I wasn’t sure what to expect from the highly anticipated debut of Louis – a silent film with live musical accompaniment that debuted in Chicago’s Symphony Center on the evening of August 25th. Given the exquisite artistry I saw in the trailers, I thought it would be a biographical movie about the early years of trumpeter Louis Armstrong, with a sort of fantasy touch to it. I was partly right and very much surprised at the ride I was in for.
The film’s Director, Dan Pritzker, founding member of the band, Sonia Dada, was inspired back in 2001 to create a silent film, after seeing the Chaplin movie, City Lights, with live musical accompaniment by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He went about creating Louis, which is part Chaplin; part Keystone Kops, about a boy named Louis, “the story of a young boy born into poverty who dreams of playing the trumpet.” The film incorporated parts of Armstrong’s childhood story, into a very original plot. Academy award-winning cinematographer, Volmos Zsigmond, did a superb job in creating a film that was vibrantly colorful, yet had a look and feel of the old black and white movies. The score was written and performed by Wynton Marsalis and a 10-piece, all star jazz ensemble from the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, with classical selections performed by renown pianist Cecile Licad.
