Join Claudia as she interviews silent film composer Donald Sosin and world-renowned Klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals for the Houston Cinema Arts Society’s annual film festival. They discussed composing music for silent films, their process for creating music for THE ANCIENT LAW (DAS ALTE GESETZ), the restoration brought to the film, and why everyone should go see this incredible silent film.
About THE ANCIENT LAW (DAS ALTE GESETZ)
In the mid-1800s in Galicia (now Spain), Baruch—the son of an orthodox rabbi—yearns to become an actor. Against his father’s will, Baruch leaves the eastern European shtetl where he grew up and joins a traveling theater troupe. Austrian archduchess Elisabeth Theresia falls in love with the young man and arranges for him to join Vienna’s Burgtheater, where he becomes a star.
With its complex portrayal of orthodoxy and emancipation, E.A. Dupont’s period film marks a high point of Jewish filmmaking in Germany. This new restoration marks the first time that a version of the lost 1920s film is shown in its original length, with digitally restored colorization. Composer/musicians Donald Sosin and Alicia Svigals, world-renowned for their live silent-film accompaniments, have collaborated on a new musical score for this rediscovered masterpiece. – Brought to you by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Watch the interview below: