A visionary expressionist science fiction film from 1920 gets a brand new score, performed live on theremin by Wilco Botermans!
Mine worker Robert agrees to a Faustian pact with the alien Algol from the planet of the same name. Algol teaches Robert to convert the radiation of his planet to energy, making him the most powerful man on earth. But Robert’s reign leads to a resistance led by his childhood friend.
Hans Werckmeister’s expressionist sci-fi classic was considered lost for a long time, until it was rediscovered in the 2000s and 2K restored by the Munich Film Archive. Algol was far ahead of its time with its combination of family drama and industrial dystopia. The film shows a literal high society populated by the rich above an underground world where slaves work. This structure later became a common trope of dystopian fiction. With its plot about the use of radiation for energy, Algol also contains a warning for today: exchanging coal for durable energy may well lead to a new kind of monopoly.
About the live score
At Imagine 2024, music technologist Wilco Botermans will provide Algol with a new score, performed live on theremin. In the 1950s, the theremin became a popular instrument for sci-fi scores, mostly because of Bernard Herrmann’s music for The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). More recent examples include the scores for Mars Attacks! (1996) and Hellboy (2004). Botermans has been playing the theremin since 1997 and specialises in sound improvisation. He is part of the Shreck ensemble and forms one half of improvisational duo Electric Storks. He also gives theremin and improvisation workshops at the International Theremin Academy and organizes yearly TheremEETings for fans.
This concert is part of our theme programme 1984 Re:Imagined. The film will be shown with German and English intertitles.
