The Robber Symphony (1936)
(Friedrich Feher, UK 1936, 134 min., DCP)
Imagine five mechanical pianos mounted on five carts and driven by five donkeys riding through the Alpes. Add a gang of robbers who communicate by playing musical instruments, an evil tightrope walker, and a full orchestra in bowling hats. This almost surreal children’s musical stands out as one of the most inventive and eccentric cinematic works of its time. Film historian Peter von Bagh considered The Robber Symphony among the few films of the 1930s that “seemed to challenge the Hollywood mode of narrative.” Made in the United Kingdom by a group of expressionist filmmakers fleeing from Nazi Germany (including such titans as director Robert Wiene, set designer Ernő Metzner, and cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan), with its daring blend of stylized sets and outdoor photography, its phantasmagorical narrative, and its innovative use of music, it was a rare experiment in the age of aesthetic stagnation. Its influence on the cinema of Michael Powell and the praise it received from such a diverse range of critics and film historians as Graham Greene, Georges Sadoul and Jerzi Toeplitz made The Robber Symphony a true classic.
Post-screening discussion with Senior Curator Peter Bagrov.