What you may need to give your life meaning and purpose is a dose of old-time religious morality.
Either that, or a stiff drink and an affair with an exotic woman whose name contains more vowels than consonants.
Well, if it's the former, then one way to get yourself some old-time moralism, and without any long-term commitments, is to take in the original silent film version of 'The Ten Commandments' (1923).
I'll accompany this picture, which is celebrating its centenerary, on Wednesday, April 12 at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Pefrformance Center in Plymouth, N.H.
Showtime is 6:30 p.m. Lots more information in the press release pasted in below.
And as for the drink/affair option, other than observing that such a course also involves no long-term commitment, you're on your own.
Except if you come to see the film, you might try just reversing several of the commandments and see if that doesn't spice up things a little...
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MONDAY, MARCH 20, 2023 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com
Original 'Ten Commandments' movie to screen at Flying Monkey Moviehouse
Silent film Biblical blockbuster to be shown on 100th anniversary with live music on Wednesday, April 12
PLYMOUTH, N.H.—Decades before he directed Charlton Heston as Moses, filmmaker
Cecil B. DeMille's original silent version of 'The Ten Commandments'
(1923) wowed audiences the world over during the early years of cinema.
To
celebrate the Easter season, DeMille's pioneering Biblical
blockbuster will be screened on Wednesday, April 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the
Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center, 39 Main St., Plymouth,
N.H.
The 100th anniversary
screening, the latest in the Flying Monkey's silent film series,
will feature live accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based
composer who specializes in creating music for silent films.
Admission is $10 per person. Tickets are available online at www.flyingmonkeynh.com or at the door.
DeMille's
original 'Ten Commandments' was among the first Hollywood films to
tackle stories from scripture on a grand scale. The picture was a
popular hit in its original release, and served as a blueprint for
DeMille's later remake in 1956.
In the McTavish family, two
brothers make opposite decisions: one, John, to follow his mother's
teaching of the Ten Commandments and become a poor carpenter, and the
other, Danny, to break every one of them and rise to the top. The film
shows his unchecked immorality to be momentarily gainful, but ultimately
disastrous.
A contrast is made between the carpenter brother and
his mother. The mother reads the story of Moses and emphasizes strict
obedience and fear of God. The carpenter, however, reads from the New
Testament story of Jesus' healing of lepers. His emphasis is on a loving
and forgiving God. The film also shows the mother's strict lawful
morality to be flawed in comparison to her son's version.
The
other brother becomes a corrupt contractor who builds a church with
shoddy concrete, pocketing the money saved and becoming very rich. One
day, his mother comes to visit him at his work site, but the walls are
becoming unstable due to the shaking of heavy trucks on nearby roads.
One of the walls collapses, with tragic results. This sends the brother
on a downward spiral as he attempts to right his wrongs and clear his
conscience.
Throughout the film, the visual motif of the tablets
of the Commandments appears in the sets, with a particular Commandment
appearing on them when it is relevant to the story.
'The Ten
Commandments' boasts an all-star cast of 1920s performers, including
Theodore Roberts as Moses; Charles de Rochefort as Rameses; Estelle
Taylor as Miriam, the Sister of Moses; Edythe Chapman as Mrs. Martha
McTavish; Richard Dix as John McTavish, her son; Rod La Rocque as Dan
McTavish, her other son; and Leatrice Joy as Mary Leigh.
The
Exodus scenes were filmed at Nipomo Dunes, near Pismo Beach, Calif., in
San Luis Obispo County, which is now an archaeological site. The film
location was originally chosen because its immense sand dunes provided a
superficial resemblance to the Egyptian desert.
After the filming was complete, the massive sets—which included four 35-foot-tall Pharaoh statues, 21 sphinxes, and gates reaching a height of 110 feet, which were built by an army of 1,600 workers — were dynamited and buried in the sand.
However, the burial location at Nipomo Dunes is exposed to
relentless northwesterly gales year-round, and much of what was buried
is now exposed to the elements, as the covering sand has been blown
away.
The visual effect of keeping the walls of water apart while
Moses and the Israelites walked through the Red Sea was accomplished
with a slab of gelatin that was sliced in two and filmed close up as it
jiggled. This shot was then combined with live-action footage of actors
walking into the distance, creating a vivid illusion.
Live music
is a key element of each silent film screening, said Jeff Rapsis,
accompanist for the Flying Monkey's silent film screenings. Silent movies were not
shown in silence, but were accompanied by live music made right in each
theater. Most films were not released with official scores, so it was up
to local musicians to provide the soundtrack, which could vary greatly
from theater to theater.
"Because there's no set soundtrack for
most silent films, musicians are free to create new music as they see
fit, even today," Rapsis said. "In bringing a film to life, I try to
create original 'movie score' music that sounds like what you might
expect in a theater today, which helps bridge the gap between today's
audiences and silent films that are in some cases more than 100 years
old."
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