https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2024-09-19/silents-synced-nosferatu-x-radiohead
As I have been presenting NOSFERATU to RADIOHEAD since around 2012/2013 I think it’s fair to say he got the idea from my many online posts about my presentation.
People are asking me if I know someone else is doing KID DRACULA (NOSFERATU to RADIOHEAD).
This is NOSFERATU to RADIOHEAD, yes.
However, it is not KID DRACULA.
Should people see it, yes, of course.
But do not confuse the experience with experiencing it in Toronto at The CineForum.
JULIA SCUTARU, retired journalist, Bucharest, Roumania, 2000: “In Toronto, I discovered by chance, Cineforum. Pure chance but a fortunate one. In that small room exhaling culture, passion and dedication, I watched the movie TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, an important historical, political and social document., and real artistic achievement…. As a journalist (in Roumania) I worked in the cultural field, including film reviews. Therefore I came to the Cineforum not just as a movie lover, but as a knowledgeable professional…We live in an era authoritatively dominated by brainwashing and political correctness…I admired Reg Hartt’s courage and passion put in searching out and defending the human truth, the artistic truth, the historical truth; the Truth and unveiling it…Discovering Reg Hartt and his Cineforum was one of the most important events of my visit in Toronto.”
PETER MOORE: “I am a Brit artist. I love Toronto. I have sometimes heard it said that Toronto is boring. It is a comparatively well ordered city. Maybe that is why some imperceptive people think it boring. The thing is I keep having amazing successes in Toronto. My friend Bob Welton who decided he was much happier in Warsaw than in London used to say in London everything is possible and nothing is probable. I just find in Toronto not everything is possible but lots of things, important things, are quite probable. Does this make sense?
“ANYWAY, a wonderful surprise in Toronto is Reg Hartt’s Cineforum. I was walking down Bloor Street with my friend Alan, a composer, a Torontonian who, searching for fulfillment in London, has realized that everything he wanted existed in his original home, Toronto. It was my birthday. He said, “What do you want to do for your birthday?” I said, “I want to go and see that!”
“I was pointing at a mysterious poster for TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, (the film of Hitler’s l934 Nuremberg rally). I’d always wanted to see that.
“So we went and I found myself in the most perfect place on earth to watch a film. With the film was an unexpected treat…a brilliant, unbiased, sensible and stimulating introduction by the amazing Reg Hartt.
“So once again, in German mode, we went to see Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS. Reg had somehow spliced on to the film his own soundtrack. Now this was interesting because a while later we went to the Art Gallery of Ontario where the same film was shown-much bigger screen-and with piano accompaniment. It was interesting to compare the two showings. Reg’s came out winning.”
Most who go to this presentation at THE FOX (a fine theatre) won’t come to THE CINEFORUM.
I think it if fair to say that the few who do come here after experiencing it there will find my presentation comes out winning.
For more on my presentation of Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS read these:
From a letter to an Ottawa cinema: “Last week I finally got a chance to see a film I have been trying to see for literally years. That film is METROPOLIS, and I don’t mean Giorgio Moroder’s head-banger version. No, I’m talking about the most complete version of the film as it was meant to be seen in a l6mm print so clear, so clean you’d think the film was made a year ago. Wow. I mean I have been hearing stories about METROPOLIS for a long time, but I never thought my expectations would be met let alone far
surpassed. And this without the “help” of Mr. Moroder. Does this mean there wasn’t a soundtrack?
“Far from it. Accompanying the film was a brilliant (and I mean brilliant) soundtrack combining both modern music and classical pieces. This soundtrack suited the film when we all know Moroder’s didn’t. So who has this print of the film? Reg Hartt….If you know anything about Reg Hartt you know his lectures are anything but boring. He’s thrown chairs at people, kicked non-believers out, slandered near everyone under the sun (who usually deserves it) and started near riots. In other words, a real entertaining guy. Honestly. Reg is a lot of fun, he knows more about film (and the politics of film) than all of my teachers combined. And his soundtracks!”
DOUGLAS ELIUK {education officer National Film Board of Canada; Canadian Cultural Attache to America): “I have left so many cinemas looking like I’ve been smelling onions for two hours that it is a pleasure and a catharsis to alert you to a redeeming film experience I enjoyed recently. It was not exactly an epiphany, but when something brilliant comes along, it deserves comment beyond self congratulations on managing to stay awake.
“What I’m referring to is a recent screening of Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS I attended at Reg Hartt’s Cineforum. I’ve seen the film with every sort of accompaniment except organ grinder and a monkey. When organ and even the now rare orchestral accompaniments have been attached to one of the “silent” classics, it is still hard to avoid the giggle factor what with all the usual silent movie grand overwrought gestural school of acting methods. However, Reg Hartt has completely transcended the predictable approach and has presented a classic film with a brilliant multi-layered sound track that forgives the histrionic giggle factor. Hartt allows us to see a great film with a fresh perspective.
“I am not Mr. Hartt’s P. R. council but as someone who has been in the film industry for decades and who celebrates cinematic excellence,I hope you will take the opportunity to experience this superb revitalization of METROPOLIS with its innovative music track.”
I am not averse to doing programs at other venues though, in Toronto, I am rarely asked to.
Mostly because the people who run them don’t like the fact that I speak before my programs sometimes for a considerable length of time though I see other people are now doing that at different venues in Toronto.
Not everyone however sees my talks as an obstruction.
As was noted in a piece in Toronto LIFE, they are the reason people return.
Shirley Hughes (Toronto Silent Film Society):
A: My knowledge of silent films, German and French cinema, came an awful lot from Reg Hartt’s Cineforum. At first he showed films at Innis College, then he had a place on Mercer St. for a while. Reg showed some really incredible silent films, from Phantom of the Opera to D.W. Griffith’s films. His strength was putting incredibly good soundtracks on the films. He has a really good ear for movie music and back in the good old days when it was all analog, he would splice them together himself.
Shirley travels the world to see silent films. That means she has seen them with a lot of other people creating scores for them. She has said, “No one on earth scores siulent films better than Reg Hartt.”
Josh Frank, in the interview in the L.A. Times states he made nips and tucks to fit movie and music together.
That is one thing I never do.
The bane of film lovers and preservationists is those many folks who made nips and tucks to fit movie for a contemporary audience.
For myself the challenge is to present the film without nips and tucks.
There are many who say I succeed in doing that.
–Reg Hartt
“Reg Hartt has had an amazing impact given the size of the venue and the esoteric nature of the programming. He’s had an incredible impact on the city. No one else is doing it. No one else has ever done it.”–Rob Salem.
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