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Neil Brand accompanies the big screen

Film fans will know the score. Not literally perhaps - for the music here will be down to pianist Neil Brand, the man charged with the task of accompanying several hours' worth of rare film.

But anyone who knows movies and the London Film Festival's track record will recognise this as one of the key events in the festival's annual programme.

It's the cornerstone of the LFF's avowedly democratic mission, unlike other festivals around the world, to bring film to the public - and in this instance for free.

So alongside the grand galas and special screenings, for two nights this week Londoners can gather under the stars to watch the city reflected on film and share their thoughts on what makes London tick.

Co-hosted by Film London, this is London Loves - more than a dozen silent classics ranging from news footage of Charlie Chaplin being mobbed by fans to intimate home movie film of a 1930s Sutton wedding party.

There's a glimpse of London's future, admittedly from the 1920s, but a feature-length vision populated nonetheless by cigar-shaped cars and moving image screens that look remarkably like early TVs.

Future London in the film High Treason

The London Loves programme also includes a fragment of an ambitious 1904 documentary originally made to show London off to the world.

The film, thought lost, was recently discovered in an Australian archive and has been especially restored for the Trafalgar Square screening - its first public viewing in over 100 years.

We can also reveal that at least two London residents, one in Old Street, the other in Richmond, will have their names in lights before the start of the main programme each night.

Film London has been canvassing contemporary Londoners' views of the capital and what they "Love" about London will be projected on the big screen as a curtain-raiser.

Step forward then, Zippy and Emily for their thoughts on the Royal Parks and Waterloo Bridge respectively. Their time is now - and they won't be alone.

London Loves is on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 October. Screenings begin at 18.30 and are free and open to all. Interested in more free or cheap stuff in town? See the links below: