By Max Gelber
Altering a film’s original score in an attempt to change both the meaning and overall feeling of the film is not a new concept. Yet after The Valerie Project’s performance Friday night at the Museum of Fine Arts, it’s hard to say whether it’s possible to execute such a task as effortlessly as the group’s performance did.
The Valerie Project was created by three musicians of the Philadelphia psychedelic folk scene: Greg Weeks and Brooke Sietinsons from the group Espers and Margie Wienk of Fern Knight. The trio enlisted an ensemble of musicians including harpist Mary Lattimore, cellist Helena Espvall, vocalist Tara Burke, bassist/percussionist Jesse Sparhawk, flautist/keyboardist Jessica Weeks, electronic artisan Charles Cohen and percussionist Jim Ayre.
The goal of the Valerie Project was to create a dynamic new score for the Czech New Wave classic film, Jaromil Jires’ “Valerie and Her Week Of Wonders.” The film is an odd spectacle unto itself, befitting its cult classic status for a foreign film.
Nothing was left out of the plot. Vampires? You got it. Harsh commentary on the state of religion? You bet. Lesbians? That too. Oh, and in case you thought they had left something out, a bit of incest is sprinkled in to keep the viewers on their toes.
All together, the bizarre array of concepts fit well with the psychedelic folk provided by the ensemble.
The Valerie Project took the original concept of the film and attempted to expand on it with its own blistering and overwhelming wall of orchestration.
The ensemble began the evening with a pounding rhythm delivered by dueling cellos before adding layers of droning guitars and pounding percussion. Just when the sonic energy was growing, the cellos and guitar gave way to the angelic tones of harp and vocals.
This cycle of energy continued throughout the evening, with moments of bombastic heaviness and haunting vocals flowing into soft, gentle interludes of strings and delicate singing.
The group members played the parts of not only musicians, but storytellers. They guided the viewer during moments when the provided subtitles were not enough to pull you into the moment, as any good score should do.
However, the evening was not as simple as watching a film and listening to the composers beneath it churn out its score note for note. On Friday night, The Valerie Project transported the room into an homage to days gone by – to the early days of the moving picture house, when scores were played in theatre and in the moment with an energy and essence that could not be matched or duplicated.
The Valerie Project provided the attendants with a sensory overload of an experience where missed notes and forgotten cues did not ruin the moment, but rather added to the overall mood.
The only faults that came in the evening laid sadly in the issues of translation from Czech to English in the subtitles, going so far as to elicit laughter from members of the audience during moments the group perhaps wished to be taken a bit more seriously.
Yet, those issues aside, the group accomplished its goal, breathing new life into a forgotten classic of avant-garde cinema.
The group guided and shaped the film’s message into something fresh and relevant, all through the power of musicality. The Valerie Project provided one of the strongest instrumental performances one should be lucky enough to hear.
