Tweet Silver Spring, MD: THE WIND (1928)

[silentfilm]

http://www.afi.com/silver/films/2012/v9i2/silentcinema.aspx

THE WIND
Live musical accompaniment: World premiere of original score by Andrew Simpson for chamber ensemble and chorus, featuring the Cantate Chamber Singers

Best remembered for his lead performance in Ingmar Bergman's WILD STRAWBERRIES, Swedish director Victor Sjöström was one of silent cinema's greatest filmmakers. THE WIND is the best of several excellent films he made during his sojourn in Hollywood, as "Victor Seastrom." Lillian Gish gives a haunting performance as a Southern belle from Virginia living with family in the West Texas desert, where the harsh wind never stops blowing, shifting the sands and threatening to erase those brave or foolish enough to live there. Gish must choose between two suitors, courtly Lars Hanson and roughhewn Montagu Love, whose dueling attentions unleash surprising depths of passion from within her.

DIR Victor Sjöström; SCR Frances Marion, from the novel by Dorothy Scarborough. US, 1928, b&w, 75 min. Silent with live accompaniment. NOT RATED

About the Cantate Chamber Singers
One of the Washington region's most critically acclaimed chamber choruses, the Cantate Chamber Singers are a 30-voice auditioned vocal ensemble devoted to artistically exciting performances of distinctive choral music and to promoting awareness of the choral art (for more information, visit www.cantate.org).
No passes accepted.Tickets $15/$12 AFI Members
Sat, Jun 9, 3:00

I attended this screening yesterday and was really impressed by Andrew's score, which was ambitious and challenging and very effective.

I'd never had a chance to experience silent film accompanied by live choral singing (along with a chamber ensemble and Andrew on theater organ), so it was worth the trip for that alone. But to see 'The Wind' with a nearly full house, a good 35mm print, and first-class live music was about as good as it gets.

Thanks to Andrew and everyone else who clearly put in a lot of work to make Saturday's screening seem so effortless. Let's hope there's a chance that the score gets heard again in other venues.

Also, the AFI theater in Silver Spring, Maryland has great facilities for film screening and an eye-popping interior to boot. If you're in the D.C. area, make going there a regular habit!

In New Hampshire, I'm used to playing for films in nursing home rec rooms and middle school assembly halls. What a thrill to see a screen with masking that automatically adjusts to the proper aspect ratio as a film starts!

I gotta get out more.