Silent Film with Live Music Tonight: Daily

By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Musician Alexander Zhemchuzhnikov and the band Chinese Cookie Poets will provide musical accompaniment for a screening of the 1920 German silent film, “Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam” (“The Golem: How He Came into the World”) tonight at Leblon’s Midrash cultural center.

The event takes place as part of SILENT | LOUD, a project that screens silent films with live experimental improvisations by Brazilian and Russian musicians. Launched in 2013, the project has traveled to various locations, including film festivals, Rio’s Modern Art Museum (MAM) and Arena Dicró in Favela da Maré.

“Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam” is a 1920 silent German film co-directed by and starring Paul Wegener as “Golem.” The plot, based on an old Jewish legend, features “Golem,” a huge clay figure made by Rabbi Loew to protect the people living in a ghetto in medieval Prague. The film is considered by many to be a classic of German expressionist cinema.

Providing the accompaniment will be the Rio-based trio Chinese Cookie Poets (CCP) and Russian saxophonist Alexander Zhemchuzhnikov. Formed in 2010, CCP is influenced by everything from free-form jazz to avant-garde jazz and various types of experimental music.

The juxtaposition of the live music with “Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam” promises to bring audiences back to the heyday of silent films in the early 1900s, when these movies were screened alongside live piano or full band performances.

As described by O Globo, CCP and Zhemchuzhnikov “represent new experimental and innovative trends in Brazilian music, contributing to Rio’s avant-garde scene with new projects that capture more and more local and international audiences.”

What: SILENT | LOUD screening of “Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam” with Alexander Zhemchuzhnikov and Chinese Cookie Poets
When: Thursday, March 9th, 8:30 PM – 10:30 PM
Where: Midrash Centro Cultural – Rua General Venâncio Flores, 184 – Leblon
Entrance: R$30/R$5 (student)

Read more (in Portuguese).

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