FM-A092-2011

The Alloy Orchestra Plays: Wild and Weird

Video

DVD

F&MS

No

Available

14 Fascinating and Innovative Films, 1902-1965 Here are fourteen exciting short films some favorites, others unfamiliar produced between 1902 and 1965. They were photographed silent, but they re not silent anymore. All boast new music composed and performed by the Alloy Orchestra, a three-man ensemble that critic Roger Ebert has called the best in the world at accompanying silent films. Alloy Orchestra shuns the nostalgic approach, successfully using found percussion and state-of-the-art electronics to reinvigorate films for new audiences with its unique sound, heard here in a spectacular variety of styles. Following the success of the 2008 3-disc DVD publication SAVED FROM THE FLAMES, the digitally mastered materials in this new collection are sourced from high quality prints from around the world, offering wonder, laughter, absurdity, charm, and whimsy. They represent many genres and styles, including trick films, hand drawn as well as stop-motion animation, classic comedy, and avant-garde and surrealist surprises. Following D. W. Griffith s curtain raiser Those Awful Hats from 1909, the program proceeds in chronological order with many of the shorts separated by vintage hand-painted slides created for use in movie theaters a century ago. The selections are A Trip to the Moon (by Georges Melies, with his original English narration), Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (Edwin S. Porter), The Red Spectre (Segundo de Chomon) The Acrobatic Fly (Percy Smith), The Thieving Hand and Princess Nicotine (Vitagraph Studios), Artheme Swallows His Clarinet (Eclipse Films), The Cameraman s Revenge (Ladislas Starewicz), The Pet (Winsor McCay), The Play House (Buster Keaton, in a beautiful copy with all original titles), Filmstudie (Hans Richter), The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra (Robert Florey, Slavko Vorkapich and Gregg Toland), and Clay, or the Origin of Species (Eliot Noyes, Jr.). If you don t know anything about the first 70 years of cinema, or even if you are an expert, share the enthusiasm and enjoy the revelations of this entertaining collection. Engaging films never grow old, and with Alloy s music, the films on this DVD certainly haven t aged at all! As an added bonus, the DVD features a short film by David Davidson documenting The Alloy Orchestra in a recording session for one of the films in this collection, as well as a printed DVD booklet of individual film annotations.