Film/Music

By Your Law/RM Hubbert

Hippodrome Silent Film Festival, Bo'ness

Teddy Jamieson

Four stars

SOVIET-era cinema meets Scottish sonic virtuosity? It must be the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival.

The main event on Saturday in Bo'ness was the world premiere of a new commission by guitarist RM Hubbert; a live soundtrack to accompany a screening of Po Zakonu (By the Law), director Lev Kuleshov's 1926 adaptation of a Jack London short story.

Set on the Yukon during the Gold Rush (though actually filmed near Moscow), Kuleshov's film is a febrile vision of violence and retribution, spelt out in stark, potent black and white imagery played against an almost sci-fi vista of snow and ice. At its heart is the film's star Aleksandra Khokhlova, all wild hair and avian bone structure, who makes for a compelling, angular screen presence.

The challenge for Hubbert was how to score the nervy intensity of Kuleshov's imagery. He began with a warm wash of guitar that then developed into circling themes that rose and fell adroitly and subtly. Rather than try to match the heady mania of Kuleshov's visuals, Hubbert's musical restraint helps ground them.

But when he needs to, Hubbert was more than capable of upping the ante. During the film's epic storm sequence the accompaniment becomes insistent, needling even, while the film's climax prompts an impressive sonic crescendo that suddenly breaks thrillingly.

The result? A fresh coat of paint on an old masterpiece.