The Ancient Law (Das Alte Gesetz)
The Ancient Law (Das Alte Gesetz) a cine-concert: a screening of the foundational 1923 silent film, with a live original score by Alicia and pianist/composer and silent film music legend Donald Sosin. The project is available on DVD from Flicker Alley.
THE ANCIENT LAW is a landmark in Weimar cinema and an outstanding example of the creative contribution of Jewish filmmakers in 1920s Germany. It is the story of a rabbi's son who leaves his shtetl home in Galicia and makes his way to Vienna, where an archduchess at the imperial court falls in love with him. . The movie draws a complex portrait of the tension between tradition and modernity.
The discovery of the censor’s certificate with the text of the original intertitles was the impetus for this new restoration of THE ANCIENT LAW, available through Flicker Alley films.
Read a preview article here: https://atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com/music-modernizes-silent-film-at-the-ajff/
Photo credits: credit: Futography LLC
Donald Sosin (pianist and composer) has performed his silent film music at Lincoln Center, MoMA, the Kennedy Center, and major film festivals in the US and abroad. He records for Criterion, Kino, Milestone and TCM. He has played his scores for Jewish-themed silent films at the New York Jewish Film Festival. His one-act opera for families, Esther, was performed at the National Yiddish Book Center. Other Jewish music includes a short children's opera, A Parakeet Named Dreidel, Yiddish folk song arrangements, and Three Psalms, premiered in 2009 by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.
PAST SHOWS
San Francisco Silent Film Festival
San Diego Jewish Film Festival
Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
Le Giornate del Cinema Muta/Pordenone Silent Film Festival, Italy (and Lubljana, Slovenia and Rijeka, Croatia)
Cornell University
Houston Cinema Arts Festival
AFI Silver Theater and Cultural Center, MD
Chicago Music Box Theater
Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque
National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia
UPCOMING SHOWS
New York Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Center
Miami Jewish Film Festival
Denver Silent Film Festival
Boston Jewish Film Festival
Swarthmore College
Cinema Arts Centre, Huntington, NY