accompaniment to silent film images.
The star of the two-day event in Cagliari will be composer and pianist Daniele Furlati, a leading figure in film music, author of the soundtracks for The Wind Blows Round and The Man Who Will Come, among others. He will lead the public masterclass on Monday, November 24th (5:45 pm), "Music Tells the Story of Cinema," a journey through the creative process that leads from the silent power of still images to the construction of narrative sound.
That same evening, at 9:00 PM, the Teatro Massimo will become a time machine: audiences will be able to attend a film concert dedicated to Buster Keaton's The Navigator (1924), presented in the version restored by the Cineteca di Bologna. Furlati will accompany the slapstick masterpiece live, signing the original score.
The following day, Tuesday, November 25th, at 9:30 pm, another silent film gem will be screened: The Bacillus of Love – Passions and Rhythms from the Italian Silent Films, a romantic comedy directed by Robert Land and graced by the presence of a young Marlene Dietrich. This film, also restored by the Cineteca di Bologna, is being presented as a cine-concert thanks to the collaboration with the Modena Belcanto Festival and the Teatro Comunale di Modena.
On stage, alongside Furlati at the piano, is an ensemble of outstanding performers: Davide Zaccherini (tenor), Angelica Foschi (accordion), Olesya Emelyanenko (first violin), Lucio Casti (violin), Stefano Carta (viola), Karen Hernandez (cello), and Sandro Fontoni (double bass). This ensemble promises to restore the rich timbre and rhythmic vitality of the new scores.
The 2025 edition of Creuza de Mà is organized in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna, the Francesco Vennezze Conservatory of Rovigo – Master's Degree in Film Music, and the Teatro Comunale di Modena. Admission to the events is free, but reservations are required through Eventbrite. The full program and all information are available on the official website: musicapercinema.it.
(Unioneonline/Fr.Me.)
