Old German Films, New Beijing Tunes（在线收听）

Ah, silent movies.

The entertainment of a glamorous by-gone era…

Well here in Beijing, they're seeing a revival…

With a very local twist.

Allie Johnson has the story.

 
When your grandpa watched silent movies, they sounded like this.

Today, they sound like this.

Broadway Cinematheque MOMA is holding its second annual Open Air Cinema festival. Three German silent films from the 20s are being paired with some of Beijing's hippest musicians.

The first three shows are up on the roof of the Broadway Cinematheque. All around us, the tall white towers of the MOMA complex are lit up in electrifying colours. Some people are sitting on fold-out plastic chairs…And others are on the roof's grassy man-made hills. They're kicking off their shoes, and drinking wine from plastic cups. It's kind of like being at an outdoor music festival…

But right in the middle of Beijing.

Tonight's film is Metropolis…

A 1927 sci-fi about a futuristic urban dystopia.

It's a city of impersonal skyscrapers, men ruled by machines, and owners exploiting workers.

The strangest thing is, the skyscrapers in the movie look IDENTICAL to the MOMA buildings around us.

Beijing electronic band Shanshui is accompanying the film with a mix of pre-arranged and improvised tunes…And they're as eerie as the movie itself.

It's sure not what the first Metropolis audiences heard back in the twenties…But it seems strangely fitting.

Shanshui's ME:MO says it's easy to pair modern music with the film…

Because today, Metropolis's ominous skyscrapers and mechanized work environments are a reality.

"Looking at this movie today, you can see the director was able to predict the future with an incredible amount of accuracy. It just seems unbelievable that anyone could have made this film in the 1920s. He's amazing."

The Open Air series is co-organized by German cultural organization The Goethe Institut.

Programmer Gao Yi says the conflicts in this movie are timeless…and could describe modern-day Beijing.

"People want to destroy the machine, but at the same time, they love the machine. Without the machine, it doesn't work, the city."

For many people this is the first time they've seen a silent movie. But they're not new to China.

"Well you know, the film industry in the 20s and 30s in Shanghai, it was very influenced from Hollywood. There's a lot of silent film. So silent films for Chinese are actually not strange. Because people have same mimic, how they're scared, how they're happy. You know when they're fighting and when they fall in love. They have a body language that's quite the same."

Gao Yi says now that anyone can stream a movie on their home computer…

Silent films have taken on a new importance, because you HAVE to watch them with other people.

"When I saw a silent film in Germany, it's winter. It's December. It was snowing, and everybody's sitting outside in the square. And you know, people watching a movie, together…it's a very special experience."

The second annual BC MOMA Open Air Cinema Season wraps up this weekend in Beijing.

Electronic group Shanshui will again accompany the film Metropolis on Saturday September 10th…

And folk fusion band Da Wang Gang will perform to the movie Faust: a German folk tale.

For CRI, I'm Allie Johnson.