People on Sunday / Menschen am Sonntag
with Rachel Grimes
1931 I Siodmak, Siodmak, Wilder, Zinneman, Ulmer I Germany I 74mins
1931 I Siodmak, Siodmak, Wilder, Zinneman, Ulmer I Germany I 74mins
One of the great modernist portrayals of urban working-class reality, Menschen am Sonntag was produced by a cooperative that included Edgar G. Ulmer, Billy Wilder, Robert and Curt Siodmak, Eugen Schüfftan, and Fred Zinnemann, as well as theorist Béla Bálasz, who provided the idea for the script. The story frames twenty-four hours in the lives of a few young Berliners — friends embarking on a Sunday outing. It is filmed with a breezy naturalism that was new to cinema at the time and is cast with nonprofessionals who (more or less) play themselves.
“The new score is based on a creative response to that which we don’t see. This compositional strategy allows us to echo internal psychological and narrative meanings behind and beyond the images. For us, there is a haunting duality to this vision of 1930s Berlin, and the new score reflects a sense of social or even political turbulence.” — Matthew Nolan and Rachel Grimes.
Matthew and Rachel performed their new score for “People On Sunday” at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC on July 31st 2016.
Heralded “one of American independent music’s few truly inspired technicians” by WIRE magazine, Rachel Grimes is a pianist, composer, and arranger based in Kentucky. She has toured the US, Europe and Asia as a solo pianist, and she has collaborated and performed with many artists. Much more here >>
National Gallery of Ireland (Shaw Room)
Merrion Square, Dublin 2
September 26th, 6pm
www.nationalgallery.ie/whats-on/film-people-sunday
Triskel Christchurch
Tobin Street, Cork
September 28th, 8pm
www.triskelartscentre.ie/events/people-on-sunday/