Kino Teatr, Norman Road, St Leonards, East Sussex
Saturday 14th October 2017
Körkarlen (The Phantom
Carriage) rated U
Sweden / 1921 / 106 mins / dir. Victor Sjöstrom
With a live score performed by
Steve Beresford, Blanca Regina, Richard Sanderson and Paul Khimasia Morgan.
Support from Jason Kahn &
Christian Wolfarth duo.
Originally released on New Year's
Day 1921, Körkarlen is an
early horror film, considered to be one of the central works in the history of
Swedish cinema. Directed by and starring Victor Sjöstrom, it is
based on the novel, Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! by Nobel
Prize-winning author Selma Lagerlöf. The film is notable for its use of
special effects, complex narrative and its later influence on the
directors Ingmar Bergman and Stanley Kubrick (The Shining). The film’s protagonist, drunkard David Holm,
tells of a legend that the last person to die each year has to drive Death’s
Carriage to collect the souls of everyone who dies the following year, only for
this macabre penance to be visited upon himself.
Steve Beresford is a well-known member
of the London improvising scene since the 1970s. He has featured on a large number of
recordings of improvised music and been involved with Alterations, Imitation Of
Life, Derek Bailey’s Company events
and with the Portsmouth Sinfonia.
Beresford has continued to play free improvisation with a number of
prominent musicians including Evan Parker, John Zorn and Han Bennink.
Blanca Regina is an artist,
teacher and curator currently involved in creating audio-visual performances,
sound-works, installations and film. Her
research and practice encompass sound art, free improvisation, moving image,
live events, electronic music and performance.
She is co-founder of the Live Cinema Foundation.
Richard Sanderson is an
improvising musician based in South London.
He runs the Linear Obsessional label for “experimental and improvised music and other sounds that fall between
the cracks of category and genre”.
Jason Kahn & Christian
Wolfarth [US/Switzerland] utilize voice and percussion. Wolfarth's cymbal work often resembles a
multitude of oscillators buzzing in and out of phase and Kahn's use of the
voice could be mistaken for white noise or a failing distortion pedal.
