[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt1XgSMc3c4]

L.A. RECORD is happy to co-present (with L.A. FilmForum and Cinefamily!) the re-engagement of the mind-debriding Japanese avant silent A Page Of Madness, previously scored live by Gaslamp Killer and re-scored tonight by British duo In The Nursery, who have also contributed original new music to The Passion of Joan of Arc and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Cinefamily explains:

The U.K.-based group In The Nursery returns to the Cinefamily to score another silent classic, Teinosuke Kinugasa’s A Page Of Madness. The most modern, challenging Japanese silent to survive the WWII firebombings, Madness throws the viewer into a maelstrom of hallucinations and obsession, and easily stands way out amongst its kabuki and jidai-geki contemporaries. A haunted man takes a job as a janitor in an insane asylum where his wife is committed; his fantasies of liberating her blend into the mad, confounding visions of the inmates. Told without intertitles, the narrative takes a back seat to pure visual expression. Kinugasa synthesizes every available experimental technique known at the time: his use of superimpositions, flashbacks, rapid montage and complex subjective camerawork rival the innovations of Murnau and Gance for sheer audacity. Lost for half a century after its completion and rediscovered in the early ’70s by Kinugasa himself in his own garden shed, A Page of Madness is a stunning, singular work, and the live score provided by In The Nursery’s twin brothers Klive and Nigel Humberstone is equally as captivating, incorporating the latest music technology with traditional Japanese instrumentation and percussion. The evening’s screening will feature The George Eastman House’s beautifully restored 35mm print!
Dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926, 35mm, 60 min.

Starts at 8 PM at Cinefamily at 611 N. Fairfax Ave.—all ages and tickets available at the box office or online here!