Chicago Cinema Forum

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CHICAGO CINEMA FORUM and SONOTHEQUE present:

CITY SYMPHONIES
MODERNITY IN THE METROPOLIS:
PARIS, BERLIN & NEW YORK

Tuesday, January 29

Sonotheque
1444 W. Chicago / 312.226.7600

Doors at 7:30pm / Films begin at 8:30pm

Chicago Cinema Forum & Sonotheque present cinematic treasures showcasing the rise of the emerging modern metropolis.

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PART 1:

PARIS QUI DORT aka PARIS ASLEEP (1924)
Directed by Rene Clair

Live musical accompaniment by Marc Hellner of
pulseprogramming and Chanel Pease!

> Program Details <

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PART 2:

BERLIN – SYMPHONY OF A GREAT CITY (1927)
Directed by Walter Ruttman

Live musical accompaniment composed and performed by Sons of Magdalene (Josh Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv)!

> Program Details <

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PART 3:

SKYSCRAPPER SYMPHONY (1929) by Robert Florey
A BRONX MORNING (1931) by Jay Leyda
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS (1940) by Rudy Burckhardt

Music composed and performed by Estesombelo

Readings by Marc Giordano of:
Robert Walser’s “Good Morning Giantess!” (1907)
Joseph Roth’s “The Resurrection” (1923)

> Program Details <

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All films DVD projection

Film introduction by Gabe Klinger of the Chicago Cinema Forum

Doors open at 7:30pm / Films begin at 8:30pm

$10 cover

This event is 21+

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PROGRAM DETAILS:

"Not to find one's way in a city may well be uninteresting
and banal. It requires ignorance -- nothing more. But to lose
oneself in a city -- as one loses oneself in a forest -- that calls
for a quite different schooling. Then, signboard and street
names, passers-by, roofs, kiosks, or bars must speak to the
wanderer like a cracking twig under his feet in the forest."
- Walter Benjamin

The startling and continuing impact of modernization in urban development beginning in the 19th century, with its combination of mathematical precision and organic outgrowth, has altered the focus of the world from that of the country to that of the city. With the renovation of Paris by Baron Haussmann that transformed 60% of the streets and buildings of the still-medieval city to one that fused modern technology with the needs of a rising bourgeoisie, the city was refashioned physically and technologically into the social and economic center of France. Similar occurrences and shifts took place globally, from Berlin, New York, Tokyo, Moscow and Rio de Janeiro.

During this metamorphosis cinema emerged conjunctionally with the modernized metropolis and cast its gaze on the altering cityscape and its influence. From its earliest days, film-makers as varied as August & Louis Lumiere (France), Robert W. Paul (England), Thomas Edison (U.S.), Peter Elfert (Denmark) and Inabata Katsutaro (Japan) documented both the evolving private and the public lives of societies; its shifting landscapes and individual rituals. By the 1920’s, both the city and cinema had evolved into the epicenters of modern culture and each reflecting in its own way the nature and pulse of society.

To show the influence/confluence of the city and cinema Chicago Cinema Forum and Sonotheque are screening 5 films that interpret and document the changes and impressions of the movement toward modernity in the emerging metropolis. The films selected are . . .

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Part 1:

PARIS QUI DORT aka PARIS ASLEEP (1924)
Directed by Rene Clair

Part of the French avant-garde, Rene Clair infused his work with satiric and surrealistic touches while at the same time constantly experimenting with the medium itself (see also his second film “Entr’Acte” (1924) for similar cinematic inventions). One of the earliest “last person on earth cinema” (predating “I Am Legend” by some 80+ years), “Paris Qui Dort” concerns itself with a group of unsuspecting individuals who awake in Paris finding its citizens immobile like statues and themselves quickly overtaken by ennui. Although viewing the depopulated and quiet city as a veritable playpen; the survivors succumb to quarrels and boredom and seek out means to return Paris to its original hustle and bustle.

Music composed and performed by Marc Hellner of pulseprogramming and Chanel Pease:

Pease, pianist and harpist and Hellner combine classical and ambient styles to create an expressive and moody backdrop to compliment the images. Marc Hellner has scored various films including "Play" by Alicia Scherson which went on to win a Tribeca Film Festival award and many others worldwide. This will be the third installment of composition scored for silent film by Chanel Pease.

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PART 2:

BERLIN – SYMPHONY OF A GREAT CITY (1927)
Directed by Walter Ruttman

Known primarily as an abstract filmmaker (Opus I, II, III and IV), Walter Ruttmann directed this impressionistic film capturing a spring day in the life of modern Berlin from dawn to midnight. Paralleling some devices used by Soviet filmmaker Dzigo Vertov (who later made the influential “Man With A Movie Camera”), Ruttmann shot the film by over a year in time by utilizing movie cameras concealed in vans and suitcases to get more realistic effects. Based on an idea by Karl Freund (who co-wrote the script for both Robert Wiene’s “Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari” and F. W. Murnau’s “Sunrise”) “Berlin – Symphony of a Great City” offers a snapshot of people at work and play, from man and machine and back again. Like his previous films, this city symphony shows Ruttmann’s interest in the dynamism of movement and shape without any apparent social nature. Critics such as Siegfried Kracauer and documentary film-maker John Grierson felt that Ruttmann had emphasized the visually dramatic at the expense of the human element. However, the film remains essentially true to its belief about what makes a work filmic; especially one dealing with something so non-conventionally non-narrative.

Music composed and performed by Sons of Magdalene
(Josh Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv):

Telefon Tel Aviv is a Chicago-based electronic music group (relocated from New Orleans in 2001) primarily known for their work in the intelligent dance music (IDM) genre. Formed in 1999 by Charles Cooper and Joshua Eustis, their first album was released in the fall of 2001 to positive reviews. In 2002 they released an EP under the Hefty Records Immediate Action label. 2004 saw the release of the duo's second full-length album and in 2007 the released a compilation album of remixes appropriately titled "Remixes Compiled". Telefon Tel Aviv is currently in the studio working on their third full-length LP. Son of Magdalene is Josh’s current solo project.

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PART 3:

SKYSCRAPPER SYMPHONY (1929) by Robert Florey

Florey, who began his career in France as a screenwriter and director of short films, immigrated to the United States working as assistant director to Joseph von Sternberg and others. His Hollywood directorial work includes such diverse pieces as the first Marx Brothers’ movie “The Coconuts” (1929), “Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1932), which was filmed by famed cinematographer Karl Freund (who also worked on “Berlin – Symphony of a Great City”) and the first Hollywood film dealing with the Vietnam War “Rogues Regiment (1948) starring Dick Powell and Vincent Price.

Working in Hollywood gave Florey the opportunity to create some of America’s first experimental shorts – “The Life and Death of 9413 – A Hollywood Extra”, “Johann the Coffin Maker” and “The Loves of Zero” (all 1928). He followed this more personal work with the equally ambitions “Skyscraper Symphony”. Like Karl Freund who ended his career in television (Freund developing for the “I Love Lucy” series the simultaneous 3-camera system primarily used today for shooting sitcoms), Florey worked on such series like “The Loretta Young Show”.

A BRONX MORNING (1931) by Jay Leyda

Born in Detroit in 1910, Leyda was known primarily for his scholarship in Russian and Chinese cinema and also as a film maker, photographer, archivist, translator and professor of cinema studies at New York University. His first film “A Bronx Morning” led to his acceptance to the Moscow State Film School in 1933 where he studied directing with Sergei Eisenstein who he later worked as photographer during the making of “Bezhin Meadow” (1937), supposedly destroyed in a bombing raid during WWII. He helped to expand MOMA’s film collection and authored numerous pamphlets and books on film including such seminal works as “Kino, A History of the Russian and Soviet Film” (1960) and “Eisenstein at Work” (1980).

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS (1940) by Rudy Burckhardt

Born in Switzerland, Burckhardt worked as a painter, photographer and film maker. One of the earliest time-lapse photographers he also experimented with painting on images projected onto canvas. His other film work include “See Naples and …”, “Doldrums” (all with “Pursuit of Happiness” examine moments in the life in a busy metropolis) and “Caterpillar”, a 1 minute time-lapse view of a day-long journey by an inchworm.

Music composed and performed by Estesombelo:

Estesombelo is an experimental/ambient group from Chicago that performs frequently at art galleries, music venues, and exhibitions. They have collaborated with such artists as Sylvain Chauveau and Chanel Pease; performed at such venues as the Empty Bottle; opened for such bands as Charalambides (Kranky) and Zelienople (Type); and played exhibitions such as the Speaker Project in the Hyde Park Art Center. They have three completed albums, 'Oppida Von Ataraxia' which clocks in over sixty minutes in length, the single track piece 'eye-oe' which runs nearly twenty-six minutes, and 'Cultivar' that was conceived at the University of DePaul's studios. Estesombelo is in the process of creating new pieces for live performances as well as additional recordings.

Included in the event will be 2 readings preceding Parts 2 and 3 from local poet Marc Giordano. Marc Giordano's works include "Voluptuous Patio", "Invention: The Cloud Machines" and "Detective Twilight". He has collaborated with visual artist Ray Martin and performed various readings. The pieces featured will include Robert Walser’s “Good Morning Giantess!” (1907) and Joseph Roth’s “The Resurrection” (1923). Both of the pieces are considered “feuliletons”, short literary compositions that were included in newspapers or magazines devoted to material designed to entertain the general reader. Both were radical writers who drew their inspiration from the post WWI period, a time of the dissolution of long-standing monarchies toward the movement that culminated sadly with National Socialism.

The various screenings will be preceded and followed by selections of Berlin theatre and cabaret music from the Weimar period. Music, selected by Joe Bryl will range from works by Kurt Weill, Ralph Benatzky, Werner Richard Heymann, Friedrich Hollaender, Rudolf Nelson, and Mischa Spoliansky.

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CONTACT:
X
info@chicagocinemaforum.org
X
(312) 480-1966

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