At this point, it’s fair to say that Nick Stuccio isn’t easily impressed. As producing director of the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, he’s spent the past 13 years curating an international showcase of contemporary arts, traveling the world for something new — which, luckily, he still always finds.Hollywood loves a good formula, and this fall movie season is rife with tried-and-true plot setups that will give you deja vu.For over a year, actor Armando Batista scribbled away his feelings on identity and race in America in composition books. But it wasn’t until he shared the writings with his roommate that his one-man show, “M.A.C.H.O.?”, began to take shapeThis summer, the editor-in-chief of Fandango.com, Chuck Walton, decided to watch 100 films in 100 days. And although he might be approaching movie fatigue at this point, he was able to talk with us about what documentaries will soon be big.REVIEW. Most coastal city-dwellers who are familiar with the grittier, busier side of life, relationships and indie-rock bands will love “Going the Distance”; the rest of America, not so much.
The Devil Music Ensemble is about to resurrect the dead — sonically, at least.
The Boston-based experimental band will kick off a nationwide tour at Films at the Gate in Chinatown, performing their original soundtrack to “Red Heroine” a high-flying, sword-slinging morsel of pre-sound, pre-Mao action that the festival’s organizers claim is the only wuxia (swordplay genre) film left from the silent era. It is a relic of the Shanghai silent film industry that was dismantled in the wake of the Cultural Revolution and forced into a fruitful exile in Hong Kong, paving the way for the works of Bruce Lee, Stephen Chow, and Jackie Chan. Devil Music’s Jonah Rapino says the pioneering action choreography seen in films like “Red Heroine” was a direct ancestor of the style still present in modern action-oriented films like “Kill Bill” and “The Matrix.”
“Almost all the elements or clichés of a modern Kung Fu movie are present in this movie that was made in the 20s,” he says. “The hermit who rescues and teaches the hero the art of Kung Fu, special effect flying, magic smoke, the evil and funny looking henchmen, and more.”
The Ensemble perform live alongside the screening using a wide range of instruments: Rapino, for his part, plays electric violin, vibraphone, lapsteel guitar, synthesizer, and the erhu, a two-stringed Chinese guitar-like instrument. The result is a multimedia fusion of the modern and bygone.
“The music is all of the sounds that happen in the movie,” say Rapino. “The approach of warriors on horseback, the striking of a sword, the emotion of losing a relative.”
Rapino says the DME spent about four months composing their musical accompaniments, creating cues for every scene.
“It’s like fine furniture,” he says.
Devil Music Ensemble performs ‘Red Heroine’
Friday, 7:30 p.m.
Hudson Street and Beach Street, Boston
MBTA: Orange Line to Chinatown
Free, 617-482-2380
www.filmsatthegate.org
Saturday, 8 p.m.
Union Square, Somerville
MBTA: Green Line to Lechmere
Free, 617-625-6600
www.somervilleartscouncil.org
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In the July MMMpod, Young Veins talk about breaking away from Panic! at the Disco, Keith Lockhart talks about Buckwheat Zydeco throwing the Boston Pops for a loop, Zooey Deschanel talks about how Roy Orbison inspired a She & Him song, Derek Miller of Sleigh Bells talks about how awesome Funkadelic is, and we talk about how awesome Jimmy Cliff is, who in turn talks about Sam Cooke and divine intervention. An explosive show for July! Oh yeah, and we also test your knowledge of America songs in the MMMPod medley.
