For this episode of The Sound of Silence, the first season of the Peeping Archivist’s podcast The Conversation, we discussed transmission and cultural sphere with Nico Dalla Vecchia and Luca Leprotti, two young Italian musicians invited for the first time by the festival Il Cinema Ritrovato in 2018. 

Nico and Luca met there during their studies in Musica Applicata alle Immagini at the Conservatorio di Rovigo, and then moved to Bologna to work at Modulab, a sound lab for audiovisual productions. They subsequently founded their band LAEND.

Known for its cultural dynamism and troubled past, the capital of Emilia-Romagna has been attached many adjectives by the Italians, who call it alternately Bologna dotta, or erudite, in reference to its university; Bologna grassa, or fat, in reference to its distinctive cuisine; and Bologna Rossa, or red, for both its brick walls and left-leaning tendencies. 

The city has also been an important centre for arts and culture, with its own schools of painting and music dating back to the 17th century. More recently, it became a muse for many filmmakers. Bologna was the hometown of Pier Paolo Pasolini who spent a good part of his youth there. He came back there in 1967 to shoot the final scenes of Oedipe Re on the steps of Basilica di San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore. 

The Basilica is a familiar view for everyone who has had the opportunity to visit Bologna, but particularly for film lovers, as it turns into the largest outdoor film theatre in the world every summer. These projections, a truly unique and magical experience, are organised by the Cineteca di Bologna, which, since 1962, has relentlessly worked to establish the city as a world-leading hub for film culture. 

This episode of The Sound of Silence is an ode to Bologna, its inhabitants, and how they have successfully passed down their love for culture, cinema and music, from generations to generations.

Laend @ Il Cinema Ritrovato 2018

You are listening to THE CONVERSATION, the Peeping Archivist’s podcast where film archivists talk to film archivists.

For our first interview series, we wanted to put words on an art too often, and unjustifiably, considered mute: silent cinema. This is the Sound of Silence, the first season of The Conversation.

Our fourth interviewee is one of the most celebrated silent film accompanists and composers of our generation: the inimitable Neil Brand. Neil's prolific career includes composing new scores for the restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail and Anthony Asquith's Underground, as well as numerous live performances at festivals and screenings worldwide. 

With an extensive background in theatre and performance, Neil’s incisive and intuitive approach is a masterclass in silent film language - and if you don’t believe us, you should attend one of his masterclasses in Pordenone!

Neil Brand @ Il Cinema Ritrovato 2018

Our fifth interviewee is one of the most versatile musicians of his generation. He can play not one, not two, but sometimes more than three instruments over the course of a single performance. This true orchestra man, you will have recognised him, is no one other than Stephen Horne.

Stephen started accompanying silent films when he at university, and has not stopped since. Besides being a house pianist at London’s BFI southbank for 30+ years, he also regularly performs at silent and restored film festivals around the world, from Pordenone and Bologna, to San Francisco and Shanghai. 

Stephen has also composed the scores for a wide diversity of DVDs: Irvin Willat’s war drama Behind the Door, the British masterpiece Cottage on Dartmoor and the Mitchell and Kenyon: Edwardian Sports, Tales from the Shipyard collection. One of his most remarkable achievements remains his work on the reconstruction of the soundtrack for The Battle of the Ancre and Advance of the Tanks and The Battle of the Somme for the Imperial War Museum.

Photo Credit: Pamela Gentile

The Peeping Archivist