iconauta

Sailing through Silent Cinema

[iconauta]

The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) Jean Epstein | New Original Soundtrack

The Fall of the House of Usher ( original French title: La Chute de la Maison Usher ) is a film written and directed by Jean Epstein in 1928. It is an emblematic work of French Impressionism that already foreshadows the rising Surrealism.

The screenplay was written by Luis Buñuel , who intertwined the main plot of Edgar Allan Poe ’s short story of the same name with themes and suggestions from other works by the author, such as The Oval Portrait and Ligeia.

Being a silent film, The Fall of the House of Usher did not possess a recorded soundtrack. Epstein, a theorist of photogénie and visual rhythm, conceived the editing as a true musical score, where the rhythm was dictated by images rather than notes. The film abounds with sequences in which the director suggests auditory impressions through the visual; this is particularly evident in the scene where Roderick Usher plays the guitar (14:27).

It is from this synesthetic intuition that the challenge of reconstructing the soundtrack we present today was born, composed by Andrei Poliakov , ‪Andrei Poliakov and performed by him together with the violin of Ivan Dolgunov‬ . The leitmotif of this composition is the famous Libertango by Astor Piazzolla which, in the version reworked and arranged by Poliakov and Dolgunov, adds to the dreamlike and impressionistic atmospheres of the film that touch of surrealism that, perhaps, belonged to it all along.

In addition to the screenplay, Luis Buñuel worked on the film as an assistant director, but left the set shortly before the end of filming, apparently due to conflicts with Epstein regarding the stylistic direction of the work; we do not know how much of the original screenplay was subsequently modified by the director. It is often cited among the best cinematic adaptations of all time.

Synopsis .(00:57) Summoned by his childhood friend Roderick Usher (Jean Debucourt), who is worried about his wife's health, Allan (Charles Lamy) travels to visit him in his gloomy and decaying mansion.

Allan finds his friend feverishly intent on painting the portrait of his wife: Lady Madeleine (Marguerite Gance). Usher is so consumed by his work (16:56) that he does not notice that the more the portrait comes to life, the more his lady withers away.

When the work is finally complete, Madeleine’s body lies lifeless on the floor (27:06). (35:00) Her body is carried to a crypt in the surrounding marsh.

But Roderick is convinced that his bride is not dead, only sleeping. Madeleine will return on a stormy night (55:11) as lightning strikes the desolate manor, causing its collapse.

To compose the visual rhythm of his film, Epstein makes frequent use of slow motion, double exposures, and frames that are entirely or partially out of focus—images that do not narrate, but evoke: emotions, sounds, sensations. The black and white images of the interiors alternate with blue-tinted shots of the exteriors: color is also used by Epstein for rhythmic and expressive purposes. To generically define this film as a horror would be reductive, as would associating it solely with German Expressionism. The Fall of the House of Usher is, above all, a bridge between the first and second avant-gardes of French cinema. After the more realistic Finis Terrae , Jean Epstein would dedicate himself, in the era of sound, primarily to short films and documentaries.

[iconauta]

Some evocative frames from Jean Epstein's film The Fall of the House of Usher, which we will see at the premiere on Thursday the 30th, featuring the new and surreal soundtrack by ‪Andrei Poliakov‬ and ‪Ivan Dolgunov‬ . We look forward to seeing you there!

[iconauta]

[iconauta]

Faust (1926) F.W. Murnau

Faust (original German title: Faust – Eine deutsche Volkssage ) is a 1926 film written and directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. It was the last film Murnau shot in Germany and the last of his films that can be attributed to Expressionism. On the occasion of the Berlin premiere in 1926, the film was accompanied by orchestral music composed by Werner Richard Heymann. This edition of Faust is instead accompanied by the original soundtrack by Cinestesia

The plot is inspired by the famous History of Dr. Faust, well-known magician and necromancer (1587) by Johann Spies, into which Murnau weaves elements from the plays of Marlowe and Goethe. Far more than literary references, artistic ones take on greater importance. As a scholar and art connoisseur, Murnau draws inspiration from Flemish and Italian painters in composing his frames; it is possible to catch references to famous works in Faust : the feet of the plague victim reminiscent of those in Mantegna's Lamentation of Christ , and the resemblance, in these scenes, between Gretchen and Bernini's famous Ecstasy of Saint Teresa .

However, what gives the film the appearance of a pictorial masterpiece is, above all, the use of chiaroscuro, which Murnau learned from Caravaggio and Rembrandt to transfer it to cinematography.

Eric Rohmer wrote about this: "If Faust is the most pictorial of his films, it is because the conflict between shadow and light constitutes its subject." Light thus becomes the key to reading this work in every aspect, both aesthetic and symbolic.

[iconauta]

" 'If Faust is the most pictorial of his films, it is because the struggle between light and shadow constitutes its very subject.' These few frames alone are enough to prove Eric Rohmer right.

Faust—which we will present as a premiere next Thursday, featuring an original soundtrack by ‪@cinestesia.cinemamutodalvivo‬ —is a masterpiece of painting as much as it is of cinema.

[iconauta]

Ghosts Before Breakfast (1928) Hans Richter | OST by BIlli Brass Quintet

Ghosts Before Breakfast (original German title: Vormittagsspuk ) is a 1928 experimental avant-garde short film by Hans Richter. The sound copy of the film, featuring original music composed by Paul Hindemith, was destroyed by the Nazis, as we read in the opening caption (00:12). Ghosts Before Breakfast is accompanied here by the tracks Testaccio Suite - II. Russian Gallop   and Testaccio Suite - V American March  , taken from the album Ein Symphonischer Spass , composed by maestro David Short and performed by the Billi Brass Quintet.

Set in the ten-minute timeframe between 11:50 AM and noon, Ghosts Before Breakfast tells the brief and irrational rebellion of objects and things that refuse to be used for the purposes intended for them by bourgeois society: bow ties refuse to be tied, hats refuse to be caught, a fire hose melts and starts spraying water, while time flies forward, turns back, and collapses upon itself. Created four years after the dissolution of the Dada movement in Europe, Ghosts Before Breakfast still reveals its influence through its overt attack on the rational order of things. Hans Richter, who was deeply involved in Dada, would say:

"It is certain that the only movement I ever fully understood was the Dada movement, precisely because it meant nothing, claimed nothing, and promised nothing. It was a yes and a no at the same time, the perfect and absurd reality, the bipolar realm."

Mixing live-action footage and stop-motion animation, his film also reflects the tones of emerging surrealism, manipulating images with tricks such as accelerations and slow motion, negative-positive inversions, and split screens. Vormittagsspuk had its premiere on July 14, 1928, in Baden-Baden on the occasion of the Gesellschaft für Neue Musik music festival; during the screening, the music written by Paul Hindemith was performed by a mechanical piano. It was included among the films presented in 1929 at Film und Foto (FiFo) , for which Richter was responsible for the film section; it was subsequently presented in Vienna, Zurich, Zagreb, and in 1931 also in Japan, in the cities of Tokyo and Osaka.

Notes on this edition. "For some time I had been looking for suitable music for this short film by Richter, which I particularly love; listening to the album Ein Symphonischer Spass , I thought it might be the right one, and a single test was enough to be certain: music and images connected as if they were destined for each other, so much so that the composer himself, David Short, upon seeing a preview copy, wondered if I had somehow manipulated them to make them coincide so precisely: I only anticipated the start of American March by a fraction of a second so that it would begin with the next shot. Pure intuition? No, an idea I wouldn't have had if I hadn't been dealing with cinema, music, and their relationship for over twenty years. It's not so much about synchronism, but the correspondence of rhythm and tone; it is then our brain that associates sounds and images the very moment it captures them. Honestly, I have no idea what music Hans Richter and Paul Hindemith had in mind for Vormittagsspuk , but I couldn't imagine a better one now; I hope it's the same for you and that the Billi Brass will soon have the opportunity to perform it live.

[iconauta]

Two-Penny Magic (1929) Hans Richter

New Soundtrack by Mr.Ceppa

Two-Penny Magic (original German title: Zweigroschenzauber ) is an experimental short film by Hans Richter, created between 1928 and 1929.

Originally conceived as an advertisement for the fashion and lifestyle magazine Die Dame —highly popular in modernist Berlin during the 1920s—it evolved into an experiment in cinematic poetry. In this work, the rhythm of verses is replaced by the rhythm of editing, and rhymes become images that follow one another through visual analogies (graphic elements or camera movements).

In the opening credits (00:03), Richter defines it as "a commercial picture in rhymes" ("Ein Werbefilm in Bildreimen!"); his intent was to demonstrate that pure art could express itself even within a simple commercial film.

Two-Penny Magic had its official premiere in Stuttgart in May 1929, within the context of the historic exhibition Film und Foto (FiFo), for which Richter curated the film section.

Film und Foto (FiFo)

This playlist brings together the cinematic works presented at "Film und Foto" (FiFo), the landmark international exhibition organized by th

The film did not have an original soundtrack: for Richter, as for other experimental directors of the era, the rhythm of the images themselves was meant to compose the music. In this edition, curated by iconauta, Two-Penny Magic is accompanied by the track Sabs from the album Piis by Mr.Ceppa , whose obsessive and pressing rhythm and irreverent, almost Dadaist sounds, blend perfectly with the spirit of this work.

In addition to this and other films by Hans Richter , including Rhythmus 21 (1921), and the most representative and contemporary works of the German and French avant-garde of those years, films from the Soviet school were also screened during FiFo.

All these works shared the goal of establishing cinema and photography as recognized art forms and constructing a new language that went beyond simple representation of reality and narrative schemes. These intentions are clear not only in this film but in all the works Richter selected for FiFo.

[iconauta]

At the Hypnotist’s ( Chez le magnétiseur ) is a 1898 trick film produced by Gaumont and directed by Alice Guy.

The scene and the leading actor (whose name is unknown) are the same as those appearing in the following film:

Both films are clearly remakes of  The Vanishing Lady, which Georges Méliès had created less than two years earlier. The success of this and Méliès' subsequent "trick films" prompted other producers and directors to create similar works. Gaumont, with Alice Guy, was among the first to succeed, though certainly not the only one.

[iconauta]

[iconauta]

"I come from there, where I would fain return" says Beatrice to Virgil when she encounters him in Limbo, at the beginning of Canto II of the Inferno.

She does indeed return to that place—Paradise. In the Helios Film version, Beatrice vanishes just as Jehanne d'Alcy would have in a Méliès film; however, in the Milano Films version, she ascends to heaven thanks to a drone built into her halo.

[iconauta]

"The infernal hurricane that never rests / Hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine." Starting from these verses of Canto V of the Inferno, we continue our comparison between the two Italian films from 1911 inspired by Dante's work: the version by Helios Film (above) and the one by Milano Films (below).

[iconauta]

On March 25, 1300, Dante Alighieri began his journey into Hell accompanied by the poet Virgil. In 1911, two films based on his work were produced in Italy: one by Helios Film and the other, far more famous, by Milano Films. Here, I have compared the scene in which Dante and Virgil pass through the Gates of Hell, upon which the words are inscribed: 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.'

[iconauta]

The Puppet's Nightmare (1908) Émile Cohl

The Puppet's Nightmare (original French title: Le Cauchemar de Fantoche ) is a 1908 film by Émile Cohl. Fantoche is the name Cohl gives to his character, who previously appeared in Fantasmagorie.

The film revisits a theme dear to early cinema—that of night terrors—but it is not the tricks or special effects that amaze us, but rather the fluidity of the drawing that transforms Fantoche's dreamlike visions into a true visual stream of consciousness.

For this film as well, Cohl draws with India ink on white paper and then prints the film in negative to give the impression that his characters are drawn on a blackboard, much like in the cartoons of James Stuart Blackton. It is estimated that Cohl hand-drew between seven hundred and one thousand plates to create this short film.

Produced and distributed by Gaumont, The Puppet's Nightmare was released in French theaters in November 1908, almost simultaneously with  A Love Affair in Toyland , the film that completes the Fantoche trilogy.

Notes on this edition. The musical piece  Au fil de la nuit , taken from the album Filicordes, is by Eracilon. Digital restoration and special features by iconauta

[iconauta]

Buster Keaton and Sybil Seely in One Week

[iconauta]

A Love Affair in Toyland (1908) Émile Cohl

Love Affair in Toyland (French original title: Un drame chez les fantoches ) is a 1908 film by Émile Cohl, the third one he created.

It was produced and distributed by Gaumont. As in his previous works, Fantasmagorie and Le Cauchemar de Fantoche, here too Émile Cohl draws with pencil on white sheets and then projects the image in negative, giving the impression that his drawings are sketched on a blackboard, as seen in Humorous Phases of Funny Faces  (1906) by James S. Blackton.

The musical piece Traces, taken from the album Filicordes, is by Eracilon. Digital restoration and special features by iconauta

[iconauta]

Pyramids (1897) Alexandre Promio

Pyramids (Overview) (French: Les Pyramides (vues générale) is view number 381 in the Lumière Film Catalog. We are in Egypt, in the Necropolis of Giza, in the presence of the Sphinx and the Pyramid of Khafre, it is the first time in history that these monuments are filmed, it was Alexandre Promio who did it, on April 12, 1897. This view is followed by 382, which we add at the end (01:00), and which filmed on the same day, shows visitors descending from the Pyramid of Khafre.

[iconauta]

"I resolve never to drink anymore..."