By Callum Ludwig
Five-piece jazz band Sounds of Silent are coming to the Warburton Arts Centre to revive an entertainment experience much loved long ago.
They will be performing the score for the 1928 silent film Steamboat Bill Jnr starring Buster Keaton.
Keyboardist Rod Wilson said the band does a combination of 1920’ style jazz and more up-to-date versions of tunes.
“We’ve performed these shows all around Victoria, at festivals and all sorts. We have been doing it for about 10 years and started out at the Piazza Italia in Carlton at an outdoor movie screen, and we hid behind the screen but realised people didn’t even know we were there and have been out front ever since,” he said.
“It gives people a great sense of the history of both movies and of live music. People come away thinking that they have a whole other era out here that they didn’t get to see and it has gotten a lot of interest.”
Steamboat Bill Jnr is about the aesthetic-focused son of a bad-tempered riverboat captain reuniting with his father in a river town and taking on the whirlwind of an arrogant local competitor, a forbidden romance and a literal whirlwind.
Mr Wilson said the film is famous for being the first use of a comical stunt still used today.
“The insurance ad currently on TV [by AAMI] where the house falls on top of people and they pop up through the window is taken directly from Steamboat Bill Jnr, from the massive storm at the end of the film,” he said.
“You can see the slapstick humour in the movie which everyone loves. When we played these movies at schools to kids who had never seen a silent or even black and white film before they love it and enjoy the recreation of the movie-going experience of the 1920s.”
Sounds of Silent can perform a number of classic scores from a range of movies, such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin movies or Laurel and Hardy shorts to keep alive the famous and talented performers and their works of yesteryear.
Mr Wilson said he thinks there is a bit of a disconnect between the art of music and movies.
“We are not used to seeing and hearing them separately, even though people still love to go see a musical like Hamilton, so it should really stimulate those who are interested in the arts,” he said.
“If you have ever seen an old silent movie, they can be pretty tedious or boring, because they weren’t designed to be seen on TV without live music. In some theatres, you can see they still have the old theatre organs and things like that. We’ve done ourselves a bit of a disservice by not keeping music and film connected.”
The screening will be on Sunday 27 November at 1pm and tickets can be purchased by calling 1300 368 333.
