Coming this week: on Tuesday, I drive down to Deerfield, Mass. to accompany the screening of a rare short film produced in the area; then on Wednesday it's out to Ogunquit, Maine, where I'll do music for 'Zaza' starring Gloria Swanson.
More on these screenings below, including a press release for 'Zaza' with complete information.
For now, let me report that I had a great time this past Saturday trekking up to the Strand Theater in Rockland, Maine, where they continued an ongoing celebration of their 100th anniversary with screenings of Buster Keaton's 'Our Hospitality' (1923) and 'Little Old New York' (1923) starring Marion Davies.
The Strand is a real rarity in today's entertainment landscape: a wonderfully vibrant single-screen motion picture that's been in business since Warren G. Harding occupied the White House.
It's not only weathered the ups and downs of the exhibition business, but seems to be thriving. The Strand, operating as a non-profit since 2014, offers first-run films, live concerts, and special programming such as hi-definition Metropolitan Opera broadcasts.
For me, the Davies film was highlighted afterwards when couple came up to chat, and the husband turned out to be a great grandson of W.R. Hearst, longtime paramour (but never husband) of Marion.
Jason "Jay" Hearst is grandson of Hearst's third son, John Hearst, and today runs his own audio engineering firm in Camden, Maine. (Check out his studio at www.hearstudios.com.)
We had a nice chat about the preservation and availability of Marion's films. Who knows? Hearst's sons were pretty rotten to her, but maybe the great-grandchildren could make something happen to help Marion's work win recognition from today's audiences.
It was a special treat to accompany Harold Lloyd's 'The Kid Brother' (1927) on Sunday afternoon at the Center for the Arts in Natick, Mass. Why special? Because it was one of those screenings where everything falls into place from the opening titles.
Afterwards, I had an interesting conversation with a volunteer who works in the Psychology Department of a local college. She asked a few questions about how I go about creating a large amount of music by improvising in real time.
She then made the observation that what I do must be "very healing." And I think she's right.
I'm not sure what I'm healing from. Whatever it is, it must be something big, as I keep wanted to make music in a darkened theatre.
In all seriousness, I suppose it could a long-delayed (and long drawn out) response to losing my father when I was 4 years old. For years, I've kind of brushed that off, saying it happened years and years ago (1968, actually) and had no bearing on my life today. Live in the present, I would say.
But it may had some deep underlying effect after all.
Well, your next chance to see (or actually hear) me heal some more is Tuesday, July 25 at 7 p.m. in Deerfield, Mass., where I'll provide music for a rarely screened short silent movie filmed in that area in 1910.
It's an Edison short drama called 'Onoko's Vow,' filmed on location in Deerfield and Whately, Mass. It's part of a presentation organized by the historical societies of both two communities. I doubt I'd be able to summarize it any better than they do, so here's an excerpt from their online listing:
Herbert S. Streeter of Greenfield wrote the script, which he loosely based on actual events in the early colonial history of Deerfield. The 15-minute film tells the fanciful story of a fictional Native American character Ononko, and his relationship with a settler family, set against the backdrop of two violent encounters involving colonial settlers and Indigenous people. Join us to view a newly digitized version of this almost forgotten film followed by a panel discussion with Dr. Carolyn Anderson, silent film historian and Professor Emerita of UMass Amherst, and Dr. Margaret Bruchac, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Coordinator of Native American and Indigenous Studies, and Associate Faculty in the Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Pennsylvania.Wow! Some heavy hitters there. For more information, check out the Whately Historical Society's online listing.
And then Wednesday night, I revisit 'Zaza' (1923) a Gloria Swanson film for which I recorded a piano score for Kino-Lorber in 2017.
I won't be recreating that exactly, but will improvise using a lot of the same material. It depends on what I can remember when I sit down to play at the Leavitt Theatre in Ogunquit, Maine.
However, one thing about 'Zaza' is the "Elvis" problem. For more on that, check out the press release below, which contains all kinds of other info about the screening.
See you at the creativity healing therapy session—oops, I mean the movies!
* * *
MONDAY, JULY 17, 2023 / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com
Silent film accompanist to perform live score to Gloria Swanson classic 'Zaza' on Wednesday, July 26
New Hampshire's Jeff Rapsis created music for Kino-Lorber's 'Zaza' DVD; film to be screened with live music at Leavitt Theatre, Ogunquit
OGUNQUIT, Maine—Taking his place to play the score for a classic silent film, accompanist Jeff Rapsis has no sheet music on his keyboard. It's because he's making up the music on the spot.
But on Wednesday, July 26, he'll have a head start for 'Zaza' (1923), a romantic melodrama starring Gloria Swanson that's playing at the Leavitt Theatre, 259 Main St., Route 1 in downtown Ogunquit.
Last year, Rapsis created the recorded soundtrack for the much-anticipated release of 'Zaza' on DVD/Blu-ray by Kino-Lorber, a New York-based company that specializes in re-releasing classic films.
The screening is at 6 p.m. Admission is $12 per person. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the Leavitt's full dinner menu and bar service is available.
"It was a real thrill to put together a musical score for this great feature film, which has never been available for home viewing before," Rapsis said. "I feel like I've collaborated with Gloria Swanson and the team that made this film."
The Kino-Lorber edition of 'Zaza,' with music by Rapsis, was released in 2017 to enthusiastic reviews.
"With a piano score from composer Jeff Rapsis that follows the original 1923 cue sheet, this is a pretty fantastic score for the film," wrote Matthew Hartman of Hi-Def Digest. "The piano work gives the film a nice old-time feel with the right blend of jaunty entertainment and hitting the lower dramatic tones. It never feels overly dramatic or too wild and fits the tone of the film perfectly."
In 'Zaza,' Swanson stars as a tempermental music hall performer in a provincial French theater who falls in love with a high-ranking diplomat played by H.B. Warner.
The film chronicles their romance as it takes unexpected turns both comic and dramatic. The Paramount feature was regarded as one of the studio's major releases of 1923, helping establish Swanson as a major star of the era.
For the Leavitt Theatre screening, Rapsis will recreate the score he put together earlier this year for the DVD release.
The music was based on a surviving "cue sheet" from the studio that offered suggested music to play when the film was in theatres in 1923.
"Some of the suggestions seemed right on, while others didn't," Rapsis said. "Just like musicians of the silent era, I followed some, and in other places created my own material."
'Zaza' contains multiple on-screen references to 'Plaisir d'Amour,' a 19th century love song with enduring popularity in France.
Using it today, however, creates problems, Rapsis said, because the tune is identical to the song 'I Can't Help Falling in Love With You' popularized by Elvis Presley.
"If you're not careful, it can sound like you're using a 1950s Elvis hit to accompany Gloria Swanson in post-World War I France," Rapsis said.
He addressed the problem by playing the tune with a classical accompaniment, and also making minor changes to "de-Elvis" the melody.
Rapsis has been creating live scores for silent films for the past decade, and currently performs for more than 120 screenings each year.
His standard approach to scoring silent films is to improvise the score on the spot, as a movie is screening.
"It's kind of a high wire act to do the music this way. But it provides an energy and excitement that contributes to the experience," Rapsis said.
Silent film programs can last anywhere from one to three hours in length. Rapsis finds that after the first 10 or 20 minutes, he sinks into a state of mind where he is completely absorbed by the process of scoring the movie, and the music sometimes seems to weave itself as he responds to the film in real time.
Rapsis, a museum director by day, is a lifelong silent film fan who studied classical piano separately.
"Silent film accompaniment is kind of a lost art, but once I tried doing it, I found I could naturally come up with music that helped these films come to life," Rapsis said.
"And I really enjoyed the process because it combined two things I really loved: silent film and music. For me, it was like putting chocolate and peanut butter together."
This season's Leavitt Theatre silent film schedule features movies all celebrating their 100th anniversaries. Upcoming shows include:
• Wednesday, Aug. 16 at 6 p.m.: 'The Pilgrim' (1923) starring Charlie Chaplin. As a convict on the lam, Chaplin impersonates a man of the cloth, with unexpected results.
• Wednesday, Aug. 23 at 6 p.m.: 'A Woman of Paris' (1923). Chaplin's drama about a kept woman (Edna Purviance) who runs into her former fiancé and finds herself torn between love and comfort.
• Wednesday, Sept. 6 at 6 p.m.: 'Haldene of the Secret Service' (1923). In Harry Houdini's final starring vehicle, he plays the son of a detective slain by a gang of counterfeiters.
• Wednesday, Sept. 20 at 6 p.m.: 'The Ten Commandments' (1923). Long before Charlton Heston played Moses in Technicolor, director Cecil B. DeMille filmed this silent blockbuster on a grand scale.
'Zaza,' starring Gloria Swanson, will be shown with live music on Wednesday, July 26 at 6 p.m. at the historic Leavitt Theatre, 259 Main St., Route 1, Ogunquit, Maine.
Admission is $12 per person. For more info, call (207) 646-3123 or visit www.leavittheatre.com
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