late fall 2006 series

Cornell Cinema welcomes back the Cambridge-based Alloy Orchestra for another weekend of fabulous silent films and terrific original scores performed live by this three-man musical ensemble: Roger C. Miller on synthesizer, Terry Donahue on junk percussion, accordion, saw and banjo, and Ken Winokur on junk percussion and clarinet. They have been performing their original scores for restored silent films since the early ‘90s and have emerged as the best, and best-known silent film accompanists in the world, each year premiering their latest work at the prestigious Telluride Film Festival. During this return engagement at Cornell Cinema they will perform their original scores with three films: a re-restored print of Lonesome (1928), directed by Paul Fejös and considered “the greatest Coney Island movie ever” (CU Professor Sabine Haenni); a restored print of The Black Pirate (1926), directed by Albert Parker and starring Douglas Fairbanks; and a restored print of The Eagle (1925), directed by Clarence Brown and starring Rudolph Valentino.

The story of two lonely people in New York City who meet and enjoy the thrills of the Coney Island amusement park, only to lose each other in the crowd after spending a great day together, Lonesome was the Alloy’s first Telluride Film Festival hit, and it was so successful that the group decided to go out on tour for the first time. They performed the film all over the world (The Louvre, New Zealand Arts Festival, Lincoln Center, National Gallery of Art in D.C. ) until the print was accidentally destroyed. Lonesome has now been re-restored by the George Eastman House and we’ll be screening a new improved 35mm print, with hand coloring and a remastered soundtrack. This is one of the fascinating films that, made originally as a silent film, was released as well as a talkie. The Alloy’s performance incorporates their original score and the three short dialogue scenes from the sound version. Lonesome will be preceded by Buster Keaton’s fabulous short film, One Week, with Alloy accompaniment.

The Black Pirate features colors like you’ve never seen before, beautiful green-blues and rich mustard yellows, thanks to a special two-strip Technicolor technique that produces “a lovely pastel process that defies description.” (Time Out Guide) And it’s a blast watching Douglas Fairbanks derrying his do and cheering as a shoal of swashbuckling soldiers swim underwater in formation to invade a pirate ship, all to the percussive rhythms of the Alloy’s score. Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean, step aside!

The Eagle is set in Russia during the reign of Catherine II, and Rudolph Valentino plays Vladimir Dubrovsky, a young lieutenant in her majesty's imperial guard. When he discovers that his father has been robbed and murdered by a vicious landowner, he abandons his military post and becomes an outlaw known as the Black Eagle, a Russian 'Robin Hood'. The Eagle is not only one of Valentino's most inventive and subtle pictures, it is also one of his funniest, and the Alloy’s lush score adds to the fun.

Tickets for the two evening shows (Lonesome and The Eagle) are $12 general/$8 seniors & students, and just $5 adults/$4 kids 12 & under for the matinee of The Black Pirate. Advance tickets can be purchased starting Sat, Nov 4 from Ithaca Guitar Works and Mon, Nov 6 from the Willard Straight Ticket Desk. Tickets can also be purchased before each show at the theatre box office, which opens 30 minutes before showtimes. For more information call 255-3522.

The Alloy’s visit is cosponsored with the Cornell Council for the Arts, the Dept. of Theatre, Film & Dance and the Cornell Concert Commission.

Images from (top to bottom): The Alloy Orchestra; original posters