Mechanical Music in the Movies
By Leonard Bernstein
I have followed the listings of Mechanical Music in the Movies with interest, and now that the subject seems to be played out I am writing to express my surprise that the one movie that was made about a collector of mechanical musical instruments seems to be unknown to the collectors here.
In 1939, on the eve of WW2, a movie was made in France directed by Jean Renoir called Rules of the Game. This was a comedy about the morals and manners of the wealthy, in which the leading man was a Marquis who was a collector of mechanical musical instruments. The picture is full of old phonographs, bird boxes, pianos, etc., and the last scene, which is the denouement, has the Marquis entertaining his weekend guests with his new band organ. This picture had a 4-star rating and played in the US with English subtitles.
Many years ago this picture came to my attention when it was played on a local PBS station. Subsequently, I was able to rent a copy of the film from the foreign film section in a nearby Blockbusters video store. At that time Marv Polan was chairman of the audiovisual committee of the MBSI and I brought the movie to his attention. He obtained a copy and I think he played it at one of the East Coast Chapter meetings.
It is the only first-run movie I know of where these instruments are an integral part of the story throughout the length of the picture. See if your local video store has it.
Len Bernstein
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(Message sent Tue 25 Mar 1997, 03:07:23 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.) |
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