Ebertfest: silent film awes audience
The following was written by Ebertfest correspondent Colleen Loggins.
When I signed up to report on the movie “Underworld” for this year’s Ebertfest, I thought, sweet I love vampire movies and I like Kate Beckinsale. This should be fun! But that Roger Ebert is a tricky little fellow.
“Underworld” is actually a film from 1927 about American gangsters. A silent film. When I finally figured that out, I was a little nervous to watch it. I was also a little concerned that the special guests were merely members of an orchestra.
Oh how wrong I was to be concerned. While it was definitely a new experience to actually sit through an entire silent film, the Alloy Orchestra made it an enjoyable one. The three man orchestra used a variety of different instruments to create a musical score that made dialog unnecessary. Right away, the orchestra made me jump out of my seat when they created a loud explosion noise set to the scene of a bank heist. They were also able to capture the mood of the film which they later admitted was tricky because the film is not really a “shoot ‘em up” gangster movie, and is more of a psychological drama.
I was also surprised at the depth of the film and the fact that it was a psychological drama. I thought it would be hard to convey complex emotions without words and that there would be over-the-top acting, but the subtleties were impressive.
After the first explosion, I forgot that the orchestra was even there because they scored the film so well, and I got caught up in watching what was happening on screen.
It was also fun to take in the atmosphere at the gorgeous Virginia Theatre. There were so many people there, which was surprising to me at first (again, silent film), and all of the people seemed to be huge movie buffs who knew what were seemingly random facts about movies I had never even heard of before. It was very interesting to hear what some of them had to say, and if you have never been to Ebertfest before, you really should give it a try. It might even make you have a whole new appreciation for a genre you would have never watched before the festival.