Nosferatu is a highly influential early black and white silent horror film of the vampire genre, originally released in 1922. In it, the mysterious Count Orlok summons Thomas Hutter to his remote Transylvanian castle in the mountains. After Orlok reveals his vampire nature, Hutter struggles to escape the castle, knowing that his wife, Ellen is in grave danger. The image of the long-fingered and bat-eared vampire played by Max Schreck’s is now classic. The film was based on the book Count Dracula; as it was an unauthorised adaptation, the airs of the book’s author sued, and a court ruling ordered that all copies of the film be destroyed. Luckily, a few prints of Nosferatu survived, and now we have the chance to watch it in Penang.
For the George Town Festival Tess Said So, an Australian duo critically acclaimed for their sparse but brilliant music – made with only piano and percussion – present a contemporary and alternative live cinematic score of Nosferatu. In this performance, Rasa Daukas and Will Larsen of Tess Said So perform their original score for Nosferatu in live concert. Described as “[t]he most haunting and visceral live scoring of a film I’ve ever heard… a triumph,” (Craig Wallace, Fan Tweet, March 2017) and “[b]rilliantly executed… highly bewitching,” (The Upside News, February 2017), this interpretation seeks to tell the audience what is not being said and what is not being shown in the original film.
Tess Said So adopts a pop sensibility to a classical format. Rasa and Will write and perform all their own material, influenced by a shared interest in new music and blurring the lines that define musical genre, infusing their sound with pop, jazz, ambience, minimalism, and electronica. As winners of the Adelaide Film Festival 2017 for Nosferatu and with two albums recognised in the Top Ten Modern Classical Albums in 2014 and 2016, this is a show that is not to be missed and a honour to have for the George Town Festival and in Penang.
Dates: 26th and 27th August
Time: 8:30pm-10:00pm
Venue: The Star, Pitt Street, George Town, Penang
Tickets cost RM25 and RM65 and can be purchased from the George Town festival on Armenian Street, or from https://airasiaredtix.com/nosferatu