Early French cinema will be reimagined as a live performance this weekend at Galesburg’s Orpheum Theatre.
That’s the idea behind “Right in the Eye,” a live movie concert that pairs short, silent films by French filmmaker Georges Méliès with musicians performing on stage.
The films are more than a century old, but the creator of the show, Jean-François Alcoléa, said Méliès pioneered many techniques that are recognizable today.
“That means Mélies is a kind of the father of cinema,” Alcoléa said. “He's the one who created animation, fiction films, science fiction, everything we have nowadays in cinema. So basically, this is a bridge between the past and the present.”
Alcoléa performs the show with two other musicians. They use fifty or so traditional and handmade instruments. He said the live musical performance makes for a contemporary experience against the backdrop of the silent films.
While Alcoléa has performed this show more than seven hundred times all over the worl, he said each performance builds on the audience’s energy and is a bit different.
“You have musicians on stage, interactions between the stage and the screening, the set design, light design and interactions also with the audiences,” Alcoléa said. “It’s a whole experience. It’s not just music and films.”
Alcoléa said theatres like the historic Orpheum very much resonate with the aesthetics of the films.
“Right in the Eye” will be performed at 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. at the Orpheum Theatre, 57 S. Kellogg St.
If you need a French cinema warmup, the theatre is also showing the 2001 romantic comedy “Amélie” this weekend.
The showings are at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday.
Tickets and additional information are available online.
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