Möbius at Kino Babylon

In this edition of the program Stummfilm um Mitternacht / “Silent films at midnight”, the Babylon presents two contemporary productions which are new to the medium of silent film. With backgrounds in the visual arts, performance and opera, the filmmakers present works of playful surprise and invention.

Möbius D / J / N 2016, Miho Shimizu, Øyvind Renberg with Adrian Schiesser, Aoki “Aokid” Naosuke, Taku Yoshida, Daniel Kupferberg, 28 min – Live at the Kinoorgel accompanied by Anna Vavilkina, Music Director, Satoshi Ikeda

Live cinema organ: Anna Vavilkina

The sculptures and costumes of artists Shimizu and Renberg form the dreamlike story world of Möbius. Over two acts (Prelude-Möbius), the film traces the intertwined events of a bygone village vegetable stall, a back alley sake bar and sub-desert landscapes, via a Punch & Judy puppet theatre play. When waking up on a dried out seabed littered with skeletal remains, a Shepherd then faces a world of sheep, banana juggling sailors and a party of rococo styled hedonists. They are all heading up a tower evoking the fossilized shell of an ammonite.

Don Giovanni in Sweden D / IT 2016, R: Cinema Cantabile, performed by Marielou Jacquard (soprano), Andreas Neher (bass) and Richard Siedhoff (piano), 40 min.

Cinema Cantabile developed this unique format which combines opera and cinema. This time they dealt with one of the most multi-layered oeuvres in music history: “Don Giovanni” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Don Giovanni returns to his village and the story about passion, obsession and tragedy takes its course. All the characters on the screen do not talk or sing themselves. Opera singers who are present in the cinema theatre synchronize their lip movements. It is up to the audience to decide whether it is the screen or the live music who is telling the truth. For this performance, the pianist Richard Siedhoff will elaborate a special composition that is based on the music of Mozart’s opera.

About Kino Babylon The Babylon opened on April 11, 1929 as a silent movie cinema. In 2013, the tradition of the Cinema Palace – still alive today in London and Los Angeles – returned to Berlin with Babylon and organist Anna Vavilkina, who plays almost every day for film screenings, live events and silent films. This is unique in the German cinema scene. Admission is free, according to the motto ZERO o´clock – zero euro!