We’ve been fans of silent-movie-soundtrack specialists Minima here at Movie Talk since witnessing their bold rescoring of Germaine Dulac’s 1928 surrealist oddity The Seashell and the Clergyman in the dank and gloomy railway arches beneath London Bridge Station a couple of years ago.
So it’s good news to learn that the enterprising four-piece band are going on the road this month performing live to 1920 silent classic The Cabinet of Dr Caligari on a tour of Picturehouse Cinemas across London and the South West.
If your only experience of live musical accompaniment for silent movies is of a solo pianist tinkling the ivories (great though that often is), then prepare to open your eyes and ears to the daring collision of image and sound when Minima work their magic on this bizarre and hypnotic German Expressionist classic of the silent era.
Here’s how the band describe their dramatic Dr Caligari rescore:
“Minima’s original soundtrack strikes up an unexpected relationship with the images on screen, teasing out the film’s melancholy and grim humour. The four-piece ensemble of drums, bass, guitar and cello stalk the film, while their unique sonic palette provides an intensity to complement the film’s unsettling experience of mistrust and madness.”
“Silent films like this were meant to be screened with a live musical accompaniment because it adds so much to the experience,” says Alex Hogg, Minima’s guitarist. “It is particularly evocative with Dr Caligari because the film is so haunting.”
Minima’s Dr Caligari tour kicks off their tour at Bath’s Little Theatre Cinema on Sunday 21 March. See below for the full tour list and go to the Picturehouse website for further details.
