It really doesn't work without an audience.
So today's snowstorm blew in earlier than expected, which led to not a single person showing up for our planned matinee screening of 'Annie Laurie' (1927) on Sunday, Jan. 25, with live music by me.
Although the show must go on, when no one shows due to snow, there's no show to show.
So we've rescheduled 'Annie Laurie' for exactly one week later, on Sunday, Feb. 1 at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theatre, 40 Main St., Wilton, N.H.
Join us then for a full dose of Lillian Gish surrounded by men in kilts!
With 'Annie Laurie' moved to next Sunday, I now have a block of four shows in a row to close out January.
• On Thursday, Jan. 29, a mid-winter screening of 'Metropolis' (1927) I'm accompanying at the Jane Pickens Theatre in Newport, R.I. is already selling a lot of tickets.
• On Friday, Jan. 30, it's Buster Keaton's 'The General' (1926) in a 100th anniversary screening at the Epsilon Spires venue in Brattleboro, Vt. (I get to play their Estey organ to accompany.)
• On Saturday, Jan. 31, it's the annual 'Pot Luck Supper and Silent Movie Night' at the Campton Historical Society up in Campton, N.H., where this year's entertainment is the original silent film version of 'Peter Pan' (1924.)
• And then on Sunday, Feb. 1, we'll try our luck with 'Annie Laurie' again at the Town Hall Theatre in Wilton, N.H., and hope that this time Mother Nature approves.
For 'Metropolis,' the press release below has lot more info about the film and the screening. Hope you'll be able to join us in Newport on Thursday. And if I get there early enough, I invite me in the Boru Noodle House just down the street.
Contact Jeff Rapsis • (603) 236-9237 • jeffrapsis@gmail.com
Restored classic sci-fi epic 'Metropolis' to screen in Newport, R. I. on Thursday, Jan. 29
Landmark early futuristic fantasy, with half-hour of rediscovered footage, to be shown with live music at Jane Pickens Theatre
'Metropolis' (1927), an epic adventure set in a futuristic world, will be shown with live music on Thursday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Jane Pickens Theatre, 49 Touro St. in historic downtown Newport.
'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.'
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.
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 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 with live music on Thursday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Jane Pickens Theatre, 49 Touro St. in historic downtown Newport.
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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