Live sonorization of the screening of Alfred Lind’s "Il Jockey della Morte"

The Temple Hall of the Mole Antonelliana is the venue of the program of events connected with the SoundFrames exhibition at the National Museum of Cinema and running through 7 January 2019. Saturday, 7 July, 9.00 pm – live sonorization of Alfred Lind’s Il Jockey della Morte [The Jockey of Death] by one of Turin’s most talented rock/jazz ensembles directed by Andrea Valle.

Alfred Lind’s Il Jockey della Morte (Italy 1915, 57') mixes thrills, love, circus and acrobatic acts in a melodrama that features a horseman in skeleton costume – the jockey of death - who performs daring horses acts. The restored version by the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique provides an hour of excitement that culminates in the escape/chase of the main characters over roof tops, through drainage canals, by train, by bicycle, and across a high wire to reunite in love.

To match the sonorization with the film’s visual pace, Andrea Valle composed a music score set unusually low to enhance the atmosphere that the Jockey creates: two basses, electric guitar, and drums. The score was composed with the musicians in mind: Dario Bruna on drums, Enrico Degani on electric guitar, Federico Marchesano and Stefano Risso on bass, with Carlo Barbagallo on sound mixer.

Admission with Museum ticket

The film showing of Il Jockey della Morte pays tribute to noted European film actors and directors who worked in Italy for part of their career. Lind followed a line of other silent era pioneers: Gaston Velle was hired by Cines Studios, Rome, in 1906, Segundo de Chomón worked with Itala in 1912, and Adelardo Arias collaborated with Ambrosio, Turin, in 1915. Already a name in international cinema, the acclaimed Danish actor, cinematographer, screenwriter and metteur en scène made five films in Italy as director and actor, three of which between 1914 and 1916 and the other two in the 1920s. In 1923 he founded Lind Film, his own production company, in Milan.

Il jockey della morte is probably his best film made in Italy. Shot mostly in central Milan, the film mixes scenes from the traditional circus world, poetically depicted, and the modern big city. The main character, now wearing a skeleton costume, now the elegant attire of an English gentleman, goes through whirlwind adventures: the frantic car chases, wild train rides, spectacular bridge explosions are a modernist translation of the daring feats of the circus artists.