The lovely Lillian Gish — The First Lady of the Silent Screen — graces that big screen again when the Syracuse International Film Festival presents D.W., Griffith’s 1920 blockbuster “Way Down East,” at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, at The Palace Theater in Eastwood.
Not only will the Palace audience see Gish’s character despoiled, deserted and finally rescued from a jagged ice floe floating down a river, they’ll also get to hear a brand new score written and performed for the 91-year-old film.
The Society for New Music will perform a new soundtrack by the precocious 34-year-old Buffalo-born composer Philip Rothman. He’ll conduct the Society’s musicians — Linda Greene, flute; John Friedrichs, clarinet/bass clarinet; Cristina Buciu, violin; Kit Dodd, viola; David LeDoux, cello; Julie Bridge, horn; Sar Shalom Strong, piano — as the film screens next Friday at the Palace.
Tough and funny
“Way Down East,” centers on a naive country girl named Anna (Lillian Gish) who is tricked into a sham marriage by a rich, callous womanizer (Lowell Sherman). She must then rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock. The film is perhaps best remembered for its thrilling climax in which Anna is rescued from doom on an icy river.
“It’s exciting to be part of this international film festival in such a unique way,” Rothman said. “‘Way Down East’ is one of the great classics of the silent film era. Bringing it to life with new music is a fun and challenging task.”
Made for the then-staggering sum of $175,000, “Way Down East” is the fourth-highest grossing silent film in cinema history, taking in more than $4,500,000 at the box office in 1920.
Despite the movie’s melodramatic plot, Gish — who was just 26 at the time it was shot — rises above the material, giving a tough, funny, intuitive performance, particularly mid-film as Anna bears her illegitimate child. No wonder the American Film Institute named Gish one of the Top 20 female film stars of all time. She kept working in movies through 1987 and died in 1993 at age 99.
Pizazz predicted
The movie’s original score by William Frederick Peters and Louis Silvers was a sometimes awkward amalgam of ragtime, popular songs and a little Liszt. Rothman, on the other hand, is a percussionist by trade and he likely created a score with plenty of rhythmic energy. Reviewers have praised his previous works for their “pizazz” and “percolation.”
In the The Boulder {Colo.] Dailey Camera, classical critic Sabine Kortals wrote that Rothman’s “The Manhattan Chase”…”brought to life the sounds of the Big Apple in a pleasing performance…the work is full of drama, color, and charm [and] actually presents a sweeping musical narration on all aspects of daily life in New York.”
After graduating from Rice University and earning a master’s at The Juilliard School where he was awarded a full scholarship, Rothman has emerged as one of the most sought-after music preparers in the industry, orchestrating for major motion pictures such as “Hollywoodland” and “The Nanny Diaries.”
He has won four ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Rothman is a 2003 winner of the Society for New Music’s Brian Israel Prize, awarded annually to one or two composers in New York state younger than 30, in recognition of an outstanding musical composition. In 2003, the Society performed Rothman’s String Trio for violin, viola and cello. This is the 25th anniversary of the death of Brian Israel and the 40th anniversary season of the Syracuse-based Society for New Music.
BTW, the Syracuse University Symphony Band will perform Rothman’s composition, “Battery Park Suite,” at 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16.
Film Fest fever
The Syracuse International Film Festival starts Wednesday, Oct. 12, and runs through Sunday, Oct. 16. The cost is $150 for a single all-access pass, $275 for couples and $126 for students and seniors. Single screening tickets sold at the door cost $7 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. syrfilm.com; 443-8826.
LuBossa — guitarist Jason Kessler and vivacious vocalist Luba Lesser — will perform for a film festival reception at 11 p.m. Friday, Oct. 15, at the Genesee Inn, 1060 E. Genesee St.; 476-4212. As its name suggests, the duo performs bossa nova tunes, with Kessler complementing the chanteuse with precision classical-style guitar work.
