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Event
"Phantom of the Opera" (1925) on 16mm film!! with live music by Underworld Oscillator Corporation!
Date: Tuesday, May 10th
Time: 7pm
Admission: $12
Location: Morbid Anatomy Museum, 424 Third Avenue, 11215 Brooklyn NY
When by the off chance the opera house you've just purchased has been built above ancient dungeons, catacombs, and underground torture chambers you ought not be surprised at the gruesome goings-on that may ensue.
We are pleased to present the original 1925 version of "Phantom of the Opera" in all of its rich, chiaroscuro spendor on 16mm film! Do not mistake this for the mawkish offspring of stage and screen, for the original story of the beauteous damsel and the ghastly fiend is a macabre delight of the gruesome, horror-house atmosphere firmly rooted in the Grand Guignol. It is a film of dark catacombs, deadly mantraps, with the shadows of unseen horrors glimpsed on the dank stone walls of backstage nether regions. Stairs lead ever downwards to dark chambers below other chambers while hidden trap doors take one further down below. A gondola glides on the waters of an underground lake, echoing the subterranean swan pool of the Venusgrotto installed for Ludwig II of Bavaria beneath Linderhof castle.
The mysterious Phantom was made an iconic figure by Lon Chaney in the scene of his unmasking. "If I am the Phantom it is because man's hatred has made me so," he bewails to his alluring captive. He appears in the costume of cavalier with skull mask at the Grand Ball in a conspicuous reference to Edgar Allan Poe's "Masque of the Red Death," where he grimly declares to the unsettled crowd: "Beneath your feet are the tombs of tortured men. Thus does the Red Death rebuke your merriment." Performing at the organ he proclaims his degenerate desire through the title of his composition: Don Juan Triumphant.
The Underworld Oscillator Corporation (Richard Sylvarnes, Rachael Guma, Gabriel Guma, Dirk Rowntree) will perform an opulent live score to the film. The Brooklyn based Underworld Oscillator Corporation initially got together in the late summer of 2015 as an experiment in sound making; to see if four very disparate and diverse individuals could work as a cohesive sound making organism. Rachael Guma - a filmmaker and sound artist whose work has been shown at the San Francisco Cinematheque, RX Gallery, Mono No Aware, Northern Flickers, Uniondocs, AXWFF 2011, Black Marian Films, among others. Gabriel Guma - the Argentinian born visual artist and self professed sound mangler whose graphic work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Reader's Digest UK. Dirk Rowntree - a designer and batterist who has recently performed at Theatre 80 St. Marks and Santos Party House. Richard Sylvarnes - artist and provocateur whose work has been shown at the Tribeca Film Festival, Emerson Gallery Berlin, Videoex in St. Petersburg, the Ragged School in London, Galerie Du Jour in Paris, Subliminal Projects in Los Angeles, Jeonju Film Festival in South Korea, Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece, and elsewhere.
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LocationMorbid Anatomy Museum (View)
424 A Third Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
United States
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