Ascenseur pour l'échafaud

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Wednesday 27 September, Eye is closed. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

still from Ascenseur pour l'echafaud (Louis Malle, FR 1958)

still Ascenseur pour l'echafaud (Louis Malle, FR 1958)

poster Ascenseur pour l'echafaud (Louis Malle, FR 1958)

Eye Filmmuseum seen across the river IJ © Marcus Koppen

Eye Filmmuseum, © Marcus Koppen

An abstract illustration of a figure in a trilby hat playing a piano on the left and a figure on the right playing the saxophone. (campaign image All That Jazz (© René Gast & Yvonne Kroese (wallstories.org)))

campaign image All That Jazz

still from A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, US 1951)

Eye on Sound: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) (soundwave)

Eye on Sound: Ascenseur pour l'echafaud (1958) (soundwave)

still from Passing Through (Larry Clark, US 1977)

Eye on Sound: Passing Through (1977) (soundwave)

still from Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe (Johan van der Keuken, NL 1967)

Eye on Sound: Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe (1967) (soundwave)

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Wat did jazz legend Ben Webster do during his two-year stay in Amsterdam? The answer can be found in this programme of three short films about the Amsterdam jazz scene of the ’60s: Jazz... in Amsterdam, Jazz and Poetry and Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe. Screening on vintage 16mm.

Three short films on the Amsterdam jazz scene of the ’60s. Screening on 16mm.

Jazz in Amsterdam

Intense, political jazz film with raw energy featuring jazz as an emancipatory, political power. Larry Clark is one of the luminaries of the L.A. Rebellion movement that, since the 1970s, has revolted against Hollywood and wanted to create its own, new Black cinema.

Saxophonist Eddie Warmack has just been released from prison and wants to better his ways by focusing on music. However, he runs into trouble with powerful, dodgy characters in the music industry who brazenly exploit jazz musicians for profit. His artistic integrity is at stake. The jazz-laden Passing Through is a seldom-screened American indie film gem with a score arranged by Horace Tapscott featuring music from artists including Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy and Sun Ra. It shines a stimulating light on the historic origins of jazz which are sometimes at odds with the (often white) music industry, a society obsessed with personal gains and the emancipatory power of (jazz)music. As evinced by the opening, 15-minute ode to jazz musicians consisting of scintillating coloured planes. An explosion-like film. First screening in the Netherlands that we are aware of!

Passing Through

exclusiveScreeningsInEye

Miles Davis’ muted trumpet, Jeanne Moreau’s untroubled face: if jazz and film noir coalesced anywhere it is in Ascenseur pour l’échafaud. Davis created an iconic soundtrack for Louis Malle, and the latter helped Miles enter his next phase.

Jeanne Moreau plays Florence, disillusioned war veteran Julien’s 'maîtresse'. He works for her husband, an arms dealer. The characters’ lives enter a maelstrom when Julien, incited by Florence, uses a revolver to kill his boss.
 Ascenseur pour l’échafaud, a combination of film noir and nouvelle vague, marked a break with the French cinematic tradition of the 1950s. Moreau’s unadorned appearance, the night-time shots of Paris made using extra sensitive film and the soundtrack (jazz had hardly been used in film) were the opposite of the manicured aesthetics of French studio productions.
On October 1 composer / saxophonist Adam Claussen will give an introduction.

Jazz greats like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Dexter Gordon and Ornette Coleman have all made music for a film at one time or another. As musicians, they have contributed to works by idiosyncratic directors such as Louis Malle, Bertrand Tavernier and David Cronenberg.

All That Jazz

Elia Kazan’s classic is iconic: Marlon Brando’s astounding Method Acting was at complete odds with traditional, subdued acting. Alex North was one of the first to take jazz seriously as film music.

Kazan gave Brando, star of Kazan’s Method Acting school, free reign in the black &amp; white adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ famous play, which was also directed by Kazan, featuring Brando as the rough Stanley Kowalski.Composer Alex North was one of the first to take the opportunities jazz provided as soundtrack music seriously. The way he incorporates jazz and blues into the sound of a symphony orchestra is unique. The score illustrates the characters’ moods using different instruments (saxophone, strings). In the past, film composers had accompanied characters with (recurring) themes and motifs.
North used jazz – a musical genre viewed purely as party music (swing, ragtime, Dixieland) or as experimental artsy music (bebop) – as a compositional element. Before A Streetcar Named Desire jazz in films was often a gilded gimmick or location music (from a radio or in a dirty diner).
Jazz great Miles Davis (not exactly known for praising peers) said of Alex North's score; ”That’s a wild record... if anybody is going to write for strings in the jazz idiom or something near to it it’ll be North”

A Streetcar Named Desire

Eye on Sound

With an introduction by composer/saxophonist Adam Claussen, who wrote his thesis on Miles Davis' jazz score

Free access for We Are Public members to the screening on 1 October (19:15).

Ascenseur pour l'échafaud

Louis Malle / FR, 1958 / 88 min.

Miles Davis’ muted trumpet, Jeanne Moreau’s untroubled face: if jazz and film noir coalesced anywhere it is in Ascenseur pour l’échafaud. Davis created an iconic soundtrack for Louis Malle, and the latter helped Miles enter his next phase.

This is part of

Special screenings

Passing Through

A Streetcar Named Desire

Jazz in Amsterdam

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All That Jazz