‘Battle of Arras’ with a score by Laura Rossi will have its world premiere at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival on the 8th October.
‘The German Retreat and Battle of Arras documents the British Army’s great offensive on the Western front during the Easter period in 1917. This third instalment in a trilogy of official films on the French and Belgian campaigns was the most visually successful, as evidenced by the new digital restoration undertaken in a collaboration between the London Imperial War Museum (IWM) and the University of Udine.
The images of the Battle of Arras were filmed by four operators lead by Capitan J.C. Faunthorpe, officer of the military intelligence directorate and military director of the official cinematographers. An unusual feature of this documentary is its use of colour: hand coloured sections and red intertitles spotlight explosions while, to underscore realistic naturalism, blue is used for the river and sky, and brown for the ground. The score by British composer Laura Rossi for choir and chamber ensemble was inspired by poetry and texts written by soldiers who fought in the battle. She also arranged a number of war songs. In the film’s closing credits, we hear the recorded voice of a soldier talking about the songs he and his comrades sang, eventually breaking into song with these words: “When this wicked war is over”. Rossi’s score will be performed by Orchestra da Camera di Pordenone and Coro del Friuli Venezia Giulia directed by Andrej Goričar.’
Further information here.