WILTON – It’s a one-of-a-kind film about a timeless topic: Love.

“7th Heaven” (1927), a romantic drama that won actress Janet Gaynor the first Best Actress Academy Award, will be shown with live music at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton.

Live music will be provided by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film accompanist.

The screening is free to the public; a donation of $10 per person is suggested to support the Town Hall Theatre’s silent film series.

The Town Hall Theatre continues to observe procedures to comply with all state and CDC public health guidelines. Capacity is limited to 50%; patrons are required to maintain social distance and wear masks until seated.

“7th Heaven,” which also netted Frank Borzage the first Best Director Oscar, is a fable set in Paris just before World War I. It’s the story of an abused and abandoned young woman (Gaynor) who is cast aside by her family, only to be adopted by an ebullient sewer worker (Charles Farrell) with his sights set on higher things.

In her new home, the girl learns a fresh way of looking at life. Eventually, love blossoms, but will it survive the onset of war? Borzage used all the techniques of silent film at its height to craft a universal and timeless story that audiences have found moving since the picture’s initial release in 1927, one year before the talkie revolution.

“7th Heaven” received the most nominations of any film – a total of five – at the inaugural Academy Awards ceremony, held on May 16, 1929, in the waning days of the silent era.

Besides winning ‘est Actress for Gaynor and Best Director for Borzage, it also won an Oscar for Benjamin Glazer in the Best Writing, Adapted Story category. “7th Heaven” also was nominated for Outstanding Picture, Production (the forerunner of today’s Best Picture category) and Best Art Direction.’

Gaynor’s Best Actress award also was given in honor of her performances in “Street Angel” and “Sunrise” in the same year. She won over competing actresses Gloria Swanson and Louise Dresser.

Live music will be provided by Rapsis, who improvises scores for silent films using a digital synthesizer to recreate the texture of the full orchestra.

“It’s kind of a high wire act,” Rapsis said. “But for me, the energy of live performance is an essential part of the silent film experience.”

“7th Heaven” was remade in 1937 as a talking picture starring Simone Simon and Jimmy Stewart in the lead roles.

Critics and film buffs regard the original silent version of “7th Heaven” as a high-water mark of silent cinema.

“The original “7th Heaven” still is the yardstick for all movie love stories,” wrote Joe Franklin in Classics of the Silent Screen.

Reviewer Tim Brayton wrote that “7th Heaven” is “the kind of movie that births a lifelong love affair with silent cinema. … I’d be extraordinarily hard-pressed to come up with any way in which it’s not flawless.”