Laurie Simmons
21 Nov - 20 Dec 2005
Salon 94 and Performa present a screening of Act III of
Laurie Simmons’
The Music of Regret
A movie shot in 35mm color film
The Music of Regret, a film by Laurie Simmons, is a movie musical in three acts. The 35mm film finds its source in 25 years of Simmons' photographic imagery. Here her familiar subjects come to life with music, dance, and an onscreen narrative.
Act III is set within an audition for an unspecified part in a Broadway musical. Giant objects with legs (a gun, a house, a cupcake, a book, a birthday cake, a pocket watch and a camera) dance their encumbered hearts out for the privilege of being noticed. Incorporating original music and choreography, the film lies between the boundaries of narrative cinema, puppetry, musical theater and dance.
Shown alongside The Music of Regret is Simmons’ Magnum Opus (The Bye Bye), a large-scale photographic work from 1991. In the photo, Simmons has gathered her walking and sitting figures—the camera, the toilet, the pocket watch, the house, the hourglass, and the microscope—together for their final curtain call. Magnus Opus (The Bye Bye), at seven by twenty feet, serves as a wry comment on the canonical “major works” of male artists as well as the grand finale for Simmons’ 5 year long project “The Walking Objects.”
The movie is co-written with the artist Matthew Weinstein. “The Audition” is danced by the Alvin Ailey II dance company, with costumes designed by Simmons and the artist Bryan Crockett.
The film will be shown as a work-in-progress at Salon 94 as part of Performa 05 on November 20, 2005. The exhibition of The Music of Regret and Magnum Opus will be open from November 21 to December 20, 2005. The film in its entirety will be premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in May 2006.
Director Laurie Simmons
Original Music Michael Rohatyn
Michael Rohatyn composed the scores of Parting Words and The Ballad of Jack and Rose. He also wrote the screenplay of Forty Shades of Blue, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2005.
Director of Photography Ed Lachman
Ed Lachman studied art in France, where he developed a taste for New Wave films. He is a self-taught cameraman who has moved freely between documentary and narrative filmmaking. His feature credits include Far From Heaven, Ken Park, Erin Brockovich, The Virgin Suicides, The Limey, Selena, Less Than Zero, Desperately Seeking Susan and The Lords of Flatbush. He is a three-time Independent Spirit Award nominee for True Stories, Light Sleeper, and Far From Heaven.
Laurie Simmons’
The Music of Regret
A movie shot in 35mm color film
The Music of Regret, a film by Laurie Simmons, is a movie musical in three acts. The 35mm film finds its source in 25 years of Simmons' photographic imagery. Here her familiar subjects come to life with music, dance, and an onscreen narrative.
Act III is set within an audition for an unspecified part in a Broadway musical. Giant objects with legs (a gun, a house, a cupcake, a book, a birthday cake, a pocket watch and a camera) dance their encumbered hearts out for the privilege of being noticed. Incorporating original music and choreography, the film lies between the boundaries of narrative cinema, puppetry, musical theater and dance.
Shown alongside The Music of Regret is Simmons’ Magnum Opus (The Bye Bye), a large-scale photographic work from 1991. In the photo, Simmons has gathered her walking and sitting figures—the camera, the toilet, the pocket watch, the house, the hourglass, and the microscope—together for their final curtain call. Magnus Opus (The Bye Bye), at seven by twenty feet, serves as a wry comment on the canonical “major works” of male artists as well as the grand finale for Simmons’ 5 year long project “The Walking Objects.”
The movie is co-written with the artist Matthew Weinstein. “The Audition” is danced by the Alvin Ailey II dance company, with costumes designed by Simmons and the artist Bryan Crockett.
The film will be shown as a work-in-progress at Salon 94 as part of Performa 05 on November 20, 2005. The exhibition of The Music of Regret and Magnum Opus will be open from November 21 to December 20, 2005. The film in its entirety will be premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in May 2006.
Director Laurie Simmons
Original Music Michael Rohatyn
Michael Rohatyn composed the scores of Parting Words and The Ballad of Jack and Rose. He also wrote the screenplay of Forty Shades of Blue, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2005.
Director of Photography Ed Lachman
Ed Lachman studied art in France, where he developed a taste for New Wave films. He is a self-taught cameraman who has moved freely between documentary and narrative filmmaking. His feature credits include Far From Heaven, Ken Park, Erin Brockovich, The Virgin Suicides, The Limey, Selena, Less Than Zero, Desperately Seeking Susan and The Lords of Flatbush. He is a three-time Independent Spirit Award nominee for True Stories, Light Sleeper, and Far From Heaven.