October 08, 2008
The Last Laugh
Last year I had the immense pleasure of catching the band Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra at Off Broadway performing the soundtrack live to the Buster Keaton film “Go West”. It was the most memorable local show I attended last year and still leaves me in wonderment of how amazing the band not only performed but sounded playing in the upper level of Off Broadway while the film was shown on center stage. The attention and timing needed to accomplish something like this should not be taken lightly. This Saturday the R & P are at it again only this time at the cozy confines of Webster University.
As part of the Webster Film Series, Rats And People will perform live their score for the film “The Last Laugh” (Der Letzle Mann)
(F.W. Murnau, 1924, Germany, 91 min.)
Matthew Pace of Rats and People was kind enough to answer some questions for 52nd City.
52nd City - How did this film come to your attention?
Matthew Pace - Michael Steinberg, the dude who ran the Webster Film Series saw another movie we'd done the soundtrack for (Silver Spurs) and asked if we wanted to do Go West (that Buster Keaton flick) last year. Then that went over real well, so he gave us our choice of a few German Expressionist movies for this year, and this one seemed like the best for makin' some real sad music.
52C - What are the challenges in doing a live score to a film?
MP - You can't mess up. And then if you do, you have to keep going. Also, we write and learn to a DVD that probably uses a different print of the movie than the one at the show, so the timings are a little bit off. At least in Go West they were the first time we did it. The title cards were up for different lengths of time.
52C - Who is producing this event?
MP - Webster U Film Series.
52C - Are these live performances being recorded?
MP - We did record the Buster Keaton one, we will probably get this one too. But then we actually did a studio-ish recording of Go West, that hopefully we will have mixed and ready to sell this Saturday. It will be all timed out so you can get the DVD, get the CD, hit play on both, and enjoy the film.
Saturday, Oct 11th @ 8 p.m.
$6
Winifred Moore Auditorium
Webster University
“The Last Laugh” (Der Letzle Mann)
(F.W. Murnau, 1924, Germany, 91 min.)
Live Score performed by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra
Brien and Matthew from Rats and People performing at Off Broadway
