Underground

Passions run deeper than the Northern Line in Anthony Asquith's tale of love, jealousy, treachery and murder on the London Underground. Eighty years later, your average tube ride might not be quite as eventful, but anyone who has exploited the city's public transport system to romantic advantage will find much to recognise. Restored by the BFI National Archive and presented with a live performance of Neil Brand's new score by the Prima Vista Social Club, Asquith's working-class love story is one of the great British silent feature films. It's also one of the great films about the capital – a journey through the Underground (many of the scenes were filmed at Waterloo) via old London boozers and open-topped buses to a climactic chase through Lots Road power station that magnificently reveals the smoking roofscape of the coal-fuelled city. In the late 1920s Asquith, along with Hitchcock, was one of the most audacious young talents working in British film. At the age of only 26 he demonstrates an assured and spare style with some remarkably cinematic flourishes clearly inspired by contemporary German and Russian filmmakers. For many years restoration of Underground presented insurmountable difficulties. With recent developments in digital technology available to the BFI's film restoration team we have now been able to make a significant improvement to the surviving film elements.

Robin Baker and Bryony Dixon, BFI National Archive