Alloy Orchestra Presents: A Page of Madness

More Info: Alloy Orchestra

Description

Alloy Orchestra has been called “the best in the world at accompanying silent films” by Roger Ebert, and features multi-instrumentalist Terry Donahue, director and percussionist (and former Iowa City resident) Ken Winokur, and keyboardist Roger C. Miller. Past films presented by Alloy Orchestra at the Englert include Metropolis, Nosferatu, The General, Lonesome, and Man With a Movie Camera.

An unusual combination of found percussion and state-of-the-art electronics gives the Orchestra the ability to create any sound imaginable.

Utilizing their famous “rack of junk” and electronic synthesizers, the group generates beautiful music in a spectacular variety of styles. They can conjure up a French symphony or a simple German bar band of the 20’s. The group can make the audience think it is being attacked by tigers, contacted by radio signals from Mars or swept up in the Russian Revolution

About A Page of Madness:
This Japanese silent film is a visual treat. One of the rare Japanese silents to survive WWII, this film is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. This newly restored version was completed by master restorationist David Shepard, and is available for the first time in the U.S. Lost for 45 years until rediscovered in​ the 70’s in​ a warehouse, it is an enduring piece of the Shinkankakuha (or School of New Perceptions) avant-garde group of Japanese artists.

“Using superimpositions, rapid and insistent visual patterns, fantasy sequences, and the visual flamboyance of actors impersonating mad people, A Page of Madness builds an atmosphere of astonishing intensity,” writes film critic Chris Fujiwara.

Directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa, A Page of Madness takes place in a countryside asylum and loosely tells the story of its janitor.