KRI KRI DETECTIVE (Bloomer Detective) (IT 1912)
regia/dir: ?. cast: Raymond Frau (Kri Kri), Lorenzo Soderini. prod: Cines, Roma. uscita/rel: 23.12.1912. copia/copy: DCP, 9’37” (da/from 35mm, imbibito/tinted); did./titles: ENG, subt. ITA. fonte/source: La Cineteca del Friuli, Gemona.

Detective Bloomer receives information of a proposed burglary at a nearby villa.
He decides that the best way for his men to get there is in tabloid form. He fattens each with a huge mallet and packs them into a case which he carries to the scene of action. On arrival he places his men in their compressed form under chairs and tables and when the burglars appear they are pounced upon by the resuscitated policemen. (National Film Archive, London, Catalogue: Silent Fiction Films, 1895-1930)

KRI KRI HA PERDUTO IL CAPPELLO (Bloomer Loses His Hat) (IT 1913)
regia/dir: ?. cast: Raymond Frau (Kri Kri). prod: Cines, Roma. uscita/rel: 01.12.1913. copia/copy: DCP, 6’26” (da/from 35mm, imbibito/tinted); did./titles: ENG, subt. ITA. fonte/source: La Cineteca del Friuli, Gemona.

A gust of wind, and Kri Kri is chasing his hat down the street. After many vain efforts to retrieve it, he puts an ad in the newspaper. The next day he is literally inundated with hats. (Bo Berglund, Giornate programme, 1995)

The musical accompaniment  For the 15th year of “Striking a New Note” we assembled a single group of students from the Pier Paolo Pasolini and Centro-Storico secondary schools in Pordenone, with the addition of two loyal alumni and a young female pupil from the Giuseppe Lozer secondary school. Benefiting from the holdings of the Cineteca del Friuli, which provided a fine (and for us unusual) selection of films, we chose two shorts with Kri Kri, whose surreal and at the same time almost cartoonish comedy, though distant in time from us, still resonates with the joyous outlook of our young people.
For Kri Kri Detective we arranged two piano pieces from Aram Khachaturian’s Children’s Album. In the first part of the film, underlining the military and mechanical stride of the sequences, we perform The Little Horse march, in which the main theme in the lower register is emphasized by bass xylophone and electric bass, alternating with a high melodic violin line. In the second part the tone becomes lighter (reflecting what’s been concocted by Kri Kri), with the Birthday waltz reversing the previous instrumentation and entrusting the main theme to violin and glockenspiel and the secondary one to the lower register. The structure is founded on piano and keyboards, with soprano and alto xylophones and the rhythm and timbre of sound effects.
Kri Kri ha perduto il cappello (Bloomer Loses His Hat), although shorter, is in three parts. It begins (with the escape of the hat) using the Mirrors theme and variations by Soulima Stravinsky from his Piano Music for Children, performed by the whole orchestra to highlight the interlocking geometry of the images, including the final fight sequence. This is followed by a moment of reflection (the announcement in the newspaper), rendered by the evocative harpsichord line of Ancient Dance and Variations from the Miniatures for Piano by Ernesto Merlini, grounded by xylophones and glockenspiel. The extraordinary finale is again accompanied by an orchestral tutti in our reinterpretation of Franco Margola’s Sonatina facile in C major.

Maria Luisa Sogaro


ROBINET AVIATORE (Tweedledum–Aviator) (IT 1911)
regia/dir: Luigi Maggi. cast: Marcel Fabre (Robinet). prod: S. A. Ambrosio, Torino. uscita/rel: 10.03.1911. copia/copy: DCP, 7’29” (da/from 35mm, imbibito/tinted; orig. l: 137 m.); did./titles: ITA, subt. ENG. fonte/source: La Cineteca del Friuli, Gemona.

“He succeeded in rising, all right, but he descended much too suddenly for comfort. The telling of the story of his mishaps forms an interesting story. There is much of humor in it, too.” (“Comments on the Films”, The Moving Picture World, 18.03.1911, p. 603)

FRA I DUE LITIGANTI… (IT 1917)
regia/dir: Ferdinand Guillaume. cast: Ferdinand Guillaume (Polidor), Olga Capri (la padrona/the lady of the house). prod: Tiber, Roma. uscita/rel: 01.10.1917. copia/copy: DCP, 12’54” (da/from 35mm, imbibito/tinted); did./titles: ITA, subt. ENG. fonte/source: La Cineteca del Friuli, Gemona.

[it]Una vecchia signora, non potendone più delle liti delle sue due grasse figlie, assume Polidor come sorvegliante. Il compito è però più difficile del previsto: le due sorelle diventano gelose l’una dell’altra e lui ne fa le spese. (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, 1985) An old lady, no longer able to stand the quarreling of her two fat daughters, hires Polidor as their guardian. The task, however, is more difficult than expected: the two sisters become jealous of each other, and poor Polidor suffers the consequences. (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, 1985)

The musical accompaniment  For several years, the Guglielmo Marconi music school in Conegliano has offered its students a live accompaniment project for both comic and experimental silent films, continually enhancing its collaboration with “Striking a New Note” and Cinemazero. This year Luca Grizzo, the rumorista (noise-maker) and percussionist of the Zerorchestra, gave an excellent class on the use of sound effects. The project was conceived and carried out by Professor Luigi Vitale, who also plays with the Zerorchestra, assisted by Professor Andrea Andrian.
The scores of the second two films chosen for the 2022 Giornate were composed and arranged by Vitale using a series of motifs to highlight the character of the various characters and scenes, bearing in mind the instruments available and the wide range of the students’ musical levels. In the Polidor film Fra i due litiganti… we wanted to create an orchestral sound with a mandolin as an occasional solo instrument. The audience will hear lyrical themes in 6/8 tempo, recalling band music, foxtrots, and waltzes, and the use of castanets in the music written to accompany the two quarreling sisters. The music for Robinet aviatore was designed for a limited group of instruments, working more on sound effects and giving free rein to improvisation, with the musicians having to engage more with the images than the score.

Luigi Vitale