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7pm: Monday, April 27, The CineForum, 463 Bathurst, Toronto, M5T 2S9. Minimum Donation $100. Presented with a special score woven from the music of Argentina by Reg Hartt.
Note: THE FOUR HORSEMEN opened in New York at Legit Theatre prices. The book on which the film was based was a huge best seller. The picture not only had to meet expectations it had to surpass them.
To do that today’s producers would pick known stars and directors.
Film students are told women were denied an important role in early film. That is not true. It is one among many reasons young people should stay out of film school.
June Mathis wrote the screenplay. She produced the picture. She chose “B” director Rex Ingram and the largely unknown Rudolph Valentino to star. Was the picture a success? Yes. It hit huge.
In scoring this motion picture I did extensive research into the music of the period. Before I began I watched the picture three times in silence. I wanted it to speak to me. It did. Then I knew what to do.
This is a one night only presentation.
Why minimum donation $100? People pay $100 to see a show at David Mirvish’s theatres. That’s legit theatre prices today.
Is setting a minimum donation setting a fixed price? No. The City of Toronto sets a Minimum Donation for its events.
David Mirvish is a good man. He is now, however, listed among the top fifty male speakers of all time. I am. ( https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-male-orators/reference ) .
The late Bob Huber was a nice man. He never once wrestled with a a silent film to create a score that would take his audience deeper into it. Kevin Brownlow is a nice man. He never did that either. Carl Davis created a good conventional score for the shortened re-release version of this film: 134 minutes (edited version)
156 minutes (complete version).
I personally want to see it as it was shown on Broadway in New York.
I want people walking in with the same excitement people walked into New York’s Lyric Theatre in 1921.
Martin Scorsese is a great director. Leonardo Di Caprio is a great actor. Neither ever had a person of the caliber of Jane Jacobs say to them, “The best part of what you have to offer is what you have to say.”
I say this because people say, “Don’t go to Reg Hartt’s presentations because he talks.”
Yes, I do.
Creating a work of art be it a movie, a play, a painting, a sculpture, a ballet is still one person speaking. These are easier forms of expression. I chose the hardest.
A young man who came to this presentation emailed me after: “I was at your presentation of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse on Tuesday. Your soundtrack was wonderful, I’ve been leafing through uploads of the film on youtube today and the music for them all seems far too staid now.”
You won’t see David Mirvish here though you should. You won’t see Toronto’s film writers here though you should. You won’t see Kevin Brownlow here nor Guillermo Del Toro though you should.
Why should they be here? Jane Jacobs wrote, “Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.”
THE CINEFORUM is in an old run down building.
THE CINEFORUM is a fountain of new ideas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YonLUG7gRyY
