The Fort Worth Lone Star Film Society (LSFS) stays busy. One of the many new initiatives under the LSFS umbrella is Arthouse FW, which partners with Fort Worth's world-class museums to present silent films with live music creating an authentic experience.
"Silent Sundays presents the visionaries of early cinema who pioneered film and narrative techniques, shifting movies from a simple means of entertainment to a serious artistic medium," marketing and publicity manager Andrew Young said.
Whether it is a piano soloist or a band, the musician has the power to interpret the movie and create the musical scores accordingly.
But why would one go to silent film when we have the option of being overly stimulated in a modern theatre?
The Amon Carter Museum archivist Jon Frembling attended and loved every minute of his experience at the first Silent Sunday showing of SUNRISE. He said without the bombardment of sound effects and dialogue, he was able to really enjoy the visuals and imagery of the film.
He offered great examples. In the beginning of the Pixar film Wall-E, moviegoers only had music and visuals as the adorable robot goes about his day in a wasteland of trash. The music moves us as he explores, and we are left uninterrupted. The Pixar film Up has a love scene between the elderly main character and his deceased wife that is void of dialogue yet filled with moving music. The images tell the whole story.
"The live music accompaniment really changed my perspective of the film," Frembling said.
Historically, this is how movies were enjoyed in the early 1900s. Every time someone attended the movies they heard a different musical interpretation of the same film.
"It is a nostalgic event," LSFS director Alec Jhangiani said about Silent Sundays.
The idea is to bring people together and get them talking about film in the context of history. It creates a community around the art of film. Jhangiani said when people watch movies today, it can be a private experience, but when they come to a live musical performance, they are with fellow film and music lovers. This sparks conversations and creates a sense of community.
"If you add love music, you may get people out of the house and bring people together to have a conversation," Jhangiani said.
The Silent Sundays film series started Feb. 16 with the 1927 film SUNRISE, which won an academy award in 1929. Classical pianist Robert Edwards accompanied the film, and the attendance for this new initiative far exceeded LSFS's expectations.
"To contextualize past films in their history is to understand current films," Jhangiani said. Within this silent film series, director of programming Will Grella picks films that are significant contributions to film history.
"Each filmmaker presented in Silent Sundays has a unique place in the history of cinema because of their contribution to the craft. As a film society, the LSFS believes it is important to highlight these contributions as a way to revisit the founders of modern cinema and help bring their work to light in a new context," Young said in a press release.
While the Kimbell Art Museum has its own exhibitions, the Silent Sunday film series is like a mini-exhibition in itself. Like paintings, patrons will experience culture, history, and moving art with musical craft.
"It is a really good crossroads for the exhibition of cinema in a museum setting and the contextualization of the film with the light and music component. Musicians are coming in and applying their unique vision of the film. The film becomes a whole different animal," Young said.
