A Page Of Madness (1926) with live score by Mike Cooper (UK)

The 5Five and End Credits Film Club presents a unique night of screen and live music: 

"A Page Of Madness", a 1926 Japanese silent film, with live score by the incomparable Mike Cooper (UK).

A Page of Madness, directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa was lost for 45 years until it was rediscovered by Kinugasa in his storehouse in 1971. The film is the product of an avant-garde group of artists in Japan known as the Shinkankakuha (or School of New Perceptions) who tried to overcome naturalistic representation.

A Page of Madness was first screened in Tokyo on 10 July 1926. Screenings would have included live narration by a storyteller or benshi as well as musical accompaniment. The famous benshi Musei Tokugawa narrated the film at the Musashinokan theater in Shinjuku in Tokyo.

Yasunari Kawabata, who would win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, was credited on the film with the original story. He is often cited as the screenwriter, and a version of the scenario is printed in his complete works, but the scenario is now considered a collaboration between him, Kinugasa, Banko Sawada, and Minoru Inuzuka

For the past 40 years Mike Cooper has been an international musical explorer, performing and recording, solo and in a number of inspired groupings and a variety of genres. Initially a folk-blues guitarist and singer songwriter his work has diversified to include improvised and electronic music, live music for silent films, radio art and sound installations.

For the past 25 years he has composed and performed worldwide at festivals, cinemas and other venues with Live Music For Classic and Contemporary Silent Films.

Described as “The icon of post-everything music” (Lawrence English), his recent work continues to push music and improvisation boundaries.

“Really can’t think of many other 80 year old guitarists whose music still feels somehow relevant thru it’s sheer, expressive abstraction nowadays." (Boomkat)

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A page of Madness will be presented on Thursday 6th April

> Doors Open at 7.00pm > Film from 8.00pm + DJ Mr Tarago > Beverages available >

The 5Five (studio) - 265 Little Spence Street, Bungalow 4870

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Mike Cooper returns to the Far North as part of his 80th year - touring Australia, Bangkok and Singapore, including shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.