By the Law

A silent film by Lev Kuleshov with music by Darren Copeland

Sunday, August 5, 8:30pm, Symphony Barn

by Myke Dyer
Russian director Lev Kuleshov has the reputation of making two films in the 1920’s that became milestones. One film was the most expensive films ever made in the silent era and the other film had the lowest budget. The first film was a science fiction epic that was a huge flop and Kuleshov was humbled by the whole process. The year was 1925.

The Death Ray was an expensive, elaborate, part-meoldrama, part-science-fiction film that blended themes common to American detective thrillers. The film and Kuleshov’s work was dismissed by many of his Russian contemporaries, including Dziga Vertov who described it as “opium for the masses”. Most of the films produced by Kuleshov were fairly successful with the public, but they often met with government disapproval for not containing enough propaganda.

Lev Kuleshov, one the first aesthetic montage theorist of film art, and one of the first cinema directors under the Bolshevik regime, was told by the government cinema agency (Goskino) that he had to redeem himself both critically and financially. He chose a Jack London short story (The Unexpected) as his next project. By the Law is a story of a five-person team of gold prospectors camped out on the banks of the Yukon during the great gold rush. The group (three men and one couple) discover gold and things are looking up for the prospectors. However, driven by greed and envy, one of the members snaps,. He attempts to kill all four of the group, but after a struggle, two of the prospectors (the husband and wife) subdue the killer. However, they are then faced with an agonizing dilemma. With no chance of turning him over to the authorities for many weeks, they must decide whether to exact justice themselves, or to risk trying to keep him restrained until they can return to civilization.

Edith, the wife, is asked by the killer, “What do you intend to do with me?” Clutching her bible, Edith responds, “We will treat you by the law.”
The project, after his big budget failure, was a back to basics film for Kuleshov employing a minimal budget, few locations, and only a handful of characters for most of the film, By the Law was a stripped down version of London’s original grim story, wherein the director creates a tightly claustrophobic feeling in the cabin by using extreme close-ups on the faces of the survivors as they wait out the sever weather, the murderer tied to a chair. Outside the cabin Kuleshov utilizes wide, long shots of the snowy landscapes.

It was one of the least expensive film made by the Soviets, and it was well-received at home and in Europe. However, at home he was again criticized for not including enough propaganda. The government finally withdrew most of the funding for his production house, and, leaving the producing and directing part of the cinema, Kuleshov continued as an instructor at the film institute during the remainder of the silent era. By the Law was not screened in the English-speaking countries until 1939, and Kuleshov was finally allowed to make films again during WW II.

It is with great pleasure that By the Law is presented with a live score created and produced by Darren Copeland. Copeland has been active as an electroacoustic composer and sound designer since 1985 producing works for concert, radio, theater, dance, and site-specific installation.

His entry into music and sound was unusual. As a teenager in the 1980’s he discovered analog synthesizers almost by accident. And with no previous formal musical training or even interest in music, he started studying analog synthesizers and early digital samplers.

His interest in soundscape recordings was motivated by wanting to understand better the associations that different listeners had to various environmental sounds. For his composition for By the Law Copeland has recorded “local” sounds – the Saugeen River, the Symphony Barn – and will incorporate those recordings into his performance. We are also pleased to introduce the Grey County Foley Ensemble, who will add live ambient sounds to this silent film classic.