Musical accompaniment at the cinemas. Around 1910-1930 this was a normal course of events in the Netherlands. But with the advent of sound film, the so-called ’talkies’, this has become rather unusual. In a way this is a pity, because it provides the viewer a completely different cinema experience than what we are used to nowadays; the musician really turns the film into something of their own.

You know who also thinks this is a shame? Lucas Boerwinkel. Hence, he decided to make a contemporary silent film that honors this old cinema tradition: Gustav & Grace. In his somewhat absurdist short film, we follow an old banker from 1922 and a student from 2022 as they communicate about world issues through their chests of drawers. After the premiere of his short film, there will be a Q&A with Lucas about his creative process.

And then we continue the evening with Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, one of Lucas’s greatest sources of inspiration: “Dr Caligari was controversial for his time because it dared to create a non-existent, dream-like world that deviated from conventional stories […]. The acting and stylized facial expressions from Dr. Caligari inspired me for the acting in my film. […] The stiff movements, the overly surprised facial expressions.”

And as a cherry on top: both films are accompanied by live music, with a nudge to the era of silent films, by Julia Bekker (OOO, Potgrond) and Hugo Heijnen (Atoomclub). This promises to be yet another special evening.

-Hilde

IMDb

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