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Wild and Weird - The Alloy Orchestra Plays 14 Fascinating and Innovative Films 1902 - 1965 |
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Wild and Weird - The Alloy Orchestra Plays 14 Fascinating and Innovative Films 1902 - 1965
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| Flicker Alley // PG // July 5, 2011 |
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List Price: $29.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
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Review by John Sinnott |
posted July 9, 2011 |
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The Shorts:
Over the last decade or so, there have been several very
talented people and musical groups who have revitalized the art of
making music
for silent films. One of my favorites,
the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, uses antique cue sheets to
recreate the
music that could have been played nearly a century ago in theaters
while
pianist Steven Horne creates new pieces that are incredibly
entertaining. On the other end of the
spectrum are The
Alloy Orchestra, a group of musicians who eschew the classic methods
and
instruments and creates original compositions that are
synthesizer-heavy and
feature 'found junk' percussion. Flicker
Alley, a company that continues to put out high quality DVDs of silent
films,
has just released a disc that showcases just what the Alloy Orchestra
can do to
a film on Wild and Weird: The
Alloy Orchestra plays 14 Fascinating and
Innovative Films. This 2 hour + DVD
features
some great shorts, and fans of the Alloy Orchestra's approach will
surely enjoy
the entire presentation.
First off, I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of the
Alloy Orchestra's scores. I've seen them
perform live on two occasions and have heard their scores on DVDs, and
I'll be
the first to admit that the performers in this trio are all very
talented
musicians. The problem I have with their
approach is that hearing a synthesizer while a film from the 1920's
pulls me
out of the moment. I start thinking
"those are sounds that the director and actors couldn't have imagined
would
ever be played over this movie" and that lessen the whole experience.
To my
mind, the perfect silent movie score is one that accents the emotion
and action
on the screen, without being overbearing and intrusive.
I don't feel that the Alloy Orchestra pulls
this off on some of their scores.
They work best on experimental or surrealist films (I also
heard them accompany Metropolis, and
their music for the underground scenes that showed the masses laboring
was
phenomenal) and that's largely what this collection contains, and
consequently
I was very happy with the presentation as a whole.
While there were a few shorts that didn't
work as well as the others, in general their accompaniment wasn't bad.
One thing that really adds a sense of fun to this disc is
the slides. In between the shorts there
are hand-colors glass slides that were originally shown in the silent
era. They admonish women to take off their
hats
and men not to spit on the floor, as well as thank the patrons for
coming.
The movies themselves are excellent, and I'll start with
some of the high points. The film that
works best with the Alloy Orchestras style is easily Filmstudie
(1926) created by the Dadaist filmmaker Hans
Richter. The film is a series of images;
moving shapes and angles. It doesn't try
to tell a story or have a narrative; rather it is a work of abstract
art. The Alloy Orchestra's score is
equally
abstract with poetry by fellow Dadaist Hugo Ball being read in the
background
in some parts and odd sounds melding with the strange images on the
screen. This is one example where the
music really compliments the visuals.
The Life and Death of
9413, a Hollywood Extra (1927) is
another
expressionistic film that is brought to life by Alloy's score. Told with angled sets slightly reminiscent of
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the
movie tells the story of a man who goes to Hollywood to make his fortune. When he presents a letter of introduction to
a producer, Mr. Almighty, the mogul writes a number on the man's head,
9413,
which is what he's known as from then on.
He tries to climb a never-ending staircase to "success" but
isn't able
to achieve the heights that he wants. An
interesting film that jabs forcefully at the Hollywood
mill, the images of the star giving false smiles at his premier are
great, it
could have been made today.
Other fun shorts include Dream
of a Rarebit Fiend: The Pet (1921)
made by Windsor McCay from his comic strip of the same name, The Thieving Hand (1908) a surrealist
romp about a man who gets a used arm that causes him trouble, and Artheme Swallows His Clarinet (1912) a
bizarre comedy that is presented here in its complete form (for the
first time
I believe a second copy was found not too long ago with included the
ending).
The collection includes the following shorts:
Those Awful Hats
A Trip to the Moon
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (Edwin S. Porter)
Red Spectre
The Acrobatic Fly
The Thieving Hand
Princess Nicotine, or The Smoke Fairy
Artheme Swallows His Clarinet
The Cameraman's Revenge
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend: The Pet (Winsor McCay)
The Playhouse
Filmstudie
The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood
Extra
Clay, or the Origin of Species (Eliot Noyes, Jr.) - this
last film is a student movie from 1965 that was nominated for an
Academy
Award. The short was originally released
with a nonsyched jazz score. That is
replaced on this disc with new music created by the Alloy Orchestra. I wish the original score had also been
included, but it wasn't.
The DVD:
All fourteen films arrive on one DVD.
Audio:
The sound quality is excellent. Being
recently recorded there isn't any
background noise or other flaws found in older scores.
Video:
The full frame video varies quite a bit. Some
films are excellent, like The Play
House, while others are showing their age (McCay's The Pet comes to
mind... it's
faded and heavily scratched in parts.)
Overall the films look like nice copies of unrestored movies
from the
20's. Most of them have some scratchs
and dirt, and the image can be a little soft at times, but they are all
watchable and many shorts look very good.
Extras:
There's a 10 minute featurette included, Alloy Plays
Filmstudie. This short docu shows the
group recording the
soundtrack to the Richter film and has the members of the group
discussing how
they approached the film how the score was created.
Final Thoughts:
While I'm not the Alloy Orchestra's biggest fan, I have to
admit that their accompaniments worked more often than they didn't in
this
collection. The films themselves are
great, and those a few have been released several times on DVD it's
nice to
have these unique and decidedly of-kilter films all in one place. This set gets a strong Recommendation. |
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