Viva Brighton Issue #39 May 2016

CINEMA
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Symphony of a City
A soundtrack to Brighton
How does the film
compare to Walter
Ruttmann’s original
Berlin: Symphony of
a Great City, which it
was clearly inspired
by? Lizzie Thynne:
Although we follow a
loose structure of a day
in the life of the city,
which is very much the
structure of the original, we also wanted to include
some archive from Screen Archive South East, at
the University of Brighton. We have some wonderful
gems, such as a ritual that used to happen
by the pier when ‘Father Neptune’ was dunked
in the sea by beautiful, muscly young men also
dressed up. It’s not really what you would expect
from the 50s, although it’s what you might expect
from Brighton!
What about comparisons with Edmund
Meisel’s original musical score? Ed Hughes:
The Meisel score hasn’t survived. However, I think
we are interested in Ruttmann’s idea of the form
of a symphony in a broad sense of an analogy as a
means to create a portrait of a city, using musical
principles of coherence and contrasting themes.
Was there a deliberate attempt to contrast the
music with what is happening on screen? EH:
There is definitely counterpoint between the music
and the picture. We’re aiming at something in
which the patterns of the silent film and the music
co-exist and respond to one another, perhaps more
like music and dance than regular cinema music.
Was the film storyboarded beforehand? LT:
If only! We made the film in four short months
alongside work (Lizzie
and Ed are both lecturers
in the School of Media,
Film & Music department
at Sussex University).
But that was incredibly
liberating because it
very much depended on
us responding to what
we were seeing. We had
ideas that we were trying
to match, such as circular motions, so the Brighton
Eye features as a kind of motif that keeps returning,
and it represents the passage of time.
Is this your first silent film? LT: Yes, and it’s
quite a joyous film but we wanted to explore some
of the more problematic sides of Brighton. It was
quite tricky to indicate the issue of homelessness
without it being too voyeuristic, as I couldn’t have
those people speaking in the film telling their
stories. So, inevitably, as with silent films, people
become symbolic.
Has making the film revealed elements of
Brighton you haven’t witnessed before? LT: It
renewed my enthusiasm for the city. Just in the
way people reacted, and how friendly they were.
I worked closely with Catalina Balan, and there’s
still the radicalism which we’ve tried to reflect,
as well as a few surreal moments that feature
the unexpected, which is something I was really
pleased with about the film in that you’ve got the
extraordinary in everyday life.
Interview by Julia Zaltzman
Brighton Festival, Wed 11th May, 7.30pm, Brighton
Dome, featuring The Orchestra of Sound and Light
conducted by Ed Hughes
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