John Mucci
Fri, 28 Feb 2003 11:14:42 -0800
It is accepted that both film and music for Rapsodia Satanica are about 40 minutes. (A much better parity than poor George Antheil's Ballet Mecanique that has 30 minutes of music and 12 minutes of film.) We have to recall, however, that in those days film not only ran between 17-20 frames per second, considerably slower than today's 24-30 fps, but also were shipped on reels that held about 9-12 minutes of film. This would mean that Rapsodia Satanica must have been 3 very full or 4 loose reels long. And for the time, that was a very long picture. (Cabiria was an exception at 148 minutes). What I am after, musically, however is this. In those days it was very expensive to set up, build a booth for (since film was inflammable and needed to be contained in a projection booth - and the sound of the projector needed to be muted), and display a film; and while we are used to seeing films seamlessly changing from projector to projector, the usual thing in 1915 was to have one projector, and show the film a reel at a time, sometimes even taking an intermission and rewinding the film, with no regard to pacing or the audience's impatience. Eisenstein talks about this very clearly when he created "Potemkin" with exact beginnings and endings to his reels in order to keep the audience's attention without having them feel as though they were being interrupted all the time. Rapsodia Satanica seems to have some of these full-stop endings to them, and I wonder whether they exist at points that would indicate the end of a reel. Since it was such an expensive production in the first place, with each print being not only tinted and toned, but stencilled as well (as Erik has kindly shown me the research on), they may have made the presentation first class as well. (Today 40 minutes is no challenge at all to show as a film, since films can be two hours and more loaded onto a bed rather than use reels anyhow). But in 1915, they just may have gone to the expense of having two projectors; setting such a booth up in a concert hall is difficult but would not be beyond the scope of PM's ego. (Mascagni complained bitterly about having to perform at least once in a 'movie house'!) I wonder is anyone has seen contemporary accounts of the film set up in the concert halls - or if that is a seamless, transparent thing that the audience and critics alike take for granted. John Mucci 9 DeForest Rd Wilton, CT 06897 203-722-6751(c) 203-761-0083 (h) www.jmucci.com _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail -- Unsubscribe by sending unsubscribe in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]