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Yo La Tengo - The Sounds of Science
Live music performance to the BFI's films of Jean Painlevé
Royal Festival Hall , 9 September
Following the recent release of the BFI DVD Science is Fiction The Films of Jean Painlevé / The Sounds of Science featuring American art rockers Yo La Tengo's alternative soundtrack, Yo La Tengo will play live to a selection of the films at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 9 September at 7.30pm.
In 2001 the band was selected by the San Francisco International Film Festival committee to compose new music for the extraordinary films of Jean Painlevé. Their alternately sombre and joyously moody music seemed like a natural fit for Painlevé's dramatic underwater studies. They made the music available on CD and subsequently worked closely with the BFI this year to produce new musical versions of the films for their first release on DVD last month. This is a rare opportunity to see and hear the band play live to Painlevé's films.
Pioneer of science films, Painlevé explored a twilight realm of vampire bats, seahorses, octopi, and liquid crystals. He made more than 200 science and nature films and was an early champion of the genre. Possessing a remarkable eye for life's eerie curiosities, Painlevé's art pivots on the premise that 'science is fiction'. He created a landscape of bug-eyed wonderment marked by a playful sense of nature's hidden poetry and scandalized the scientific world with a cinema designed to entertain as well as edify. Painlevé's astonishing documentaries witness a genuinely 'magic realism', which continues to enchant audiences around the world.
The BFI DVD is on sale now, a two-disc set in a beautifully presented double-cover digipack. RRP is £24.99. Its extra features include a filmed introduction by academic Dr Michael Abecassis; two short films by Percy Smith: The Birth of a Flower (1910) and The Strength and Agility of Insects (1911) and a short film by Adrian Klein: Colour on the Thames (1935). Also included is a 31-page illustrated booklet with essays and film notes. Tickets for the Royal Festival Hall performance are on sale now priced £16/£14.
- Find out more about the event on the Southbank Centre website
- Buy the BFI DVD Science is Fiction / The Sounds of Science: The films of Jean Painlevé
