Sunday, June 27, 2010

Film concert 3 Bad Men - world premiere of the Timothy Brock score - Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna


John Ford: 3 Bad Men (US 1926) with George O'Brien (Dan O'Malley) and Olive Borden (Lee Carlton) and as the three bad men: Tom Santschi ("Bull" Stanley), J. Farrell MacDonald (Mike Costigan) and Frank Campeau ("Spade" Allen). Waiting for the starting shot to the land run.

Kolme huonoa miestä / Trois sublimes canailles (I tre birbanti, USA/1926) R.: John Ford. /24 fps/ 85'. Print: Twentieth Century Fox.
Prima mondiale della partitura scritta e diretta da Timothy Brock, eseguita dall'Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Lingua originale con sottotitoli italiani (Sub-Ti).
22.00 Piazza Maggiore, Bologna, 27 June 2010.

A magnificent cinema concert with the Bologna City Opera Orchestra playing Timothy Brock's new score to John Ford's best silent film. I sat on the third row with a good view at the orchestra, yet able to follow the giant image of the open-air screening.

The best possible experience of 3 Bad Men. Apparently no brilliant prints exist, as even this one looked like a blow-up from 16 mm. One could appreciate the composition of Ford and George Schneidermann but there was a loss of detail.

This is a John Ford western where (like in Fort Apache, The Searchers, Two Rode Together, Cheyenne Autumn) the Indian is not the villain. The villain is us, and we need to conquer the villain inside.

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