Another week, another short (sorry, but it's still too hot, and while it's fine to shut your eyes for a bit during a TV show, but weirdly that doesn't work while watching a silent movie ...).
It's an experimental one today, oooh.
Get ready for "Danse Macabre" from 1922.
"Midnight in plague-ridden Spain - - Youth and Love flee from Death who follows their path -
Love feels his uncanny breath and swoons - - - Youth despairs and prays, - when lo! - the cock of dawn crows and Death fades away into the shadow of his tomb."
Youth and Love enter a room. Youth lights a candle and the lovers embrace.
If they had thought to be safe here, they are wrong as Death is already following them.
Youth gives Love a shawl and a fan and they dance together.
Love begins to sense Death being close. She feels weak and asks Youth to open the windows.
They keep dancing, but Death keeps haunting them until Love faints and Youth lays her down on a sofa.
Death creeps closer ...
Just in time, the sun rises to a cock's crow ...
... and Death shrinks back from the light and fades while Love recovers in Youth's arms.
The lovers rejoice, they embrace and kiss, they are safe ...
... but are they really?
The "Danse Macabre" or "Dance of Death" is an allegory from the late Middle Ages reminding people of the fragility of life - everyone's life, king or peasant, pope or child.
In 1874, the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns wrote a symphonic poem with this title.
The independent director Dudley Murphy and his associate Claude MacGowan had planned a series of Visual Symphonies with the films interpreting classical music starting with this piece.
Big theaters used to put on live shows with music and dance as introductions for the movies, but synchronizing film and music perfectly was more difficult at the time, and while experienced musicians could have coped, the practice wouldn't have worked as well for small theaters.
So although the film got attention, it obviously wasn't enough to keep the series going.
That's a pity because if "Danse Macabre" was an example of their vision, it would have been great to see what else they could have come up with.
The performers are the ballet dancers and choreographers Adolph Bolm (Youth) and Ruth Page (Love, she was Bolm's student), Death is played by character actor Olin Howland.
As you can see from the pictures, the short is a mix of animation and real film, and honestly, it's really very cool. I had picked it randomly from a playlist of shorts and I'm so glad I did as I loved Saint-Saëns's "Danse Macabre" before this and love the interpretation.
Sources and further reading:
1. Rob Johnson: Danse Macabre 1922. On: The Devil's Manor, July 2012
2. Fritzi Kramer: Danse Macabre (1922) - A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, July 18, 2022
It's an experimental one today, oooh.
Get ready for "Danse Macabre" from 1922.
"Midnight in plague-ridden Spain - - Youth and Love flee from Death who follows their path -
Love feels his uncanny breath and swoons - - - Youth despairs and prays, - when lo! - the cock of dawn crows and Death fades away into the shadow of his tomb."
 |
| The skeletons move until they form the title words. |
Youth and Love enter a room. Youth lights a candle and the lovers embrace.
If they had thought to be safe here, they are wrong as Death is already following them.
Youth gives Love a shawl and a fan and they dance together.
Love begins to sense Death being close. She feels weak and asks Youth to open the windows.
They keep dancing, but Death keeps haunting them until Love faints and Youth lays her down on a sofa.
Death creeps closer ...
Just in time, the sun rises to a cock's crow ...
... and Death shrinks back from the light and fades while Love recovers in Youth's arms.
The lovers rejoice, they embrace and kiss, they are safe ...
... but are they really?
The "Danse Macabre" or "Dance of Death" is an allegory from the late Middle Ages reminding people of the fragility of life - everyone's life, king or peasant, pope or child.
In 1874, the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns wrote a symphonic poem with this title.
The independent director Dudley Murphy and his associate Claude MacGowan had planned a series of Visual Symphonies with the films interpreting classical music starting with this piece.
Big theaters used to put on live shows with music and dance as introductions for the movies, but synchronizing film and music perfectly was more difficult at the time, and while experienced musicians could have coped, the practice wouldn't have worked as well for small theaters.
So although the film got attention, it obviously wasn't enough to keep the series going.
That's a pity because if "Danse Macabre" was an example of their vision, it would have been great to see what else they could have come up with.
The performers are the ballet dancers and choreographers Adolph Bolm (Youth) and Ruth Page (Love, she was Bolm's student), Death is played by character actor Olin Howland.
As you can see from the pictures, the short is a mix of animation and real film, and honestly, it's really very cool. I had picked it randomly from a playlist of shorts and I'm so glad I did as I loved Saint-Saëns's "Danse Macabre" before this and love the interpretation.
Sources and further reading:
1. Rob Johnson: Danse Macabre 1922. On: The Devil's Manor, July 2012
2. Fritzi Kramer: Danse Macabre (1922) - A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, July 18, 2022
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