HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1920)

Video

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:39:03 -0400

"A major treat" - review by Jack Garner in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 00:49:33 -0400

"A major treat" - review by Jack Garner in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

http://www.darylfleming.com/

Mon, 02 May 2011 23:11:20 -0400

http://www.darylfleming.com/

This is a trailer for the George Eastman House restoration of ...

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:29:41 -0400

This is a trailer for the George Eastman House restoration of HUCKLEBERRY FINN. Made in 1920, it is the first feature length film adaptation of the Mark Twain classic. Music by Daryl Fleming & the Public Domain.

Nice article about the new score for the restoration of HUCK FINN in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:23:00 -0400

Nice article about the new score for the restoration of HUCK FINN in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Nice to see so much talk about the HUCK FINN restoration on nitrateville.com!

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:19:36 -0400

Nice to see so much talk about the HUCK FINN restoration on nitrateville.com!

Nice video interview of Daryl Fleming and Megan Williams

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:10:43 -0400

Nice video interview of Daryl Fleming and Megan Williams

Nice profile of Daryl Fleming in the Rochester City Paper

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 20:37:29 -0400

Nice profile of Daryl Fleming in the Rochester City Paper

Rochester, NY screening announced!

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:08:00 -0500

A new 35mm film print of the restoration of HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1920) will be screened at the Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House in Rochester, NY on Friday, June 24 2011. A new score for the film will be performed live by Daryl Fleming & the Public Domain. The performance will be introduced by Paolo Cherchi Usai. Following the film there will be a discussion on stage between members of Motion Picture Department of George Eastman House that worked on the restoration of the film and the composer of the new score. The moderator will be Jared Case. This screening would not be possible without the generous support of Abilene Bar & Lounge and OhmCo Sound and Recording.

Restoring HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1920)

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 19:22:00 -0500

With the survival rate of all silent films at approximately 20 percent any discovery of a “lost film” has the potential of being a major event. While HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1920) was never truly lost it has been unavailable for well over half a century. This current restoration started from a nitrate print that was gifted to the George Eastman House in 1962 from The Danish Film Archive. A preservation acetate duplicate negative and acetate print was made in 1980; but all these new elements still contained the Danish language titles. Then in 2007 the Motion Picture Department at George Eastman House was awarded a grant by The National Film Preservation Foundation for the restoration of English language titles to HUCKLEBERRY FINN and to strike new color tinted prints that would match the nitrate original.

Anytime we in the Motion Picture Department at George Eastman House restore a film that needs to have new English titles we try to find copies of the script. In the case of HUCKLEBERRY FINN no known script exists, so the first step was to have the Danish translated into English. Because the film was so faithful to the novel we were able to use the novel for a lot of the dialogue for the new intertitles. New titles were created using Adobe Photoshop and sent with the 1980 duplicated negative to a film laboratory. For HUCKLEBERRY FINN we chose Colorlab in Rockville, Maryland, to do the job of making the new restoration negative and prints. The new titles were cut into the 1980 negative and new color positive film elements were printed.

For film rental inquiries: http://www.eastmanhouse.org/collections/access/film-loans.php

If you’re interested in booking the band for a live performance of the film score: daryl.fleming8@gmail.com

Daryl Fleming & the Public Domain’s score for...

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 00:03:00 -0500

Daryl Fleming & the Public Domain’s score for HUCKLEBERRY FINN was commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum. The debut performance was October 15, 2010 at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA.

Members of the band: Stu Braun (harmonica & lap steel),...

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 23:56:00 -0500

Members of the band: Stu Braun (harmonica & lap steel), Megan Williams (violin), Daryl Fleming (guitars) & Justin Brown (acoustic bass). Photo by Erica Dilcer.

A few words with Daryl Fleming - composer of the new score for HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1920)

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 23:37:00 -0500

Daryl Fleming has recently taken to calling his music ‘pan-temporal songwriting.’ Upon being asked what this is meant to imply he states that his music borrows “liberally from many eras without an attempt at ‘authenticity.’ It is NOT period music, despite melodies, text, and more often being historical in nature. The music is syncretistic and never devolves into anachronism. These are real words. Look them up if you don’t believe me!”

HUCKLEBERRY FINN has been a good fit for his music. The instrumentation for the score includes violin, guitar, harmonica, lap steel, and acoustic bass. He says that “some of the music will use harmony that post-dates the 19th century, at least the harmonies of the folk music of the era. Some of the music I wrote specifically for Huck Finn. I will also quote liberally from Red-Haired Boy, Dvorak’s New World Symphony, and elsewhere, and hope to avoid kitsch. There will be some ‘noise’ elements as well, sending things a bit out the window for brief periods.”

Mr. Fleming has been writing music and performing for audiences for over 25 years. When asked how this project is different than all the others he replied “truth is this is my first film score. Folks have often commented on the ‘cinematic’ sound of some of my tunes. I’m up for the task, but I suppose others will be the judge of that–which I welcome. The differences between writing this score and songwriting? Talk to me after the rehearsals and the show and I’ll have a better idea of that. One thing is for sure: writing a score is more time consuming. That’s a fairly mundane response. But true.” When asked what audiences should expect he said resolutely that he sees his music as adding to the “comprehension and emotional experience of the film.”

Photo

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 23:23:00 -0500

Photo

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 23:23:00 -0500

Photo

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 23:22:00 -0500

Huckleberry Finn on film

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 23:17:00 -0500

Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is one of the most famous American novels of the 19^th century. First published in 1884, the book has never been out of print. The character of Huck Finn has appeared in over 40 films starting with the 1917 version of TOM SAWYER, and was most notably played by Mickey Rooney and Eddie Hodges in THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1939 and 1960 respectively). But the first film version of HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1920), after its initial released, passed into film history and with the advent of talking pictures in the late 1920’s would be forgotten and almost lost forever.

William Desmond Taylor (1872 – 1922) who was under contract to Famous Players-Lasky (which would later take the name of its distribution company of Paramount Pictures) had directed TOM SAWYER (1917) starring Jack Pickford and THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (1918). So Taylor was the logical choice to direct HUCKLEBERRY FINN. Lewis Sargent as Huck started his film career only a few years before with Fox Films, in ALADIN AND HIS WONDERFUL LAMP. An actor with a lot of presence and charm, Sargent was a perfect Huck Finn. Wanting to be as faithful to the novel as possible, Taylor went on location to Mississippi to shoot the film. Upon its release in February of 1920, HUCKLEBERRY FINN was both a critical and commercial hit.

Less than two years after finishing HUCKLEBERRY FINN, William Desmond Taylor was dead. His body was discovered lying on the floor of his living room by his butler on the morning of February 2, 1922 with a bullet wound in the back. A major investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department followed, but to this day the murder remains unsolved. Like most people who worked in silent film his body of work is fragmentary at best. Taylor directed 64 films in the nine years he was working in Hollywood. As of this writing only 18 are known to exist.