FESTIVAL FARE ROUNDUP : 'Hell On Wheels' / 'The Sound of Silents' / 'Home- Sick'Published on: March 2. HELL ON WHEELS aka Hollentour (Germany 2. Pepe Danquart, co- directed by Werner Schweizer.
The Sounds of Silents - Der Stummfilmpianist: 2006: Documentary: Naked Raven: Home: 2005: Video. TV Movie documentary sound: Corpus delicti: 2003: TV Short sound.
FESTIVAL FARE ROUNDUP : ‘Hell On Wheels’ / ‘The Sound of Silents’ / ‘Home-Sick. (Germany 2005) aka Willy Sommerfeld : Der Stummfilmpianist. Download movie Pestitelé svátosti. Pestitelé svátosti (2005). The Sounds of Silents - Der Stummfilmpianist. Newsletter - Spring Issue 105 In this Issue: - Policies on Publications in Digital Media Survey Results - Fascinating Clicks: Filmhefte - WiG Calls.
Runs 1. 23 mins and has been shown at the Vancouver Film Festival. I watched 4. 0 minutes of it on DVD at home in Sunderland on 2.
Song Sounds Of Silence
- THE SOUNDS OF SILENTS in February in Berlin. Göttschling's sound check. And the documentary "DER STUMMFILMPIANIST".
- Finde 20 Ähnliche Filme zum Film The Sound Of Silents - Der Stummfilmpianist von Ilona Ziok mit Willy Sommerfeld, wie The Doors.
- The (Willy Sommerfeld - Der Stummfilmpianist). 2003-2005), and The Sounds of Silents (Willy Sommerfeld - Der Stummfilmpianist. Sound Technology Dolby SR.
Estimated rating: 5/1. Behind the scenes at the 2. Tour de France. Gear- grindingly conventional stuff, wasting the very impressive level of access to the Deutsche Telekom team (Erik Zabel, Andreas Kloden, etc).
Choice of title is unfortunate, as making a cycling movie with 'Hell' in the name can only trigger memories of Jorgen Leth's bracingly impressionistic/scientific classic Un dimanche en enfer(1. Danquart's favour.
Danquart's technique is mainstream, competent, uninspiring. Slo- mo abounds, which is perhaps the last thing you need when filming a sport so kinetic and fast- moving as this. Michael Hammon's cameras capture some spectacular shots of the riders making their way through scenic corners of France, but it's not exactly difficult to make this material look good, and a few geographical captions (or even roadsigns) would have come in handy. As it is, we're never sure where we are. Pic has distinct feel of a Tour- approved docu: no mention of drugs in the forty minutes I saw, and also next- to- none of the Tour's dominant figure, multiple winner Lance Armstrong. Apparently he's much in evidence in the last 1. Up- close- and- personal stuff of Zabel and co going about their daily routines does pique the attention, but lack of commentary or questioning means we don't really get to know what makes these blokes tick.
Two- hour- plus running- time admittedly pales alongside marathon nature of the Tour, but will ensure Hell on Wheels appeals only to an audience of enthusiasts. The DVD will make a fine Christmas present for the cycling aficionado in your family, and you can imagine the picture playing well on TV (especially German TV) the night before some future Tour begins. And there are enough sports- themed (even cycle- themed!) film festivals around the world to ensure Danquart's movie gets big- screen exposure. But this will surely only lay bare its faults: the most heinous of which is an utterly horrible score from Till Bronner, who serves up seven shades of shitty muzak – including some groan- inducing "comic" accompaniment to shots of the cyclists stopping for a piss- break (Leth dispensed with music altogether). Put up with two hours of Bronner's incessant synthy- jazzy- moody dreck and you'll deserve a maillot jaune of your own. 2. THE SOUNDS OF SILENTS(Germany 2. Willy Sommerfeld : Der Stummfilmpianist, aka Willy : Der Stummfilmpianist – a documentary by Ilona Ziok.
Runs 8. 1 mins (timed) and has been shown at the 'Black Nights' Film Festival, Estonia. I watched it on DVD in Sunderland on 3. Rating: 5/1. 0._____________________________________________________________________ The awkwardly- named Sounds of Silents (surely "sound" singular would have made a neater pun) is a rather plodding tribute to and profile of Willy Sommerfeld, one of the last remaining stummfilmpianisten – those hardy men and women who provided the piano accompaniment to movies in the era before sound.
As we're repeatedly told via on- screen titles, Sommerfeld was born in 1. Leaving aside his musical skills, it's astonishing to see how sprightly the old chap is – he could easily pass for 2.
Practising for an hour a day keeps his fingers and mind sufficiently agile to accompany a full- length feature- film – we see him rising to the challenge of Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin at an al fresco projection. And elsewhere director Ziok includes lengthy silent- movie extracts 'enhanced' by Sommerfeld's impromptu contributions, as well as a recital of a classical piece of his own composition.
If anything, however, we get rather too much evidence of Sommerfeld's talent: it feels like Ziok is padding out her movie to a bare- minimum feature length, because despite having lived through some tumultuous years, this life- long Berlin resident (born in what was then the 'Free State of Danzig,' now the Polish city of Gdansk) was largely an observer of history rather than a participant. A little like Wladislaw Spilman in Polanski's The Pianist, Sommerfeld was only really ever bothered about his music – the difference being that Sommerfeld's circumstances (aided by that quirk of nationality) meant he was able to slip through the Nazi era without too much discomfort or personal compromise – if, that is, we take his genial reminiscences at face value. In any case, there's something inspiring about the way that, at an age when most people are winding down into retirement, Sommerfeld – who started accompanying revivals of silent classics in the early seventies – was able to share his gifts with new generations of moviegoers. And it's also great that he's become the subject of a film after so many years' service to the medium. A shame, then, that Ziok's by- the- numbers documentary should be so inert and pedestrian – especially in comparison with Sommerfeld's own lively, instinctive fluency.
HOME- SICK aka Koti- Ikava (Finland 2. Petri Kotwica (script co- written by Selma Vilhunen).
Runs 8. 5 mins and has been shown at the Lubeck Film Festival ('Nordic Film- Days'). I watched 5. DVD at home in Sunderland on 2. Estimated rating: 5/1. Flashily- directed youth- oriented drama from Finland. Sepia- orangey, grainy- saturated look permeates Harri Raty's (restless, hand- held) cinematography; intrusive music throughout makes it hard to concentrate on performances and plot. Tale of introverted 1. Sami (Julius Lavonen), taken to youth ward of mental hospital when his actions indicate likelihood of self- harm – but it's his mother (Tarja Heinula) who's the "psycho" of the family, having gone off the rails when her husband left her for a younger woman.
Comes across as well- meaning adults' idea of what kids want to see – uninspired deployment of hip- hop and nu- metallish rock on the soundtrack, sitting uncomfortably alongside piano/jazzy score (credited to Tapani Rinne & DJ Slow). Boy, Interruptedfare: by- the- numbers moodiness.
Unlikely to travel far beyond national boundaries, except to specifically youth- oriented film- festivals where it might have some appeal for some 1.