Up next, it's 'Metropolis' (1927) at the Derry (N.H.) Opera House on Friday, Sept. 26. Showtime is 7 p.m.; lots more info is in the press release pasted in below.
Recent screenings included 'Risky Business' (1925) on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at the Leavitt Theatre in Ogunquit, Maine; Buster Keaton's comedy 'Seven Chances' (1925) at the Flying Monkey Moviehouse and Performance Center; and Abel Gance's seminal drama 'J'Accuse' (1919) at the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H.
I had thought it was the first time I'd scored 'J'Accuse,' but in checking my records it turns out I did music for it in 2015 at the Harvard Film Archive.
Wow! I've been doing this for nearly 20 years, and this is the first time I have absolutely no recollection about a screening or a film that I've scored.
One thing about 'J'Accuse' was it marked the debut of a new speaker for my digital synthesizer output. The pair of old Roland studio monitors have been great, but they've lately been showing their age.
Audience response afterward was highly favorable to the sound, so looks I'll be going through with the update.
Okay, hope you can make it to 'Metropolis' (1927) on Friday. Here's a press release with more info.
* * *
For more info, contact: Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com
Restored classic sci-fi epic 'Metropolis' to screen in Derry on Friday, Sept. 26
Landmark early futuristic fantasy, with half-hour of rediscovered footage, to be shown with live music at Derry Opera House
'Metropolis' (1927), an epic adventure set in a futuristic world, will be shown with live music on Friday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Derry Opera House, 29 West Broadway, Derry, N.H.
The screening will feature live accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based composer who specializes in creating music for silent films.
'Metropolis' (1927), regarded as German director Fritz Lang's masterpiece, is set in a society where a privileged elite pursue lives of leisure while the masses toil on vast machines and live in poverty.
The film, with
its visions of futuristic factories and underground cities, set new
standards for visual design and inspired generations of dystopian
fantasies from Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner' to Terry Gilliam's
'Brazil.'
In 'Metropolis,'
the story centers on an upper class young man who falls in love with a
woman who works with the poor. The tale encompasses mad scientists,
human-like robots, underground spiritual movements, and industrial
espionage, all set in a society divided between haves and have-nots.
The version of 'Metropolis'
to be screened at the Derry Opera House is a newly restored edition
that includes nearly a half-hour of missing footage cut following the
film's premiere in 1927. The lost footage, discovered in 2008 in an
archive in Argentina, has since been added to the existing 'Metropolis,' allowing plot threads and characters to be developed more fully.
When
first screened in Berlin, Germany on Jan. 10, 1927, the sci-fi epic ran
an estimated 153 minutes. After its premiere, the film's distributors
(including Paramount in the U.S.) drastically shortened 'Metropolis'
to maximize the film's commercial potential. By the time it debuted in
the U.S. later that year, the film was only about 90 minutes long.
Even in its shortened form, 'Metropolis'
became a cornerstone of science fiction cinema. Due to its enduring
popularity, the film has undergone numerous restorations in the
intervening decades in attempts to recover Lang's original vision.
Restoration
work continues to this day. In 2008, the curator of the Buenos Aires
Museo del Cine discovered a 16mm dupe negative of 'Metropolis' that was considerably longer than any existing print.
It contained 25 minutes of "lost"
footage, about a fifth of the film, that had not been seen since its
Berlin debut.
The discovery of such a significant amount of
material called for yet another restoration, a 2½-hour version that
debuted in 2010 to widespread acclaim. It's this fully restored edition
that will be screened at the Derry Opera House.
" 'Metropolis'
stands as an stunning example of the power of silent film to tell a
compelling story without words, and reach across the generations to
touch movie-goers from the real future, which means us," said
accompanist Jeff Rapsis, who provides live music for silent film
screenings throughout New England and beyond.
To accompany a
silent film, Rapsis uses a digital synthesizer to recreate the texture
of the full orchestra. The score is created live in real time as the
movie is screened. Rather than focus exclusively on authentic music of
the period, Rapsis creates new music for silent films that draws from
movie scoring techniques that today's audiences expect from the cinema.
The restored 'Metropolis'
will be shown with live music on Friday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. at
the Derry Opera House, 29 West Broadway, Derry, N.H. Admission is free;
advance registration is requested. To register, visit the Derry Public
Library's website at derrypl.org and click on the online 'Events' calendar.
For more information on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.
CRITIC'S COMMENTS on ‘METROPOLIS’
“'Metropolis'
does what many great films do, creating a time, place and characters so
striking that they become part of our arsenal of images for imagining
the world.”
—Roger Ebert, 2010, The Chicago Sun-Times
“If
it comes anywhere near your town, go see it and thank the movie Gods
that it even exists. There’s no star rating high enough.”
—Brian Tallerico, Movieretriever.com
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