Dziga Vertov's 'A Man With A Movie Camera' re-scored, will it live up to expectations?
The latest show from the Cinematic Orchestra consists of the band playing their newly composed score for Dziga Vertov's classic silent film 'Man With A Movie Camera' whilst it plays on the screen behind them. Sounds exciting don't it? Well if you've a love or even just a knowledge of the film and it's original score then I'm certain you'd be intrigued as I most definitely was.
So, they introduce themselves and then are silent as the classic scenes of the cinema seats unfolding by themselves flash on the movie screen, eventually as the action of the picture starts to kick in so do they, playing rather normal jazz which seems to slowly build creating a sense of something big and grand approaching...
But it doesn't, there's actually little relation whatsoever between the visuals and the sound, both on their own are compelling and interesting but together they seem a complete mismatch, there's no apparent connectivity between the two, in fact they detract from one another, the film seemingly being ruined by an unrelated noise over the top, or it's as if you're listening to a nice jazz suite and some dingbat chose to stick on a Russian classic at a completely inopportune time.
There isn't any semblance of a Russian musical motif anywhere until about halfway through the film and even then it's debatable as to whether it was intentional or not. No, the thing is they're a talented group but they really don't seem able to identify with the multitude of beautiful fast-cut scenes sprawling above them, it just doesn't keep pace and that, one would assume, is the most essential thing to do when scoring a film.
Credit where credit's due though, in the athletic scenes it picked up quite a bit making the rest of the show seem like a cruel farcical joke to see whether the audience would stick around until they cracked out the good stuff... Yes, it got better towards the end, the two components, sound and visuals, sat much comfortably alongside one another and there was an interaction between both the band and the 1929 piece of cinema history.
And then it ended, a little unceremoniously, topping the whole thing off in a rather lacklustre way as, unfortunately, the whole gig had come across from the start. They played their last song to a film of the sea, better than their attempt at scoring a revolutionary filmic triumph; maybe the task of rethinking Vertov's cinema was too mammoth, a lot of effort went into it I'm sure, but it just wasn't happening, the exciting and enticing potential was so that when the actual event came around it was unfortunately an entire let down...