Jazz ensemble combines live music and silent films

The Whitefish Theatre Company is thrilled to present award-winning, gypsy jazz ensemble Hot Club of San Francisco with their unique show titled “Cinema Vivant.”

A live music event not to miss, “Cinema Vivant” combines vintage silent films with live gypsy swing music for an unforgettable evening on Wednesday, Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish.

“Cinema Vivant” is a celebration of imagination and innovation. Imagine yourself in the idyllic French countryside in the 1930s. Sometime before dark, a gypsy caravan sets up camp in a field outside of town, luring the locals out for an evening’s fun. The wanderers travel with a film projector, pointing it at the side of a barn. Performing in the tradition of Django Reinhardt, Hot Club revives these gypsy caravans of the past and brings life to some of the earliest stop-action animated films that still exist: “There It Is,” “The Cameraman’s Revenge,” and “The Mascot.” As images flicker to life, Hot Club musicians play their blend of Spanish guitar, jazz and bluegrass rhythms,and fast swing, matching every movement on the screen with characteristic virtuosity, passion and humor. The result is a special evening of music and film that Acoustic Guitar calls “intricate, scorching and often brilliant.”

The group is led by superb lead guitarist, Paul Mehling, a silver-haired showman who launched Hot Club of San Francisco in 1991, spearheading the American gypsy jazz movement with countless concerts and a series of critically hailed albums. The band also features the amazing violin of Grammy Award-winning Evan Price, the velvet vocals of Isabelle Fontaine and a swinging rhythm section with guitarist Jordan Samuels and bassist Sam Rocha. With frequent national and international tours—from Iceland to Lincoln Center and the Monterey Jazz Festival — the Hot Club of San Francisco has been hailed as “one of the most cohesive and entertaining gypsy swing bands in the United States” by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Two of the stop-action films are from the very early 1900s by Russian filmmaker Ladislaw Starewicz, who is often credited with inventing stop-motion animation. For “The Cameraman’s Revenge” from 1912, Starewicz — an entomologist before he was a filmmaker — uses stop action shots of bugs to play out a tale of a husband and wife catching each other in romantic wrongdoings. “The Mascot,” from 1934, is a tour de force of surrealism as a child’s stuffed dog comes to life and interacts with a true cast of characters. Finally, the third film “There It Is,” written and directed in 1928 by Charley Bowers, one of cinema’s earliest geniuses, combines surrealism and slapstick in the tale of a stereotypical Scottish detective (played by Bowers) attempting to solve the mystery of the “Fuzz-Faced Phantom.” During a time of what we would consider drastically limited technical options in terms of special effects, these films create a series of small cinematic miracles.

Tickets are $30 for adults and $20 for students with reserved seating. Tickets can be purchased at the Box Office, 1 Central Ave., Whitefish, or by calling 862-5371. Box office hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and one hour before a performance. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.whitefishtheatreco.org. This show is sponsored by McGarry’s Roadhouse. A senior outreach concert is sponsored by Ann and Paul Jeremiassen.