Last weekend, I did something I've never done before.
No, I didn't clean the fridge. Rather, I played music for a silent movie that's just under seven hours long.
The film: Abel Gance's 'La Roue' (1923), which the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Mass. screened as part of its programming to celebrate Silent Movie Day, which this year fell on Sunday, Sept. 29.
'La Roue' really is just under seven hours long—412 minutes, to be exact. And I played for all of it, shown in four parts, starting at noon and ending at about 8:30 p.m.
Although rarely screened, 'La Roue' is known for influencing many directors by how it demonstrated the possibilities of cinema, at the time a new art form. French poet and playwright Jean Cocteau said: “There is cinema before and after La roue the way there is painting before and after Picasso.”
Only recently restored to its full length, 'La Roue' can now be seen as intended. And I think the most important thing to report from this experience is that Gance's rarely shown film really does hold the screen, at least as I experienced it last Saturday at the Brattle.
The melodramatic story centers on a locomotive engineer, Sisif, and his adopted daughter. Gance filmed 'La Roue' on location among the grimy railyards of Nice and along a narrow-gauge cog railway high in the French Alps. A lot of the film's symbolic power derives from images of wheels and track and signals and switches and other railway hardware.
About 60 people paid $25 each to experience 'La Roue' last Saturday—a bigger audience than I expected. Before the screening, after being introduced by the Brattle's Ned Hinkle, the first thing I said was: "I hope everyone here likes trains." Har!
I then expressed what I feel is the one essential idea that a modern audience need to keep in mind when viewing a film such as 'La Roue.' You need to let it in. 'La Roue,' like a lot of silent films, is about big emotions that have been part of the human experience for centuries. As melodrama, it tells its story in a way that may seem unfamiliar and alien to us. Even so, let it in.
Okay, about the music. Just as Gance was pushing the boundaries of film, so does 'La Roue' push the limits of film accompaniment. I've never tried to do music for a film of such length all in one go. And as I work largely by improvisation, I was curious to see how it would go.
Over time, would the music get better and better? Or lousier and lousier?
Although the score was improvised, I did prepare. I was able to view the entire film online to get an idea of the content and what kind of soundscape might help support it.
I also developed a suite of material to use in weaving together a score in real time.
Because a lot of the film is about pain and suffering, the music was based largely on this set of notes:
So: a minor triad with an added fourth. To my ears, this sounds like pain, or at least lingering discomfort, in the sense that it's not easily resolved.
Often the notes showed up in arpeggiated form, to provide a sense of forward motion when needed, such as like this:
Because 'La Roue' is not the fastest-moving film, there's room to develop the material as the sequences unfold.
So over time, I was able to work with the four notes to create accompaniment that supported a wide range of emotions, but which I felt also held together musically.
Over seven hours, a lot of other melodic and harmonic material was employed, much of it made up on the spot. Little scraps of tunes got employed to underscore a scene, and would be brought back in different form when the time seemed right.
What about the length? How did it affect my playing?
When I accompany a film, it takes about 10 or 15 minutes to enter what I call "the silent film zone." It's a state of mind where, if all goes well, my capacity for self-criticism subsides and the music comes freely for the duration of the film.
Once in this state, I often have no conception of the passing of time. 'The End' will come up on the screen, and I'll have no sense that I've been accompanying a film for 2½ hours. It seems like we just started!
So given this, what would happen over a much longer time? 'La Roue' was an opportunity to find out.
That's why I sat at the keyboard and continued to play during the two shorter internissions. I didn't want to break the spell, because sometimes when that happens, you don't get back to the same place you were before.
And I have to say, it wasn't tiring at all, either physically or mentally. It was a little daunting to sit down at noon to begin playing, knowing I'd be doing so well into the evening. But once the film kicked in, the clock stopped as it often does, and I was able to keep going and do justice to the film.
Was it easy? No. But it was easier than expected. Facing the longest film I'd ever attempted to score live all in one gulp, I discovered I could do it. In fact, I wouldn't mind doing it again. So I've started reaching out to venues to gauge interest in running 'La Roue' as a once-in-a-lifetime only-in-a-theater experience.
I'll travel anywhere to do it—even by train!
And if I'm in the mood for a real ground-breaking adventure, I'll clean the fridge.
And now...a train-related film of more normal length. Next up: Keaton's 'The General' (1926) on Thursday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. at the public library in Moultonborough, N.H.
If you're in the state's Lakes Region getting in some leaf-peeping, stop by and peep at one of Buster's best. More info in the press release below.
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MONDAY, SEPT. 16, 2024 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com
Buster Keaton's 'The General' with live music at Moultonborough Library on Thursday, Oct. 3
Civil War railroading comedy/adventure film lauded as stone-faced comic moviemaker's masterpiece
See for yourself with a screening of 'The General' (1926), one of Keaton's landmark feature films, on Thursday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. at the Moultonborough Public Library, 4 Holland St, Moultonborough, N.H.
The screening will feature live music for the movie by silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis. The screening is free and open to the public; attendees are asked to register online at moultonboroughlibrary.org under the 'Events' area.
The show is intended to give Lakes Region movie-goers the opportunity to experience early cinema as it was intended: on the big screen, with live music, and with an audience.
'The General,' set during the U.S. Civil War, tells the story of a southern locomotive engineer (Keaton) whose engine (named 'The General') is hijacked by Northern spies with his girlfriend on board.
Keaton, commandeering another train, races north in pursuit behind enemy lines. Can he rescue his girl? And can he recapture his locomotive and make it back to warn of a coming Northern attack?
Critics call 'The General' Keaton's masterpiece, praising its authentic period detail, ambitious action and battle sequences, and its overall integration of story, drama, and comedy.
It's also regarded as one of Hollywood's great railroad films, with much of the action occurring on or around moving steam locomotives.
Accompanist Jeff Rapsis will improvise an original musical score for 'The General' live as the movie is shown, as was typically done during the silent film era.
"When the score gets made up on the spot, it creates a special energy that's an important part of the silent film experience," said Rapsis, who uses a digital synthesizer to recreate the texture of a full orchestra for the accompaniment.
"All those elements are important parts of the silent film experience," Rapsis said. "Recreate those conditions, and the classics of early Hollywood leap back to life in ways that can still move audiences today."
Keaton, along with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, stands today as one of the silent screen's three great clowns. Some critics regard Keaton as the best of all; Roger Ebert wrote in 2002 that "in an extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, (Keaton) worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies."
A remarkable pantomime artist, Keaton naturally used his whole body to communicate emotions from sadness to surprise. And in an era with no post-production special effects, Keaton's acrobatic talents enabled him to perform all his own stunts.
Critics review 'The General':
"The most insistently moving picture ever made, its climax is the most stunning visual event ever arranged for a film comedy."
—Walter Kerr, author of 'The Silent Clowns'
"An almost perfect entertainment!"
—Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
"What makes the film so special is the way the timing, audacity and elegant choreography of its sight gags, acrobatics, pratfalls and dramatic incidents is matched by Buster's directorial artistry, his acute observational skills working alongside the physical élan and sweet subtlety of his own performance."
—Time Out (London)
The Keaton films are a great introduction to silent films for modern audiences, accompanist Rapsis said.
"Keaton's comedy is as fresh today as it was a hundred years ago — maybe more so, because his kind of visual humor is a lost art," Rapsis said.
‘The General’ (1926) starring Buster Keaton will be shown with live music on Thursday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. at the Moultonborough Public Library, 4 Holland St, Moultonborough, N.H.