Description
Access Contemporary Music launches our first season of original programming at The CheckOut with Score & Screen – a new series pairing classic silent cinema with original scores we commissioned from Chicago composers performed live.
We begin with one of the great landmarks of early cinema: Louis Feuillade‘s legendary Fantômas serial. Long before the Joker, Darth Vader, or Dr. Evil, there was Fantômas – cinema’s first great supervillain. Coming out of the same literary tradition that gave us Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty, Fantômas perfected the archetype of the criminal mastermind.
An impossible-to-catch phantom and serious evil badass, Fantômas captivated audiences in 1913 and helped invent the language of the thrillers we watch today.
More than a century later, Feuillade’s five-film serial remains astonishing, filled with ingenious visual storytelling, breathtaking stunts, surprising humor, and an atmosphere that would influence generations of filmmakers.
Across five consecutive Wednesday evenings, experience all five films, each with a newly commissioned score composed and performed live by a different Chicago composer.
That’s more than five hours of original music written specifically for these films—five world-premiere scores, created from scratch and performed live in the intimate 60-seat setting of The CheckOut.
Whether you’re a film lover, a music lover, or simply curious, join us for one evening, or experience the entire saga across all five weeks. This is simply not to be missed.
We kick it off with Fantômas: In the Shadow of the Guillotine.
Music by Seth Boustead
Performed by:
Alyson Berger – cello
Seth Boustead – piano
Kathleen Carter – violin
Michael Hovnanian – double bass
With live electronics
