I basically hurt myself with excitement when I read that the San Francisco Film Society was presenting Mauritz Stiller’s 1919 silent film classic Sir Arne’s Treasure with live musical accompaniment by indie rock icon John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats.
I don’t want to spoil the movie for you, because you should absolutely do everything in your power to make it this Tuesday night to the Castro Theatre, but all you really need to know is that it’s set in the 16th century, and it’s basically rife with murder and snow. What better backdrop to unleash John Darnielle’s unforgiving, relentless poetry against? John Darnielle was busy, probably rehearsing til his fingers bled, but I had the chance to catch up with Sean Uyehara, programmer at the San Francisco Film Society, and with musician John Vanderslice, to ask them about the upcoming collaboration.
I caught up first with Sean Uyehara over at the SF Film Society.
The Rumpus: What’s the process for picking the silent film each year and how’d you end up selecting the Mountain Goats to do the scoring for this film event?
Uyehara: The process is different every year, but basically involves contacting different musicians about the possibility of scoring films. Sir Arne’s Treasure is a film that I have been hoping to present in this way for a few years now, and it has been among the titles that I offer to musicians that agree to consider doing this with us. There are many factors that go into the list of films that I offer to different musicians, but I think this particular film would work well with a number of different soundtrack styles. Although it was made in 1919, it feels quite timely. I guess it might be because it’s set amidst war, and it seems like wartime is no longer exceptional today. The Mountain Goats came to me. I was speaking with someone who manages musicians, and she informed me that the Mountain Goats would be interested in doing this. I jumped at the chance.
Rumpus: It’s a pretty intense film – did you feel like it might be too challenging for a musician to score?
Uyehara: I didn’t, and I hope I was correct. Audiences can likely appreciate how difficult this process can be, as musicians are asked to create soundtracks for films that sometimes last longer than those musician’s typical live sets — and this is without stops, and more or less according to a script. I can’t think of many other films where this would be less challenging. I’m not a musician, so I am not sure how the different artists approach this, but I fantasize that when faced with the film without sound they feel excitement, then trepidation, then despair and finally they discover the musical equivalent of a keystone that the artist pulls from, allowing the whole score to magically fall into place. Sorry, what were we talking about?
Rumpus: Every year’s pairing seems so genius – is there a secret behind creating these perfect pairings?
Uyehara: That’s nice of you to say. No secrets. It probably happens in the ways that you might imagine. You know, with the whole magic keystone, animal sacrifice and lawyers.
Rumpus: Do you feel like events such as these are a way to revitalize interest in films for people who are less cinematically inclined, and also vice versa bring film buffs into contact with a musical collaboration, perhaps exposing them to artists they haven’t heard of?
Uyehara: Both. That’s one of the main points of the program. There’s a huge cache of amazing films from the history of cinema that many people would be surprised to find extremely engaging. And, there’s also an unfortunate canonization process for older films that tends to cut them off from their potential to reach general audiences. So, it’s intended that these pairings respectfully reinvest these films with the energy that they should and do have.
Another idea here is that this should present a risky and charged forum for popular musicians to present a program that is outside of their typical comfort zone. Hopefully fans of the musicians come away with a a new facet for appreciation of the performers they have come to know as well.
Rumpus: Great, thanks so much. I can’t tell you how excited I am for this event. See you then.
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Then I asked local musician John Vanderslice, who we profiled a while back, a few questions about the show.
Rumpus: How’d you first got involved with this project and what’s been your role in the process?
Vanderslice: John Darnielle called me a few weeks ago and asked if I’d like to play with him at the Castro to accompany the film. It was an easy sell! We wrangled in Jason Slota on drums and Jamie Riotto on upright bass and then started the email thread. John has been working so hard on this and I can’t wait to start rehearsals.
Rumpus: So I’m assuming you’ve watched the film. What’s your take on it?
Vanderslice: I love it!!! It’s beautifully shot. I’m a film fanatic. On that note, I’d love to recommend to readers Peter Watkins’ 1974 movie Edvard Munch. My wife and I watched it last night, it’s wonderful.
Rumpus: Have you had the chance to see any of the past years’ collaborations? Last year I was bummed to miss Stephen Merritt scoring 20,000 leagues under the sea.
Vanderslice: I haven’t seen any of them, I agree that one would’ve been fantastic. The past pairings all look interesting to me.
Rumpus: Man – I’ve missed them all too, so my excitement level for this is high and the Castro is the greatest movie theatre ever. Seeing as you’re a film buff – could you share your top films with Rumpus readers?
Vanderslice: Here are some movies I’ve recently seen that I liked (most available from netflix):
Human Resources (dir. Laurent Cantet)
A Prophet
Synechdoche, New York
Chop Shop
The Tree Of The Wooden Clogs (amazing Italian Neo-Realist film from 70s)
In a Year with 13 Moons (Fassbinder)
A Serious Man
Timecrimes
Where the Sidewalk Ends
Europa (Lars Von Trier)
Japon
Sawdust and Tinsel (one of my favorite movies of all time)
Memories of Murder
The Class
The Child (Dardenne Brothers, I would recommend everything they’ve made)
At this point our email-exchange interview ended with JV writing that rehearsals had begun and were “long and detailed but serious fun.” If you’re in San Francisco Tuesday night and you’re not here, aw man, I don’t even know what to tell you. It’s never going to happen again. It’s going to be like a shooting star that lands like an ice pick, just hopefully not in the tenth row center, where I hope to be sitting.
