Soundstage Festival presents: Scoring the Silents: Fritz Lang’s Metropolis

About

Sunday 26 March, 1pm introductory talk, 2pm screening
Screen 2, Broadway
 

Scoring the Silents: Fritz Lang’s Metropolis

With a pre-screening talk by Professor Mervyn Cooke, University of Nottingham

With live musical illustrations from composition students at the University of Nottingham

Lang’s 1927 expressionist epic was the first major science-fiction film and the powerful Futurist and Cubist imagery of its dystopian vision – particularly that of the iconic female robot, Hel – still influences filmmakers and designers today. Metropolis has also inspired a wealth of divergent soundtracks, from early electronica in the 1970s to Giorgio Moroder’s star-studded rock soundtrack featuring Freddie Mercury, Pat Benatar and Adam Ant.

Professor Mervyn Cooke, a world leading authority on film music, presents this introduction to Lang’s masterpiece and the different responses it has provoked in composers and producers. Two key scenes from the film will also be given new scores by University of Nottingham composition students to show how different scoring treatments can affect the audience’s response.

After Professor Cooke’s introduction, a full screening of the 2010 restoration of the film offers the opportunity to see Metropolis with newly discovered footage and to hear Gottfried Huppertz’s magnificent original score, performed by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Frank Strobel.

Tickets: £8.40 full
£6.50 conc.
£4.50 under 25