Hugo Max and Sean Wilson on 'Three Ages'

Part One 

SW: Wow.. That’s some feat watching you do that, I’m sure everyone else shares that sentiment too. I suppose, to put in context for everyone here, what is your background? As a musician and in relation to what we’ve just seen?

HM: Well to start with, just to apologise, I have to come back down to earth! I am a filmmaker, painter and musician and it seems very important today to say ‘oh you can do all of these different kind of things’ but I think it’s very important to mention. All of these things speak to one another and we understand each better in that way.

For the last two years, I’ve been performing with live improvised scores, most times with viola, sometimes with the incorporation of prepared piano and percussion. I have found that improvisation has been a really wonderful way to present these films. It doesn’t grab hold and say it’s a definitive version.

There’s a culture of playing with a keyboard alongside, there’s a culture of organs playing alongside, also orchestras playing in the early days. Fritz Lang for example, with Metropolis, had a score commissioned to be performed alongside, the music is good and of the time.

Many of these films didn’t have scores written for them and I think now, the amazing thing about watching them is that no screening is alike. It almost feels morally wrong to impose anything on what’s playing. Improvisation provides a space in which we can imagine within that and bring the cinema back into the space.

We saw last summer when we had Barbenheimer, how important it is to have some kind of presentation of the film, a special thing to go for. I think live improvised scores are a way we can do that.

To give just a very short answer, I was at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square. I mentioned I did this in my time at Oxford and they said ‘We used to have this programme, we haven’t done it in a long time’. We’ve now built up a lovely relationship with German Expressionist screenings. Keaton is just a Bath based pursuit, my focus is German Expressionism.

SW: What we’ve just seen is very interesting because in the modern age we get film music that’s encouraged to be invisible. Whereas what you’ve performed there is a proper score that reminds us of what soundtracks used to be in the silent age. It’s not invisible, it’s very physical. You are an active participant and you’re translating what is going on into music. What does that mean to you as a musician?

HM: There is, I think with all silent films, there’s definitely a theatrical element. The provocative thing, I guess, is using a viola to underscore these styles instead of an organ, you have more range and more allusion to orchestral themes. I am a violinist and was never taught to play viola. I started violin when I was 4 and always thought of improvisation outside of the technical part of being told what to do and how to do it. It’s a space outside of the heavily taught, much closer to an expressionist painting.

In regard to silent film, it has the range, the textures, the muscular texture, it has this amazing lyrical quality. It’s very conversational and reacts to the surroundings.

I think in relation to Keaton, the viola almost without having that support in mind is almost destabilised and Keaton’s character is in a way, always in similar situations. I think theatrically it embodies that space very powerfully.

SW: Certainly yeah, when you talk about the range. Am I right in thinking that in each of the three ages of the film, I got the sense that there was a branching theme. It had a rustic americana, certainly different tones in each of the ages. The first age much more harsh, the roman section there were more plucked strings to reflect the lyre and then it all coheres together in the modern age. As it was not historical, I imagine it made sense for it to come together in the modern period.

HM: Completely with the structure, some of the things in the stone age seem more relatable than the modern!

There are different versions… there is this approach whereby with lots of silent films, particularly comedy films to frame.. I didn’t want to make a certain genre primitive, that’s what some of these versions have done. I wanted it to be more related to the sense of discovery.

SW: So for people that have just seen that – what is your process?

HM: So when I was first in touch with Ellie back in November, she said that they wanted to show some Keaton at the little theatre. I said, I’ve not seen Keaton, I’ve always wanted to see Keaton. My focus is German Expressionism, my grandfather’s Austrian. Musically speaking, my references were Schoenberg and Alban Berg, and all of these composers. When you think about that in relation to Keaton, it doesn’t really work – definitely outside of my comfort zone.

So what I then focused on, it was similar to how I would approach a Expressionist film. I created a bank of motifs, of main themes that could be connected with the characters at different points of the film. But then you take manuscript paper and write the themes of the films and just play around with it. Then you incorporate it into your practice, alongside watching the film, most days so you just remember the order of things. I used to do it completely blind but It’s nice to look at the film, especially films like this that are lighter.