Thirty
Years of Film at International House
FILM
WITH LIVE SCORE - Screening movies
with a live soundtrack is a staple of Film
@ International House programming. From Phantom
of the Opera to The Valerie Project, we seek
to expand the film-going experience by adding
newly composed music to classic and contemporary
films. We once again merge these two elements
into one fantastic evening of sight and sound.
Saturday,
February 9 at 8pm
Aelita,
Queen of Mars - Philadelphia Premiere
dir.
Yakov Protazanov, Russia, 1924, video, 100
mins, b/w, silent w/ English intertitles
Live
Score by Gene Coleman for Theremin, performed
by Ensemble Noamensia
with
guest artist Anthony Jay Ptak, theremin and
Ensemble Noamnesia - Gene Coleman, bass clarinet;
Marina Peterson, cello; Jason Calloway, cello;
Alban Bailey, guitar + accordion; Dustin Hurt,
trumpet + accordion; Evan Lipson, double bass
A
classic of Soviet cinema, Aelita, Queen
of Mars follows radio engineer Los from
Moscow to Mars and back again. After receiving
a message from space, Los begins to wonder
who sent it while Aelita watches him through
a telescope. Once on Mars and with the support
of Queen Aelita, Los leads a popular uprising
against her father the king. Switching action
from Russia to Mars, Aelita’s message
may not be as revolutionary as it seems. It
is not about Mars but life in Russia. While
very popular at first, the film later fell
out of favor with the Soviet government and
was thus very difficult to see until after
the Cold War period.
Aelita,
Queen of Mars is presented with live
music created by Philadelphia composer Gene
Coleman, performed by Ensemble Noamnesia and
features the Theremin, an electronic instrument
invented in the early 20th century, which
many people are familiar with from its use
in music for sci-fi films of the 1950s.
Gene
Coleman is a composer, musician and artistic
director. He has created over 50 works for
various instrumentation, often-using complex
notations and improvisation in the same score.
Founded by composer Coleman in Chicago in
1987, Ensemble Noamnesia consists of about
10 musicians who work on a project-by-project
basis in Philadelphia , Chicago and New York
. Many of the players come from a classical
music background, but are equally versed in
new types of interpretation and sound production,
as well as improvisation. Over the years a
stellar cast of international guest artists
have worked with them, including Jim O'Rourke,
Helmut Lachenmann, Otomo Yoshihide, Luc Ferrari,
George Crumb and many others.
