Reflective Encounters

“Queer people don’t have many classic films to identify themselves in, but Jack Pulford’s Silver and Gold offers us our own silent comedy. It’s a stunning update on a Charlie Chaplin short - a Southbank human statue in a silver suit and bowler hat falls for the beautiful golden lady on the other side of the path.

Silver and Gold invites us to focus on the gestures of romance, specifically the silent language of queerness and lesbian sexuality. Set just outside the Tate Modern in London, it’s a modern urban tale that feels seeped in the typically heterosexual history of cinema. The camera closes on the women’s eyes, their hands and feet as they mimic each other’s routines before finally falling into a whirlwind dance across the city.

Chaplin’s Little Tramp never spoke so that his character could transcend national borders. The silence of Silver and Gold feels similarly universal, and asks us to question why there isn’t a richer tradition of queer romance in cinema that doesn’t need to focus on processes of coming out or conflict. The resulting elegance of the film will stay with you long after the credits, and hopefully heralds a new golden age of queer cinema.”

— Lillian Crawford