http://www.idahostatesman.com/life/story/282792.html
February 02, 2008
Celebrate the era of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton
Separate events in the coming week celebrate the era of Charlie
Chaplin and Buster Keaton
If aliens (or out-of-town earthlings, for that matter) were to visit
Boise over the next seven days, they easily could conclude that the
city has a serious jones for silent movies.
Three silent film events will take place between Sunday and Friday.
First is a Family Afternoon of Silent Comedies, a fundraiser for
Treasure Valley Community Television's Channel 11, Sunday at Boise
State University.
Then, the Treasure Valley Youth Symphony will hold its sixth annual
Musical Movies Project Thursday at the Egyptian Theatre in Boise. The
performance is the symphony's main fundraiser for the year.
That will be followed by the Nell Shipman Film Festival Friday at the
Egyptian. The purpose of the festival, in addition to showcasing the
work of Shipman, an Idaho silent filmmaker, is to endow a Boise State
scholarship in her name.
All three screenings will feature live music accompaniment - just as
silent films had in their heyday, long before movie theaters were
equipped with thunderous sound systems.
For movie buffs, it is a rare alignment of silent film stars such as
Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy.
"The chances of this are like lightning striking someone twice," said
Peter Lutze, Boise State associate professor of communication and a
TVCTV board member. "I've been here 20 years, and there have been
maybe 10 times you could see silent movies."
Sit back, relax and get ready for a healthy dose of slapstick and
drama.
FAMILY-FRIENDLY FILMS
Sunday's Family Afternoon of Silent Comedies is just that - five
classic movies chosen with kids of all ages in mind.
Chaplin stars in "The Tramp," Keaton in "The Balloonatic" and "Cops,"
and Laurel and Hardy in "Big Business" and "The Music Box." The films
will be screened on rare 35 mm and 16 mm prints.
Johann Vargas, a Boise State alum and piano teacher at Rivendell Music
Academy in Eagle, will provide live piano accompaniment.
Vargas has composed original music for the event and also will perform
ragtime classics.
Lutze, who organized the event with the help of BSU's student video
production club, Dead Eight Productions, fell in love with silent
films while teaching in Japan in 1970, then later got his sons hooked.
"I took my own sons to see silent films at the Egyptian when they were
small and wanted other families to be able to experience the magic of
these classic works by the comic geniuses of early cinema," he said.
With their penchant for silliness, silent movies are an easy sell with
kids, Lutze said.
"It's a very physical and visual comedy," he said. "So much of the
comedy is exaggerated, it's almost like cartoons."
ORCHESTRATING SILENCE
Conducting a youth orchestra while keeping an eye on a movie screen
is, not surprisingly, "very hard," said Treasure Valley Youth Symphony
conductor and artistic director David Saunders.
The symphony never performs pre-existing pieces for the "Musical
Movies Project," instead relying on new works written specifically for
the event. One thing Saunders has learned at the helm of the Musical
Movies Project is that it is helpful to have music composed for the
same movie that is going to be shown to an audience.
He learned the hard way one year. The symphony had commissioned a
British composer to score music for a film. But Saunders was unaware
that in England, silent films are shown at a slightly different speed
than they are in America.
The composer, naturally, wrote music for the British version of the
film. Then, when the symphony practiced the piece, Saunders realized
the music was out of sync with the movie.
Even when a movie is playing at the right speed, performing to a film
is a fun challenge for young musicians, Saunders said.
"The students learn how careful they have to be paying attention to
tempo," he said. "We have to be on our toes."
IDAHO'S MAID OF SILENT FILM
There are two people linking the Musical Movies Project and the Nell
Shipman Film Festival: Shipman herself and silent film composer and
accompanist Ben Model.
Let's start with Shipman (1892-1970), a little-known Idaho legend of
silent film who eschewed the slapstick of Chaplin and Keaton movies
for dramatic works featuring heroic women in the outdoor splendor of
northern Idaho and eastern Washington.
"She was an indie before Sundance," said Tom Trusky, BSU English
professor, Hemingway Western Studies Center director and head of the
Idaho Film Collection. "She believed in local shooting, not studio
back lots or soap detergent snowstorms."
A Shipman film, "The Light on Lookout," will be part of the Thursday's
Musical Movies Project. So will Model, who also is performing at
Friday's Nell Shipman Film Festival.
In both cases, Model, the Museum of Modern Art's silent film
accompanist, will be playing the Egyptian Theatre's famed organ, one
of a few original theater organs still in operation in the United
States. Not even New York City, where Model lives, has an original
working theater organ.
Model composed scores for three movies showing at the Musical Movies
Project as well as "The Grub-Stake," which will be screened at the
Shipman festival.
He will play the Egyptian organ during a screening of Fatty Arbuckle's
"Love."
The goal of performing music for a silent film, Model said, is to
support the on-screen action, whether it's the rhythm and flow of a
physical gag or something with a more dramatic flare, such as
Shipman's work.
In composing a piece, Model develops a few leitmotifs, or themes, that
he weaves together with improvisation during the performance, being
mindful of the vibe of the audience and careful not to draw attention
away from the movie.
"Each silent film showing is a unique experience," he said. "The key
is to take the film as seriously as the people who made it. When the
lights go off, I'm working for them."
Chad Dryden: 672-6734