Lumiere et Ombre

Carter's Notes

This was part of an evening of silent avant-garde French films from the 1920s, for which composers were commissioned to write new scores. I chose the film "Lumiere et Ombre" ("Light and Shadow") by Alfred Sandy.

The imagery is abstract and geometric - spheres, triangles, cubes, etc. My intent in the score was to imbue these objects with emotion and character, in the hope that the audience might find something touching about a triangular block sliding across a plane, as I do.

Project Info

Film by Alfred Sandy, 1928

Music composed by Carter Burwell

Premiere performance by Parabola, conducted by Carter Burwell

U.S. Premiere March 18, 2002, Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center, New York City

Video

This 4-minute Quicktime video was shot off the projected film at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The quality is quite bad. The audio, however, is a studio recording and should be good. If anyone knows of a better video source for this film, please let me know.