One more to go in 2022, and it's a biggie: 'Metropolis' (1927), for which I'll be doing music on Tuesday, Dec. 27 at the Jane Pickens Theatre in Newport, R.I.
Showtime is 7 p.m.; lots more info in the press release below.
Looking ahead, 2023 beckons as another busy post-pandemic year of silent film music.
Besides a full dance card of local shows, a pair of out-of-town performing trips are already on the calendar.
In January, I'll be playing for film programs at Cinema Detroit in Detroit, Mich., and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
And then in February, it's my annual pilgrimage to the Kansas Silent Film Festival at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas.
I don't do personal New Year's resolutions as I don't ever seem to change. I'll soon be 60 years old, but I'm still bedeviled by teenage habits and personality trains, with a big helping of the Seven Deadly Sins mixed in.
But in terms of silent film accompaniment, according to my running list of silent feature films that I've accompanied (maintained elsewhere on this blog), right now the total stands at 373.
So that means if I make an effort, 2023 may be the year the total crosses 400. Well, that's a big round number!
So, in between repeat screenings of popular titles that comprise the bulk of my work, I'll try to salt in a few obscure titles I've never before tackled. If I do an average of one every two weeks, I should make it!
One good sign: in planning its 2023 calendar, the Somerville Theatre has booked no less than four silent features that I've never played for before, including Lillian Gish in 'Annie Laurie'; Mary Pickford's early 'Cinderella;' the recently restored MGM blockbuster 'The Fire Brigade'; and Thomas Meighan in 'The Canadian.'
All are via 35mm prints from the Library of Congress—your tax dollars at work!
In the meantime, 'Metropolis' is up next. Hope you'll join us during that strange in-limbo week between Christmas and New Year's Day.
And a Happy New Year!
* * *
TUESDAY, DEC. 6, 2022 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more info, contact: Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com
Restored classic sci-fi epic 'Metropolis' to screen in Newport on Tuesday, Dec. 27
Landmark early futuristic fantasy, with half-hour of rediscovered footage, to be shown with live music at Jane Pickens Theatre
NEWPORT,
R.I.—A silent film hailed as the grandfather of all science fiction
fantasy movies will be screened with live music in Newport during the
upcoming holiday vacation week.
'Metropolis' (1927), an epic
adventure set in a futuristic world, will be shown on Tuesday, Dec. 27
at 7 p.m. at the Jane Pickens Theatre Film and Event Center, 49 Touro
St., Newport, R.I.
The screening, the latest in the venue'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 $15 per person; members $13. Tickets are available online or at the door.
'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 reviving 'Metropolis' and other great films of
cinema's early years, the Jane Pickens Theatre aims to show silent
movies as they were meant to be seen—in high quality prints, on a large
screen, with live music, and with an audience.
"All those
elements are important parts of the silent film experience," said
Rapsis, who will improvise an original live score for 'Metropolis' on
the spot. "Recreate those conditions, and the classics of early cinema
leap back to life."
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 Jane Pickens Theatre 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.
The
restoration work has continued in recent years. 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
included not merely a few additional snippets, but 25 minutes of "lost"
footage, about a fifth of the film, that had not been seen since its
Berlin debut.
The discovery led to a 2½-hour version that debuted
in 2010 to widespread acclaim. It's this fully restored edition that
will be screened at the Jane Pickens Theatre.
" '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 on Tuesday,
Dec. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Jane Pickens Theatre Film and Event Center, 49
Touro St., Newport, R.I. Admission is $15 per person; members $13.
Tickets are available online at www.janepickens.com or at the door. For more information, call the box office at (401) 846-5474.
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