Chichester Cinema at New Park
The Last Laugh (Der Letzte Mann)
Silent film with live accompaniment
CHICHESTER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
A film by F.W. Murnau (Germany, 1924) with live music by John Law.
In the Summer of 2007 I was commissioned by the Bath Film Festival, to compose, and then perform live, a piece of music to accompany a silent film, for the 2007 festival. I was free to choose the film and I opted for The Last Laugh (Der Letzte Mann in German) by F.W.Murnau. Made in 1924, it’s a classic of the silent era and regularly appears in film critics’ list of the top ten films of all time.
Murnau, known for his rather atypical horror film Nosferatu, here depicts, in true German expressionist fashion, the story of a man who, because of his age, first loses his job (and with it his dignity) and then, in the most unlikely fashion, manages to have the last laugh on his employers. It’s essentially a stunning solo performance by Emil Jannings, one of the main German actors of the early 20th Century.
It’s an amazing film, with some quite surreal scenes – particularly a famous, bizarre dream sequence, with some outrageous (for that time) cinematic effects. It’s a deep;y moving film and also, occasionally, very funny.
I’ve written mainly quite accessible music – some of it minimalist in character; a reference point might be Philip Glass – which works very subtly. For example, some themes represent certain characters, some represent concepts or situations, and sometimes I bring more than one theme together, trying to represent the multi-layered interpretation I have of the film.
One other element in the music is an occasion accompanying soundtrack with a sampled extract from the opening of a Beethoven string quartet which, in the dream scene, becomes very distorted.
The music styles encompass jazz and classical music – both modern and traditional sounding. It’s scored for piano, keyboard, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet and a cast array of percussion, including vibraphone, marimba, timpani, glockenspiel, plus other assorted percussion, including wind machine!
Performed by myself on piano (“ John Law remains one of the under recognized giants of British modern jazz/new music piano” Downtown Music Gallery, New York), John Lloyd on soprano saxophone and bass clarinet (“saxophone playing that reaches into the deep blue centre which defines the music” Radio 3) and Jeremy Little, a freelance classical percussionist who works with many of the UK’s leading orchestras and ensembles, the music varies from the catchy first theme, associated with the main character, through moody bass clarinet soliloquies, to wild, abstract outbursts which accompany the hero’s nasty, gossiping neighbours.
- John Law
Tickets £10 (to include a pre-screening glass of wine)
Germany · 1924 · F.W.Murnau · 74min
