Despite a $5 price tag, the house was nearly full for Wednesday’s screening of the Buster Keaton classic “The General.” Along with the one-time-only price hike, a three-man orchestra accompanied the 1927 silent film.
Judging by audience reaction, there were many students who enjoyed this cinematic experience that doubled as a blast from the past.
In the screening room of the new Center for Film Studies the Alloy Orchestra took the stage, with Roger Miller on keyboard, Terry Donahue on percussion and xylophone, and Ken Winokur on percussion and clarinet.
As the Keaton comedy began, the ensemble began playing their original score as accompaniment. Students who spent the first few minutes of the film gazing curiously down at the band soon lost themselves in the adventures of Keaton’s Civil War-era hero.
“Comedy scores are actually the hardest ones for us to do,” Donahue said. “When we compose, we get a copy of the movie and just go scene by scene recording basic ideas. The trick is translate the emotion from the visual into the audio.”
“The General” still elicited riotous laughter and applause, even though it’s nearing the eightieth anniversary since its original release. Buster Keaton plays a Confederate railroad engineer who we are told “has only two loves in his life,” his railroad engine and his girlfriend, Annabelle Lee, who ends up kidnapped by Northern troops.
Donahue admitted after the screening that the Alloy Orchestra had seen “The General” many, many times by now.
“Boris Karloff actually makes an appearance in the film as one of the Northern generals,” he said. “After you’ve seen it a few times you start looking for things. Still, I’m always excited when it starts and sad when it’s over.”
The Alloy Orchestra score perfectly complimented the comedic action onscreen, in particular the percussive instruments. Two men banging on everything from drums to a bedpan reproduced the sound of trains starting, chugging along and slowing down.
“Usually, we like to do percussive scores because that’s more our style,” Winokur said. “We’ve always been drawn to unusual percussive instruments. We used to go to junkyards and just pull out stuff.”
The Alloy Orchestra score also showed range and subtlety. Whenever Buster Keaton’s sweetheart Annabelle was onscreen, she was greeted with a tinkling piano theme. Scenes that took place on the Civil War battlefield were complimented with trumpet and string sounds thanks to Miller’s synthesizer. The clarinet accompanied more serious moments, such as when Annabelle tells the film’s comedic hero she refuses to see him until he is in army uniform.
“This score was fairly conservative,” Winokur said. “We looked at this film like we had to play something that brings you into that space, which is the 1860’s. So obviously we couldn’t play techno or electronic. However, it’s been different for other films we’ve scored, including ‘Phantom of the Opera,’ ‘Metropolis’ and ‘Nosferatu.’ Film by film, we make these decisions.”
Winokur described their process of choosing which films to score as “long and laborious.”
“For ‘The General’ we actually commissioned for a new print to be made, to be seen for tonight,” he said. “The version we saw this evening was as good as it’d be in the 20’s.” After the film, students commented on the amazing skill of the live accompanists.
“I really enjoyed the points where you just forgot there was a live band in the room,” said Jess Lane ’06.
“I wanted to know what other bands they’re in,” said Kate Brown ’06. “They’re like grizzled rock dudes turned awesome avant-garde.”
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