Toronto pianist and singer Fern Lindzon, left, is participating in a unique project being put on by the Toronto International Film Festival.
“I was commissioned by TIFF to write a score for a Buster Keaton movie,” she says. The score will be performed live when the silent movie, Sherlock Jr., is screened at the Bell Lighthouse Theatre on Sept. 26.
“They were probably looking for something a little bit out of the ordinary,” she says, and they wanted a klezmer flavour. “The film works very well with a klezmer groove.”
Lindzon will be joined on stage with five other musicians who will perform as the movie is played on the screen above them. “Hopefully, high enough so when I raise my arms, people won’t see my underarms,” she jokes.
Lindzon has never written a film score before, and worked on it for a couple of months. “I’ve probably seen some scenes a couple of hundred times, especially those scenes where the timing is split-second.”
She says the score is not exclusively klezmer, but will include free improvisation and jazz.
The movie, which is ranked 62nd in the American Film Institute’s list of funny films, is on TIFF’s 100 Essential Films list. It features nutty chase scenes, bad guys, slapstick and a crazy dream sequence with astonishing editing.
“It’s amazing what they could do in 1922 with scissors and tape,” Lindzon says.
The free event is part of the city of Toronto’s Culture Days, and it will be performed four times on Sept. 26 at 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. The Bell Lightbox Theatre is at Reitman Square at the corner of King and John streets, Toronto.
