Thursday, 28. November 2013
The Arts in Silent Film
Filmpodium, Zurich
www.filmpodium.ch
The 2013/2014 season will be dedicated to the arts in silent film. On the occasion of its second stint as visiting institute at the Filmpodium the IOIC will be showing six early films, each dealing with film, theatre, music, literature, cabaret and the visual arts. The series will be opened by a gem of Spanish provenance: Nemesio M. Sobrevilas’ EL SEXTO SENTIDO (Spain 1929) surreally approaches a trope that has been recurring since the early days of cinema - the film within the film. The Shakespeare adaptation with Asta Nielsen in the lead role as a female Hamlet (Germany 1921) adds another twist to the famous play-within-the play scene by introducing staged masculinity. Both silent film pearls will be shown in newly restored 35 mm copies and with exceptional live musical performances.
yosai (Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Guitar, Bass, Drums)
Spanish silent film El sexto sentido by Basque director Nemesio M. Sobrevila may well only be known to a small community of film enthusiasts. Among these, however, it has cult status – not least because of the film’s underlying idea of cinema as a medium equipped with a sixth sense not normally accessible to human beings. This meta-cinematographic starting point is summed up in one of the film’s intertitles: “Despite numerous philosophical systems we do not know the truth. In order to know it we must complement our incomplete senses with the precision of mechanics.“
The yosai quartet knows no clear rules, arrangements or agreements but lets true improvisation take its course. And yet a rousing pulse drives through the music that pulls you along and invites you to follow the spectacle on screen and stage. This builds up an architecture of beautiful, wide landscapes, complex rhythmic towers and explosive structures, whose musical images are refined by compositional miniatures.