Trains, Trains, Trains
| Nov ’09 |
| 4 |
| 8:30 pm |
Inspired by the Futurist love of trains, this film program includes the gorgeously lyrical train station short Impressions of Life #1: Railway Station Rhythms (1933), the beautiful Play of Reflections and Speed (1925), by “pure cinema” leader Henri Chomette, and The Steel Beast (1935) a stylistically daring German film paying tribute to the Nurmburg-Furth railroad line, and later banned by the Third Reich for “decadent aesthetics.”
WED NOV 4th SCREENING: a special introduction by SVA Theater Director and owner of “The Steel Beast” GENE STAVIS!
FILM DETAILS
Impressions of Life #1: Railway Station Rhythms (Impressioni di vita #1: Ritmi di stazione)
Dir. Corrado D’Errico, Italy, 1933
B&W, silent, 10 min
Gorgeous documentary depicting a day in the “iron world”—a railway station—by intermingling the repetitive motions of machines with the mechanisms of human behavior.
Play of Reflections and Speed (Jeux des reflets de la vitesse)
Dir. Henri Chomette, France, 1925
B&W, silent, 6 min
A beautiful montage of sped-up shots taken from moving trains and boats, highlighting the play of light and motion through superimpositions, upside down camerawork, and other experimental techniques, made by Chomette, brother of Rene Clair and a leader of the French “pure cinema” movement.
The Steel Beast
Dir. Willy Otto Zielke, Germany, 1935
B&W, sound, 75 min
Daring collage of rhythms, abstractions, superimpositions, and wild shots of the railroad and other machines, made by the great German photographer Zielke, that was originally commissioned to celebrate the centennial of the Nuremburg-Furth railroad line, and later banned by the Third Reich for “decadent aesthetics.” Special thanks to Gene Stavis.
Total running time: 91 min
Presented by Performa. Curated by Lana Wilson. Part of “The Polyexpressive Symphony: Futurism on Film.”
Nov. 4, 8:30pm
Nov. 11, 8:30pm
Tickets: $9 / $7 Students, Seniors, and Children / $6 Performa and AFA Members, available at the door.
About “The Polyexpressive Symphony: Futurism on Film”
Although very little remains of early Italian avant-garde cinema, this film program will showcase several groundbreaking films from the 1910s, 20s, and 30s indebted to the Futurist movement, which declared that film was “the expressive medium most adapted to the complex sensibility of a Futurist artist.” Artists to be featured include Marcel Fabre (Italy), Henri Chomette (France), Willy Otto Zielke (Germany), Eugene Deslaw (Ukraine), and Corrado D’Errico (Italy). The program will also present poetic Italian shorts documenting the rise of the mechanical age, rare early science-fiction films, and the US premiere of the only surviving full-length Futurist film, “Thais” (1916), a melodramatic love story made by Anton Giulio Bragaglia. Most of the screenings will feature live piano accompaniment by acclaimed composer/pianist Pete Drungle, and a special screening of “March of the Machines” (1929) as part of the Man and Machine program on Nov. 11 will feature a live performance inspired by its original score, by Futurist composer Luigi Russolo, on a reconstructed intonarumori, or Futurist noise machine.
Other Programs in “The Polyexpressive Symphony: Futurism on Film”
Nov 3 & 9 at 7 PM: The Futurist Canon (with live accompaniment by composer/pianist Pete Drungle and an introduction by Columbia University art historian and film scholar Noam Elcott Nov 3 and introduction by scholar of Italian avant-garde movements John Picchione Nov 9)
Nov 3 & 9 at 9 PM: Futurist-Related Performance on Film (with live accompaniment by composer/pianist Pete Drungle)
Nov 4 & 11 at 7 PM: Man and Machine (with live accompaniment by composer/pianist Pete Drungle and a special performance by Luciano Chessa Nov 11)
