The Golem with Black Francis
San Francisco International Film Festival
The Castro Theatre
Friday, April 25, 9:30 PM
by Max Burke
Der Golem is a nearly 90-year-old silent German Expressionist film about a mythical creature brought to life by a sorcerer to protect a Jewish Ghetto in 16th Century Prague. Black Francis, AKA Frank Black, is a contemporary musician and founder of the seminal rock group The Pixies. Under the auspices of the San Francisco International Film Festival, these two disparate cultural forces were united for one night in which Black and a lineup of rock musicians performed a live accompaniment to Der Golem.
There has been a small, but notable, movement of contemporary musicians reviving silent films in order to score them with contemporary music. In 2003, British pop superstars Pet Shop Boys composed an original soundtrack to the classic Russian film The Battleship Potemkin, complete with an orchestra. A year later, the Lincoln Center mounted experimental hip-hop musician DJ Spooky's re-scored and re-mixed version of D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation as Rebirth of a Nation, an overt attempt to re-take some of the cultural and political ground claimed by the controversial film. Such efforts are noble, and as the popularity of silent film seems to wane with each passing generation, nearly any effort to expand the fan base of silent cinema is a good thing. Bringing pop musicians into the fold is a novel idea on the surface, but a close scrutiny of cinema history reveals that “silent” film was never truly silent. Live musical accompaniment was typical, but more innovative methods such as Japanese benshi, live narrators which provided commentary and translation of silent film, were also standard. Festival curators attempting to inject life into nearly century-old films with limited appeal stand on solid historical ground by inviting rock groups and live emcees to accompany the screenings. Modern silent film exhibition is an exciting field precisely because although the format has over a 100 year history, its contemporary incarnation is completely open to creative programming choices.
With this in mind, I descended on San Francisco's beautiful, historic Castro Theater Friday Night to see Black Francis put a modern spin on ancient tale. The event was clearly one of the festival's hot tickets, with anxious fans lining up outside two hours ahead and a rush ticket line of those desperate to grab a seat forming well ahead of the screening time. By the time the lights were dimmed, every seat in the theater was filled.
The result of the collaboration was decidedly a mixed bag. Instead of relying on traditional instrumental-only musical accompaniment, Black played rock songs complete with vocals and a verse-chorus-verse structure. He re-used a number of songs at key moments in the film, establishing effective musical themes for the Golem and Rabbi Loew, who brings the creature to life. In these specific sequences, there was a pop soundtrack quality to the accompaniment that succeeded in enhancing the film's striking, German Expressionist imagery. However, this being an early narrative film, it is littered with lengthy expository sequences that very slowly develop the film's simplistic storyline. In these sequences, Black relied on simple refrains of some of the main tracks and basic, repetitive rock music progressions to keep the sound going. The music was most effective during the film's more spectacular sequences, such as when Rabbi Loew summons a supernatural force to provide him with the key to awakening the creature. Here, Black conjured an appropriately abrasive rock tune and used his unique vocal range – which can transform from a screaming yelp to a soft croon in one lyric – to bolster the visual content. When the music failed to connect, however, the effect was more like listening to a Frank Black album on an iPod while watching the film, with little or no obvious connection to the on-screen images.
Another factor which made the screening a spotty affair was the inexplicable inclusion of an emcee who provided commentary on the film during breaks in the live score. The commentary ranged from poor one-liner jokes about the chaste depiction of sexuality in the film to trivial observations about the film's cast and crew. Such comments did not enhance the film's content and spoiled the atmosphere created by Black's music. However, the narrator's goofy commentary highlighted what was the central problem with the evening's proceedings. It was clear that most of the fans in the full house who coughed up $20 for a ticket weren't there to enjoy a classic silent film, but instead were attending a Black Francis concert. The emcee's flippant commentary further reinforced the idea that the film screening was just an excuse to attract a prominent rock musician and give this festival event a higher profile so that it would appeal to more than the typical silent film enthusiast. Given the sold out crowd, and mostly positive comments overheard in the lobby following the show, it was a success. The use of pop culture figures to re-awaken interest in early film is not necessarily a bad thing, nor is the use of a rock music score. But will the crowds of fans lined up to pay another $20 for a commemorative poster of the screening remember that they saw a classic example of the German Expressionist style, replete with gorgeous sets and an innovative visual vocabulary, or will they simply tell their friends they got into the sold-out Black Francis show? The line between rock concert and film screening was effectively blurred, and it was clear to this reviewer that the evening was all about the music and cultural cachet of Frank Black and not about classic silent film.