(no subject)
So ... I haven't been posting much. The new year hasn't gotten off to a rip-roaring start. Not that good things haven't happened. I had a lovely visit from cyberweasel recently, but I've been tired by work and unsatisfied creatively and I'm not sure what to do about that.
But, I did something pretty awesome today. The movie museum in Queens re-opened with this special theater and it plays ALL TYPES OF MOVIES. And this weekend they played the silent film L'Argent with a live orchestra. The experience was ... interesting. I wouldn't say the movie would ever be a favorite. It's based on a novel by Emile Zola (although looking at the synopsis of the novel on wikipedia the movie takes significant liberties with the plot) and it struck me as a very polemic-type, "GREED IS BAD" movie. The characters aren't as cypher-like as the characters in The Birth of a Nation or The Battleship Potemkin (heck, I don't think the latter HAS characters) but sometimes I felt I never really grew to like the characters but instead grew used to them because I'd been with them for three hours.
The music made up for it, though. I actually sort of spent the first couple of minutes of the movie with the wide-eyed, open-mouthed squee cloud face, just excited when it really hit me athat real live people were playing along with the movie. Then I had trouble keeping attention on the screen because I wanted to see what they were doing. Mid-way through I realized I didn't like the characters and grew a little tired, but other musical cues brought me back again. They also used a few homemade sound effects, which was cool.
The head of the orchestra/piano player said the music was taken from a library of music usually used as the soundtrack of films in the silent era. So while he didn't write the music, he did put it together in a score, picking out a main theme of the movie and using other pieces for more cheerful sections. He said the process of picking out music for a movie takes him about a week, which is amazing, although the people who did it at the time usually just had two days as a new movie would play at a house every week. That's kind of cool.
I really liked how the theater tried to replicate the experience of the time. In addition to the orchestra, they also used regular, not digital projection - except for the subtitles - and they had a curtain that would cover and unveil the screen. Yet the theater was in a very modern architectural style and the curtain was made of these very sharp shapes, not velvet with trim, so that was an interesting contrast. XD
Overall, if you can get an experience like this, GO FOR IT. Although I don't know if I would watch the movie again. It had some great performances (the heroine, played by Mary Glory, made the best faces) but I'm not sure I'd watch it again.
But, I did something pretty awesome today. The movie museum in Queens re-opened with this special theater and it plays ALL TYPES OF MOVIES. And this weekend they played the silent film L'Argent with a live orchestra. The experience was ... interesting. I wouldn't say the movie would ever be a favorite. It's based on a novel by Emile Zola (although looking at the synopsis of the novel on wikipedia the movie takes significant liberties with the plot) and it struck me as a very polemic-type, "GREED IS BAD" movie. The characters aren't as cypher-like as the characters in The Birth of a Nation or The Battleship Potemkin (heck, I don't think the latter HAS characters) but sometimes I felt I never really grew to like the characters but instead grew used to them because I'd been with them for three hours.
The music made up for it, though. I actually sort of spent the first couple of minutes of the movie with the wide-eyed, open-mouthed squee cloud face, just excited when it really hit me athat real live people were playing along with the movie. Then I had trouble keeping attention on the screen because I wanted to see what they were doing. Mid-way through I realized I didn't like the characters and grew a little tired, but other musical cues brought me back again. They also used a few homemade sound effects, which was cool.
The head of the orchestra/piano player said the music was taken from a library of music usually used as the soundtrack of films in the silent era. So while he didn't write the music, he did put it together in a score, picking out a main theme of the movie and using other pieces for more cheerful sections. He said the process of picking out music for a movie takes him about a week, which is amazing, although the people who did it at the time usually just had two days as a new movie would play at a house every week. That's kind of cool.
I really liked how the theater tried to replicate the experience of the time. In addition to the orchestra, they also used regular, not digital projection - except for the subtitles - and they had a curtain that would cover and unveil the screen. Yet the theater was in a very modern architectural style and the curtain was made of these very sharp shapes, not velvet with trim, so that was an interesting contrast. XD
Overall, if you can get an experience like this, GO FOR IT. Although I don't know if I would watch the movie again. It had some great performances (the heroine, played by Mary Glory, made the best faces) but I'm not sure I'd watch it again.