PROARTS SOCIETY PRESENTS:
FAUST-the Classic Silent Film with accompanying Live Piano Score by composer Robert Bruce
What: FAUST – F.W.Murnau’s 1926 Classic Silent Film, accompanied by live original piano composition by composer Robert Bruce
Where: Cathedral Church of the Redeemer (corner of 7 Ave & 1 Street SE)
When: Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 3:00pm
Tickets: $22 adults / $18 seniors and students – available at 403.269.1904 or at the door
Robert Bruce’s Live Music/Silent Film programs offer all the excitement and spontaneity of a live concert blended perfectly together with the charm and nostalgia of classic 1920s silent cinema.
The uncanny effect of this program is an experience that any true appreciator of music and the dramatic and cinematic arts will cherish!
God and Satan war over earth; to settle things, they wager on the soul of Faust, a learned and prayerful alchemist. During a plague, Faust despairs and burns his books after failing to stop death; Satan sends Mephisto to tempt Faust, first with insight into treating the plague and then with a day’s return to youth.
What better venue than the Cathedral Church, with its ornate architecture and historic stained glass to present an historic silent film….FW Farneau’s classic 1926 silent film FAUST, the German folk tale of Good vs Evil!
“Our closing night performance (of Faust) by Robert Bruce was nothing less than jaw-dropping … Robert Bruce’s stunning score melded perfectly with this incredible film built on shadow and light.” – Shirley Hughes, Artistic Director, The Toronto Silent Film Festival.
Faust (German title: Faust – Eine deutsche Volkssage) is a silent film produced in 1926 by UFA, directed by F.W. Murnau, starring Gösta Ekman as Faust, Emil Jannings as Mephisto, Camilla Horn as Gretchen/Marguerite, Frida Richard as her mother, Wilhelm Dieterle as her brother and Yvette Guilbert as Marthe Schwerdtlein, her aunt. Murnau’s film draws on older traditions of the legendary tale of Faust as well as on Goethe’s classic version. UFA wanted Ludwig Berger to direct Faust, as Murnau was engaged with Variety; Murnau pressured the producer and, backed by Jannings, eventually persuaded Erich Pommer to let him direct the movie.
The movie contains many memorable images and special effects, with careful attention paid to contrasts of light and dark. Particularly striking is the sequence in which the giant, horned and black-winged figure of Mephisto (Jannings) hovers over a town sowing the seeds of plague.
Faust was Murnau’s last German movie, and directly afterward he moved to the US under contract to William Fox to direct Sunrise (1927); when the film premiered in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo of Berlin, Murnau was already shooting in Hollywood.
Biography: Robert Bruce – Composer/Performer
Since the late 1970s composer/pianist Robert Bruce has developed a diverse catalogue of original music that includes music for young children; piano repertoire for students (which is used by all the major music conservatories in Canada, including the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto) music for film, television and animation; music for healing and meditation; piano works; ensemble works; orchestral works; music for various multimedia presentations and a collection of modern artsongs.
His music, often displaying subtle blues-impressionistic elements in its basic language, is harmonically tonal but its true character has defied all existing genres and categories; he has termed his overall style and genre, as well as his performing ensemble, “Classical Nouveau”.
Self-directed and primarily self-taught, by his early-twenties Robert had begun a dedicated lifelong study of how music and spirituality are inherently interrelated, a study that continues to hold great fascination for him. He advocates that true music and creative expression are inherently therapeutic and that the key elements for creative/artistic fulfillment are aesthetics and utilizing one’s own natural desires and abilities.
In 2007 he completed his first book “In Between the Lines – Book One”, a 10-year project, which outlines the philosophy on music he has discovered and developed over many years. His second book ” In Between the Lines – Book Two ” is in progress and details his highly intuitive approach to writing music.
Robert continues to perform live with The Classical Nouveau Ensemble, his Live Music/Silent Film programs and the integrated talk/live performance program based on his writings. His recordings are played quite extensively on classical and ambient radio stations in many countries, particularly in Europe and Australia.