The General
with live accompaniment by Donald SosinInventive gags and meticulous stunt work make Buster Keaton's magnificent silent comedy a must-see on the big screen!
Johnnie Gray, rejected from Confederate army service because his job as an engineer is deemed too valuable, is mistakenly believed to be a coward by his girlfriend, Annabelle Lee. When Union spies steal his train with Annabelle aboard, Johnnie pursues them alone—first on foot, then in increasingly inventive ways—culminating in an epic, action-filled train chase through enemy lines.
Inspired by the real-life Great Locomotive Chase during the American Civil War, the film was shot with large-scale set pieces with hundreds of extras and full-sized trains. The major stunts were groundbreaking and often dangerous, showcasing Keaton's extraordinary physical comedy and meticulous planning. A seamless blend of comedy, action and romance, The General was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry and is widely considered one of Keaton's finest works.
D: Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman, US, 1926, 1h19m
Presented in 35mm with live accompaniment by Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton
Programmed as part of the Dartmouth Film Society series "Music and the Movies"
This film is also programmed as a prelude to The TEAM's Reconstructing, a devised theater piece coming to the Hop on April 2 & 3. This film, made with its lighthearted take on the Civil War era, is the product of a different time. It is interesting to consider the long-term impact films like this have, as we see some American political leaders today advocating for a simpler, sanitized version of this complex, violent and unjust chapter in our country's history.
About the Performers: Joanna Seaton and Donald Sosin bring their unique blend of keyboards, vocals and percussion to major film festivals—New York, TriBeCa, Telluride, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Traverse City, Virginia—and to MoMA, Film at Lincoln Center, BAM, Isabella Rossellini's Early Girl Farm, the National Gallery of Art, Banff Arts Centre, Coolidge Corner Theater, Boston MFA and AFI Silver. Internationally, they have performed at Moscow's prestigious Lumière Gallery, the Thailand Silent Film Festival, England's Yorkshire Silent Film Festival, the Berlin Film Museum, the Transilvania International Film Festival, Sweden's Tokalynga Flying Theater Festival, the Jecheon International Music and Film Festival in South Korea, and, for many years, both of Italy's annual silent film retrospectives in Bologna and Pordenone.
They have appeared at Harvard, Cornell, University of Calgary, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point and Tulane, and numerous times at Yale, Brown, Emory and Le Moyne, Music Mountain in Falls Village CT, the Wadsworth Atheneum and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. On DVD and Blu-ray, their silent film scores can be heard on over 65 releases from the Criterion, Kino, Milestone, Flicker Alley and other labels. Their workshops in silent film music and songwriting are popular with students of all ages.
Joanna, a native of Manhattan, was an Ivory Soap Baby. Called a "silvery soprano" by the New York Times, she has a Theatre Arts degree from Cornell University. She has appeared in over 80 Off-Broadway, regional and stock theater productions, and has sung with jazz great Dick Hyman at the 92nd St. Y. For 14 months, Joanna and Donald toured with the Broadway production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, teaching acting, singing and dancing to over 1000 children across the USA.
Donald grew up in Rye, New York and Munich and played on Broadway for many years, after composition studies at Michigan and Columbia. In 2019, he performed at the Hopkins Center with his klezmer violinist colleague Alicia Svigals. His music has been heard on PBS, TCM, as background for network soaps, and in many contemporary films. Critic Leonard Maltin puts Sosin at the "top of the line of film pianists."
The couple lives in northwest Connecticut and have two very musical children. Website: oldmoviemusic.com
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