A Passage of Madness/The Observatory

Mind-blowing, incredible, magnificent, experience of a lifetime... none of these can describe how I felt at this low-key event: the screening of A Passage of Madness, an avant-garde silent film made in 1926, lost soon after its completion and only found some 50 years later by its director. Without any inter-titles, the story was not the easiest to follow, but its decors, styles and performances are certainly the most experimental and ahead of its time, which reminisces that of the German surrealist cinema of the 1920s at the height of its power.

The film, mythical and challenging on its own right, served most of the time as a visual backdrop for the soundtrack composed and performed live by The Observatory in a small auditorium that holds about 500 audience. The musical performance started approximately 5 minutes prior to the start of screening, creating and building up an atmosphere, and transporting the audience to a misty, dark and isolated place not too different from those of the classic Chinese ink painting of the rocky mountain partially obscured by the cloud sea. Then as the story evolved, it became blurred as to who was the actual star of the night: the man who was trying to rescue his wife in a madhouse and being ridiculed by her inmates/doctors; the director who had been most adventurous in his styles of filming and representation; or the music that seemed to be part and parcel an organic part of the narration - albeit composed some 84 years after the shooting! For those like myself who had not had the slightest knowledge of what the film was about prior to the screening, it was largely the music that had guided me through the viewing of a silent film without subtitles. My mind was only drifted once or twice away when I was struck by the fact how marvelous the composition was and that how lucky I was to be one of the privileged few in the audience. In an interview published on Today two days before the screening, the band commented that this film had allowed them to explore the boundary of insanity, but their fans should still be able to recognise them in the soundtrack. While this is absolutely true, I would add that it had taken the indie band far well beyond their 'normal' soundscape into that of experimental and avant-garde. The soundtrack was imaginative, atmospheric, powerful and compared well with the best in the world in similar genre.

The screening and musical event, commissioned and organised by the National Museum of Singapore, has got to be one of the highlights, if not the highlight, of the Singapore art scene of recent years. It says how much Singapore can achieve if it puts its mind to it. It would be a great loss if the event was live recorded, and even worse, if the soundtrack is not recorded for the benefit of the general public.

Life is good when witnessing the performance of a lifetime.