ONE WEEK - STRIKING A NEW NOTE - SCHOOL CINEMA CONCERT

One Week (the first film in a concert which included also three short cartoons)
US 1920. PC: Comique. P: Joseph M. Schenck. D+SC: Buster Keaton, Eddie Cline. DP: Elgin Lessley. CAST: Buster Keaton, Sybil Seely, Joe Roberts. Source: dvd, Cinemazero, Pordenone. 25 min. Viewed at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone, Cinema Verdi, 5 October 2008.
Striking a New Note - a school live cinema performance by:
Orchestra della Scuola Media Centro Storico di Pordenone
conducted by Antonia Maddalena & Maria Luisa Sogaro
Piccolos: Giulia Belluz, Federica Corazza, Elena Falomo, Pierandrea Magaraci
Alto and treble flutes: Yana Guerra, Simone Magris, Alessio Mazzeo, Alessandra Scarsi
Xylophones and metallophones: Emmanuel Antwi, Nicola Coral, Roberto Perosa, Giovanni Sgrò
Sound effects: Idzret Asani, Giovanni Barzan, Elisa De Manzano, Laura De Manzano, Alessandra Simoni, Federica Violi
Piano: Victor Agyen, Eugenio Spuria
Maria Luisa Sogaro: "In the wake of the encouraging results of our Giornate debut last year, we look forward to entertaining the festival audience once again. This year we have chosen one film to represent continuity, together with a new element for our programme. In the first place, we have deepened our knowledge of Buster Keaton, revisiting One Week, one of his finest masterpieces. It has not been easy to imagine the right music to suit both the quality of the film and the characteristics of what J.B. Kaufman kindly dubbed our “budding musicians”. The spirit of another genius of the 20th century came to our aid – Igor Stravinsky. We recognized and sought to develop a link between the visual geometry of Keaton and the musical mathematics of Stravinsky’s “Les cinq doigts”, with some explorations into other registers when the narrative situation required it. In this work, I have been assisted by my colleague, Antonia Maddalena.
The project, which started in December, has proceeded in a similar manner to last year’s. A first phase of five meetings for an analysis of the films was guided by Riccardo Costantini, Silvia Moras, and Denis Pinese. The second phase, in the workshop, was undertaken by the music teachers. We also benefited from the precious collaboration of our friends from the Zerorchestra, Romano Todesco and Luca Grizzo. The pupils especially appreciated being “examined” by professionals who, performing with them, were immediately in tune with our own musical activity. When we began last year, we could never have imagined that we would stimulate such a passion for silent cinema among these young Internet surfers." – Maria Luisa Sogaro
A delightful film concert performance to Keaton's masterpiece.