The Alloy Orchestra has become a fixture at the
Maryland Film Festival. Whether it’s performing the score
to The Black Pirate at MFF 2003 or the World Premiere of
their new score for The Phantom of the Opera starring Lon
Chaney at a Friends of the Festival screening, they are always a
special treat for audiences.
With Blackmail they take on the work of arguably the greatest film
director that ever lived, Alfred Hitchcock. When Alice’s flirtation
with an artist gets out of hand, she murders him in a panic with
a butterknife. Her detective boyfriend is assigned to the case,
so all seems set for her to get away with her crime as he hides
the evidence that will implicate her. However, someone else has
proof of her guilt and uses that information to blackmail the couple.
Blackmail was made when sound on film was just beginning
to make talkies possible, and Hitchcock made two versions of the
film: one silent and one with sound. It would be both the second
sound film made in Britain and the penultimate silent film made
by Hitchcock.
-- Dan Krovich
Presented by: The Alloy Orchestra
The Alloy Orchestra is a three man musical ensemble
(Roger C. Miller, Ken Winokur, and Terry Donahue), who write and
perform live accompaniment to classic silent films. Performing at
prestigious film festivals and cultural centers in the US and abroad
(The Telluride Film Festival, The Louvre, Lincoln Center, etc.),
Alloy has emerged as possibly the best and best known silent film
accompanists in the world. An unusual combination of found percussion
and state-of-the-art electronics gives the Orchestra the ability
to create any sound imaginable. Utilizing their famous "rack
of junk" and electronic synthesizers, the group generates beautiful
music in a spectacular variety of styles. Now in their 14th year,
Alloy began their aural onslaught with their original score for
Metropolis in 1991. For each of the last 12 years, the group has
composed a new score and premiered it at the prestigious Telluride
Film Festival. In addition to their work with silents, the Orchestra
has contributed soundtracks to commercial videos for IBM, UPS, The
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the National Park Service and other
projects. Their work has been featured in contemporary films and
videos by directors Errol Morris (Fast, Cheap and Out of Control),
Jane Gillooly (Dragonflies, the Baby Cries), Ben Meade
(Vakvagny) and others.
Partial funding of this screening provided by:
