pago libre with Alfred Hitchock’s silent film
«BLACKMAIL»
Following the invitation of a Cinema Festival in Northern Italy, international jazz quartet
pago libre has re-discovered Hitchcock’s legendary silent film “Blackmail“, wrote new live
music for it and performed it with raving success. The four pago libre musicians (Arkady
Shilkloper - horn; John Wolf Brennan - piano; Georg Breinschmid - bass; Tscho Theissing violin) create a live soundtrack full of suprises and suspense, propelling the silent movie from
1929 right into the present age.
“Most movie soundtracks are just ordinary acoustic wallpaper, a kind of sounding
background for a visual drama. In the cinema, the ears are mostly underrated compared to
the eyes. And although the film music is vital for the rhythm and atmosphere of a movie, it
often goes unnoticed. European ensemble pago libre has succeeded spectacularly in turning
around this trend: the music is up in front, now and here, brillantly shining guidelines, and
the pictures have to withdraw.“
(review of “NRC Handelsblad”, Amsterdam, on the pago libre album «cinémagique», 2001)
BLACKMAIL – England, 1929. Thriller. Produced by John Maxwell for British
International Pictures. Director: Alfred Hitchcock – After a theatrical play by Charles
Bennett.
Script by Charles Bennett, Alfred Hitchcock, Benn W. Levy and Michael Powell.
Photography: Jack Cox. Scene: Wilfred C.Arnold und Norman Arnold.
Actors: Anny Ondra, Sara Allgood, Charles Paton, John Longden, Donald Calthrop, Cyril
Ritchard, Hannah Jones, Harvey Braban.Duration: 73 Min.
Blackmail, made in 1929, seems quintessential Hitchcock. A blonde heroine, a dull
policeman, a chase in and around a familiar public landmark, a killing, suspense, even a
cameo performance by the
director himself, together with a number of stylistic "touches' readily ascribable to him. It
was Hitchcock's tenth feature as director, yet only the second of his films to incorporate those
features of the 'Hitchcockian' universe we now take for granted. Blackmail was based on a
successful West End play but Hitchcock was to open it out and to inject into it a degree of
cinematic panache, especially in some of the 'silent' sequences, which pushed well beyond the
conventions of theatrical and literary adaptation. The film features Anny Ondra as Alice
White, a naive young woman who murders the man who tries to rape her. She then finds
herself caught between the Scotland Yard detective investigating the case (who also happens
to be her boyfriend) and a treacherous blackmailer.
Blackmail was released in June 1929. It was hailed as the 'first British all-talkie film'.
The trade press at the time called Blackmail a 'film of outstanding merit', a view echoed by
reviewers. But in 1929, the sound film was still a novelty, and most cinemas in Britain were
yet to be equipped for sound. As with many films in this transitional period, both European
and American, Blackmail was also released in a silent version, although not until the sound
version had had a couple of months to impress audiences with its technical innovations.
Understandably, the silent version has been overshadowed by the sound film, although as
Charles Barr has noted, various critics - including Paul Rotha at the time and Eric Rohmer,
Claude Chabrol and Francois Truffaut subsequently - make reference to it in their discussions
of the original release version.