The lyrical tone is set from the start with the opening shots of a dawn train journey towards the city. With Karl Freund’s masterly camerawork and the film’s assured editing, BERLIN was hugely successful on its release, and that rarity - a film both popular and avant garde.
REFLEKTOR: JAN KOPINSKI (saxophones) STEVE ILIFFE (keyboards) will present a live soundtrack.
Kopinski and Iliffe have a long musical partnership which ranges from cult contemporary jazz group PINSKI ZOO to film inspired music and live soundtracks (Earth, The Seashell and the Clergyman).
In this vivid snapshot of Berlin life, a trip to the countryside reveals the flirtations, rivalries, jealousies and petty irritations common to any group outing. All too soon it is the end of the day, and the prospect of Monday looms, and the return to the weekday routine.
The stunning images of Berlin’s streets and the woods and lake which provide a respite from the demands of the city, were captured by a strong production team that knew Berlin well from personal experience. PEOPLE ON SUNDAY marked the start of the film careers of a number of cinéastes who would go on to great international success including Billy Wilder, Robert and Curt Siodmak and Fred Zinnemann.
Leading piano accompanist Neil Brand, Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music, will perform a live soundtrack to the film.
Joris Iven’s RAIN (1929) - an evocative impression of a shower of rain in Amsterdam -features as part of this unusual programme exploring the links between music and film in both historic and current experimental work.
The bold and poetic short films in the programme include the classics RAIN and Man Ray’s RETOUR A LA RAISON together with brand new work from contemporary film-makers Gary Ward and Zara Matthews. Each is presented with a live musical accompaniment.
“In a rare joint airing of Hanns Eisler’s Fourteen Ways of Describing Rain and Joris Ivens’s film documentary on rain (Regen, 1929), Eisler’s clouded musical reflections on these watery images were atmospheric and ultimately moving.“ Lynne Walker, INDEPENDENT
£10, £6 CONCS
The films will be accompanied live on piano and clarinets by The Sound & Light Cinematic Duo (Russia/UK). These two leading figures in the world of Jewish music perform live as musicians would have done in the early days of cinema. Drawing on the deep experience of their cultural backgrounds and on the style and repertoire of Klezmer and Soviet music, they retain the essence and vibrancy of early Yiddish film.