Lev Kulešov | Franz Reisecker: "Po zakonu (By the Law)"

 

January 27 will see the world premiere of a new score for Lev Kulešov’s legendary “constructivist Western“ Po zakonu (By the Law). Adapted from a story by Jack London in 1926, it was one of the most popular films of its time and is now considered as a masterpiece of Soviet Cinema. By the Law tells the story of a group of prospectors in the Yukon who, after a gold strike and two murders, find themselves faced with an existential crisis, in the midst of horrific ice and darkness. Aleksandra Chochlova, the main collaborator and life-partner of the director, plays the unusual female lead.

 

The Film Museum holds an extraordinarily beautiful print of the film, which was preserved in 2009. Franz Reisecker, a central figure of Austria’s crossover-music scene, was commissioned to write a new score and chose to interpret the filmmaker’s highly refined aesthetic with both analog and digital means. His musical dialogue with Kulešov is being presented as a “Live Cinema” event, and it has also been recorded for the new Film Museum DVD. Apart from By the Law, the DVD also contains the only surviving fragment of Kulešovs Vaša znakomaja / Your Acquaintance (1927) – with production design by Aleksandr Rodčenko and once again starring Aleksandra Chochlova.