Thu, 21. 1. 2021, 7.00 p.m.

C4 FRIGO NA MAŠINĚ

Venue: Zlín Congress Centre  |  Organizer: Filharmonie Bohuslava Martinů, o.p.s.  | 

Music has been an inseparable part of motion pictures from their very start, because even the first public projection of short films by the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiere at the end of December 1895 at the Café Grand in Paris was accompanied by music. The same continued to be the case in the silent film era, whose golden age was in the last century.

In reality, therefore, the silent film was never completely silent, because music was always present at the projections, serving to add atmospheric colour to the events portrayed on the screen. It was usually provided by a gramophone or a pianist who would often improvise on the spur of the moment, so the same film would have a different musical background each time it was shown. However the more upmarket picture halls were better provided for, and they could afford to engage a complete live orchestra.

The year in which the Lumiere brothers showed their moving pictures to an inquisitive Paris public also saw the birth of Buster Keaton in the state of Kansas. He later became a film actor and director and, together with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, one of the greatest silent film figures of all time. In the course of his professional career, Keaton was involved in the production of over 100 slapstick films, by far the best of which is the ten-part series of feature-length comedies from 1923-1927. These include the film Frigo na mašině (The General), in which Keaton excels in the starring role of a comic stuntman, ably supported by a steam locomotive. It is worth noting that the prestigious magazine Premiere ranked this picture as one of the top 50 best comedies ever.

The film is being shown as our fourth Subscription Series C concert accompanied live by the Zlín philharmonic orchestra conducted by the American Robert Israel, who also wrote the soundtrack.