The Black Man with a White Soul (part II)

In response to a comment (just someone asking for more details):

The film was very interesting and out of the ordinary, partly because it is in fact a silent film from many decades ago. But apart from "historical interest" the film was funny and charming in its own way. I must observe, however, that the racism was quite strong: in the plot, the successful black man still fails to get the girl because the girl could not overcome her aversion to Negroes. On the other hand, it's also entirely possible that the movie is not as much racist as it is instead about racism, with about as much insight as they could muster in those times. (OKAY I know nothing about silent films and/or racism, so I'll stop here.)

The music was excellent. This was the first time that we have heard a performance by the Novo Concertante Manila, and they certainly did not disappoint us. I cannot say anything bad about their performance, and the music (that I hear was an original composition for this movie) fit the movie very well.

The choral accompaniment really made the screening much more special and unique, almost theatrical. In particular, a scene that we both found memorable was a hair-raising dream sequence. The girl, Emma, having just met Pedro/Peter, the black man (the protagonist), is haunted by an uncontrollable fear. In her dream, Peter and his tribesmen perform a sinister ceremony inside the mouth of a gorilla, and Peter himself swoops down to her bedside to steal her away. They overlaid footage of Peter and Emma's "spirits" over footage of Emma sleeping in her bed, effectively creating a ghostly effect, which was further enhanced (in our eyes) by the soft, blurry quality of the film.

But more than the visuals, as good as they were, the choral score for this particular scene really made it shine. Imagine: in the moonlit darkness, a woman sleeps in her bed, wearing a flowing white nightgown; but the spirit of a black man in tribal costume comes, wakes her spirit, and kidnaps her in what was really a wonderful dance sequence. Creepy, beautiful visuals in the interplay of whites and grays and blacks, and all the while, a live choir (!) filling the entire cinema with a visceral (strong beats you could almost feel in your chest) yet also otherwordly accompaniment.

So, in short, the silent film itself was decent and interesting enough, but the choral accompaniment was what made the screening excellent.