Edison Studio

The Egyptian priest Arbaces falls in love with Jone, promised to Glaucus, and so as to have her for himself uses a magic brew to drive insane his rival who is then sentenced to die in the arena. The eruption of the Vesuvius in 79 A.D. destroyed Pompeii, allowing the two young lovers to meet and survive the disaster. The Last Days of Pompeii was the first Italian colossal, produced by Ambrosio Film in 1913 and directed by Eleuterio Ridolfi, the screenplay is by Arrigo Frusta (from the novel by Edward Bulwer Lytton), photography by Anchise Brizzi and starring Fernanda Negri Pouget, Eugenia Tettoni Florio, Ubaldo Stefani, and Antonio Grisanti. The film is still today a masterpiece of black and white cinematography; great scenes with the masses, quotations from classical art, impressive final sequences (the circus and the volcano’s eruption) experimenting with in-depth filming techniques. Dealing with this prototype silent film with special effects, the Edison Studio, using both live and delayed new technologies, composed a soundtrack on various levels: symbolic sounds, complex background sounds, dialogues in ‘improbable’ languages, non-naturalist references. The electro-acoustic productions by the Edison Studio, created for the Venice Biennale, the Ravenna Festival and other important events, has won many international awards.

sunday january 28th 2007 at 6 P.M.
The Savio Theatre

EDISON STUDIO

«MUSIC AND THE CINEMA»

The Last Days of Pompei
Directed by Eleuterio Ridolfi
Ambrosio Film, Turin
(1913)

soundtrack
composed and performed
in live electronics
by
Edison Studio

Mauro Cardi
Luigi Ceccarelli
Fabio Cifariello Ciardi
Alessandro Cipriani