D-LIST-Sheridan 29 ENSEMBLE SOSPESO—QUATRE CHIENS THURS., JULY 22 I'M NOT SURE I'll be ...
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ENSEMBLE SOSPESOQUATRE CHIENS
THURS., JULY 22
I'M NOT SURE I'll be able to take the famous "straight razor slicing across a woman's eyeball" scene that opens the classic Buñuel/Dali film Un Chien Andalou more than once but, for those with the stomach, the ear will be rewarded. As part of the Lincoln Center Festival, the Ensemble Sospeso and the Film Society of Lincoln Center will present four consecutive screenings of the 16-minute surrealist masterpiece, each time with a different live score.
Radical when it opened in 1928 (rumor has it that Buñuel came to the premiere armed with stones in his pockets to defend himself against critics), time hasn't dulled the force of the film's impact, so it will likely stand up to multiple back-to-back viewings. Composers Joshua Cody, Kirk Noreen, Wolfgang Rihm and Elliott Sharp have signed on to add aural accompaniment to the visual complexities the film presents.
Though he hadn't heard the completed scores when we spoke, I asked Cody, who is also one of the Ensemble Sospeso's founders, how he'd characterize each contributing composer. Based on his descriptions, there shouldn't be a repeated note among them. He describes Rihm as "sometimes a great ironist but more often a passionate high modernist." Noreen "is more of a minimalist, an abstractionist," and then Elliott "will bring the downtown esthetic of free jazz, pastiche and improvisation."
As for his own take, Cody points to all the conflicting messages that collide in the film. "[Buñuel] in general is difficult because there's a very passionate moral sensibility but also a great deal of irreverence There are a lot of very beautiful moments and feelings in it, but it's funny, too, and of course shocking."
He has met the challenge of scoring such an iconic film by drawing on tradition. "Buñuel himself projected the film with phonographs of tangos and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde," explains Cody, "so my tango band steals from Osvaldo Fresedo and Wagner, and also from Bernard Herrmann's score to Hitchcock's Vertigo There's also other, 'modern' music in there, which starts arguing, if you will, with this neo-romantic pastiche." To that he has added a sound design track, so there will also be ambient noises and voices.
As a package, Cody's conception adds one more layer of contradiction to the film. "The idea is that the live musicians turn it, ironically, into a silent film, distancing it, whereas the soundtrack, which is canned, brings it to life."
Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center, 165 65th St. (betw. B'way & Amsterdam Ave.), 212-496-3809, 8, $20, $16 st. $15.