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Topic: 1910 American Fotoplayer

Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 08-16-2017 11:13 AM

An coincidentally, a wonderful man, Stuart Oderman, silent movie pianist just passed away. I worked with Stuart at the Brooklyn Museum when we were still running 35 and a silent series curated by silent film maven Ken Gordon who moved the series to the NY Public Library where he with Stuart have been running it for over a decade.

Stuart started when he was 14 yrs and perfected his craft to the point where he was sought after by venues running silent films, including Lilian Gish who had taken him under her wing as a young man. "Silent Films" was a term he once told me he thought was absurd because while films had no soundtracks, they were rarely if ever shown "silently." They always had accompaniment.

The first time I met Stuart, he had already been seated at the piano and I was having the lights adjusted so as to get as little light bounce as possible on the screen, but still have the audience be able to see him. With that small amount of illumination on him, I thought to ask if he wanted a clip light on the piano so he could read his music. He kind of chuckled and said, no, he didn't need a music light. Ken told me he never used sheet music -- he had a library of music melodies and riffs in his brain that he could call up at will to match the action as well as the mood of the scene. He also knew every existing silent film pretty much backwards and forwards; his playing was so precise that you would think the piano music was a soundtrack on the film itself. As I ran those films, listening to his performance over the booth monitor, I was always in awe.

These guys were extraordinary talents.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 08-16-2017 01:46 PM

I know of only one film that was actually intended by its maker to be viewed in complete silence - The Passion of Joan of Arc. A few years ago, someone sent me a link to the handiwork of someone who decided to defy Carl Theodor Dreyer's artistic vision in a pretty spectacular way, and put Light My Fire by The Doors over the final scene. I've never been able to take the movie seriously since.

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