A WEST End musician who is coming to a Harwich cinema to accompany the screening of an iconic silent film says live music is a great way to get people back into cinemas.
Hugo Max is a viola player and film-maker who regularly accompanies silent films with live improvised scores, playing solo viola at the Prince Charles Cinema in London's West End.
Hugo’s tour is a celebration of the lasting power of five films from the silent era - Nosferatu (1922), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Der Golem (1920), The Lodger (1926) starring Ivor Novello, and Häxan (1922).
Screenings with Hugo's live improvised scores are scheduled in the UK’s oldest cinemas including Harwich’s Electric Palace Theatre, which will feature Nosferatu on October 10.
Hugo trained as a violinist and then learnt the viola.
Pitched between the high violin and low cello, he said it is a “conversational instrument” and well suited to film scores.
He said when he plays alongside a silent film from 100 years ago, the instrument “seems to give a voice to these people, it brings their breath to life again”.
Hugo said: “Nosferatu is a film about plague and otherness, the idea of the other is very present in the film.
“With German expressionist films in particular, silent films use the genre conventions of horror to do something far more symbolic and cut far deeper into questions of the time which are still relevant now.”
Hugo said these “poetic beautiful pieces of art” in the German Expressionist era were like no work beforehand or since, which is one way they evoke the “incredible uncertainty of the time”.
There are many interpretations of the film - a gothic adaption of Dracula where the vampire is truly feared by the locals.
Hugo, who has German and Jewish ancestry, says his interpretation draws from his own background.
However, he said the “abstract language of silent cinema” means there really is a meaning for everyone, and would rather have the audience ask questions themselves.
The musician does not seek to add extra meaning with his improvised playing, but prepares by watching the film beforehand and then reacting to it on the screen.
Hugo remembers watching Nosferatu for the first time aged 10 and then a decade later found it remarkable how “ingrained each frame was” in his mind.
He said: “For the younger audience there is a wonderful range of elements. You are there with an audience - a really thrilling thing - and it is an educational opportunity.
“It is a great way to get people back to the cinemas, it’s something special and audiences are willing to be engaged.
“Also, a silent cinema audience of four generations wouldn’t necessarily go to a viola concert for an hour and a half.”
He added: "It's wonderful when audience members come up to ask me questions about my musical process after a screening."
A new film adaptation of Nosferatu, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin, is out this Christmas.
But Hugo insists the original silent film only gets better over time and “continues to beguile contemporary audiences”.
He also is looking forward to being in Harwich, which he has visited many times. He grew up in a classical music family which spent many years going to the resort and the nearby Frinton musical festival.
To book tickets visit electricpalace.com/production/hugo-max-scores-silent-cinema-nosferatu-1922.
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