2018 marks 100 years since the birth of Ingmar Bergman, one of the greatest authors of all time. This program casts a light on one particular aspect of his film work: his understanding of music – the way it was developed, produced and how it resonates with contemporary audiences. It is also a biographical journey, in which we try to approach and understand Bergman through music, film and a live multimedia performance based on his half fictional autobiography “Best intentions”.
Matti Bye, awarded Swedish film composer and pianist who worked with Bergman himself, will be participating in several events in Belgrade on October 21, 22 and 23.
Matti Bye (July 25, 1966) is a Swedish Pianist and Composer. Bye has composed music for over 30 films and TV series as well as additional scores for Theatre and Dance pieces. In 2014 Bye was nominated twice at Sweden´s Guldbagge Awards in which his soundtrack for the film Faro won the award. Bye also won a Guldbagge in 2009 for his score for the film Everlasting Moments. Bye has recorded and released numerous solo and collaboration records, include Hydra’s Dream, with Anna Von Hausswolff; Maailma, with cult Finnish songwriter Lau Nau.
He also worked with Bergman himself on one of his last television films “The Last Gasp“, and with his Ensemble he works in the field of musical improvisation and performs all over the world. Matti loves to explore the piano as an instrument, and often plays on the prepared piano while including other sounds and atmospheres in his work. He has been described as “extraordinary performer with his own incomparable style of improvisation.”
On Sunday, October 21 at 20.00 at Belgrade Philharmonics, Matti Bye will perform a concert on the prepared piano. At his Belgrade concert, Matti will perform some of his most successful compositions as well as tracks from his new album “This Forgotten land”. “His studio is an analogue world of synths, pianos, celesta, Mellotron and organs, and his music alludes to the strange, romantic mood you get when you hear old merry go rounds, or mechanical instruments in small amusements parks, and abandoned places.” — The Wire
Free tickets are available at the box office of Belgrade Philharmonics.
On Monday, October 22, at 18.00 at the Yugoslav Film Archive audiences will have an opportunity to see “The Last Gasp“, Ingmar Bergman’s TV film that Matti Bye worked on as a composer.
Projection will be followed by a Q&A session with Matti Bye and a roundtable that will examine the role of music in Bergman’s films, while also going broader into analyzing film music in the contemporary cinematography. Roundtable will be moderated by Ivan Velisavljević, and participants are Matti Bye, composer, Ana Krstajić, composer, Maša Seničić, dramaturgue and Igor Stanojević, director.
On Tuesday, October 23, at 19.00 at the Yugoslav Film Archive a multimedia performance – public reading of the adaptation of “Best intentions” will be presented. “Best intentions” is Bergman’s half-fictional and half-autobiographical book, in which he is telling the story “about his parent’s youth, beginning of their marriage, their hopes, weaknesses and best intentions”. The performance “Best Intentions” would deal with the complex relationship between Bergman’s parents – the beauty and charms, but also the difficulties in understanding the differences between each other.
The novel was published by Geopoetika and translated by Spasa Ratković.
Performers: Bojan Žirović, Katarina Dimitrijević, Marija Opsenica, Željko Maksimović, i Katarina Martinović
Director: Ana Konstantinović
Adaptation: Tamara Baračkov
Concept of the space: Višnja Vujović
Video and live VJ: Marija Kovačina
Eho animato organizes this program with the help of partners – The Embassy of Sweden in Belgrade, Belgrade Philharmonics, Yugoslav Film Archive and Geopoetika. Project was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia.