Louis Review

Silent movie fans across the country are eagerly awaiting the release of The Artist – a brand new, acclaimed silent film – in January. But there’s another new silent which has been made recently, Dan Pritzker’s Louis (2010). It received its European premiere at the London Jazz Festival on Sunday 13th November.

Set in New Orleans in 1907, the film tells the fictional story of local prostitute, and mother, Grace (Shanti Lowry) and her struggle with corrupt politician Judge Perry (Jackie Earle Haley). Along the way she’s helped by the six year-old Louis Armstrong played by Anthony Coleman.

Louis – as you might expect – is a labour of love. This is professional musician Dan Pritzker’s first film – a film he funded himself using his considerable family fortune. The inspiration came when Pritzker saw Charlie Chaplin’s classic City Lights (1931) with a live orchestra, an event he describes as the ‘best movie experience [he] ever had’. Quite accurately, the film is presented as ‘an homage to Louis Armstrong, Charlie Chaplin, beautiful women and the birth of American music’.

So, does it work as a silent movie or has that art been lost in the 80 plus years since The Jazz Singer (1927)? Remarkably, the film succeeds with ease. Energetic performances, vibrant choreography, sweeping camerawork and sumptuous set design combine to make it work brilliantly. It’s a film full of style, passion and humour. And like the best from the silent era, you never feel the absence of dialogue.

When Charlie Chaplin was making City Lights he said that the arrival of talking pictures had caused everyone to forget how to act for silent pictures. Pritzker doesn’t appear to have had much trouble with his cast. The three leads, in particular, appear entirely comfortable acting without traditional dialogue. Anthony Coleman’s expressive young face is perfect for silent film as is Shanti Lowry’s dancer’s body. And Jackie Earle Haley clearly had a lot of fun playing the Chaplin-esque villain. Chaplin fans should notice the three characters he emulates: The Tramp, Monsieur Verdoux and Adenoid Hynkel (Chaplin’s parody of Adolf Hitler).

Louis has only ever been screened with a live jazz band. Needless to say, the score composed by Jazz veteran Wynton Marsalis explodes into life when performed live. Seeing a nine piece band play for the duration of the film and hit every cue is an absolute thrill. Louis has rightly been described as a ‘silent musical’, everything you see on the screen feels like it was created with the music in mind rather than the other way around. Like the New Orleans it depicts, Louis would be incomplete without live music.

This film succeeds as a silent picture and as a live event but how good is it as a film? In this regard it falls a little way short of excellent – there are some flaws to go with the strengths mentioned earlier. The overall tone of the piece is comedic yet the narrative is rather serious and quite dark in places. This inconsistency is disconcerting and removes the emotional impact from the film’s most dramatic moments. Also, the ending is a touch disappointing as the filmmakers fail to find a satisfying conclusion to the story of young Louis Armstrong.

There do not appear to be plans to release Louis in cinemas or on DVD, which is a shame as it offers so much to enjoy and is a rare example of modern silent film. If the live show comes to a theatre near you, don’t miss it – it’s worth it for the music alone.