BRATTLEBORO-Epsilon Spires, 190 Main St., continues its silent film and pipe organ series, now in its third year, with a screening of the 1926 silver-screen-sizzler, Flesh and the Devil (director Clarence Brown, 112 minutes), with organist and silent film improviser Peter Krasinski.
This immersive cinema experience will take place on Saturday, June 15, at 8 p.m., in the sanctuary at Epsilon Spires, activating its historic Estey Organ with a dynamic live soundtrack.
Flesh and the Devil was the pre-Hays Code blockbuster that established Greta Garbo as an international superstar. It's a swooning melodrama full of surprising plot twists, in which two boyhood best friends (John Gilbert and Lars Hanson) get caught in a dangerous love triangle with a mesmerizing femme-fatale.
Krasinski has achieved national praise as a solo organist as well as an accompanist of early silent films. He won the first prize in improvisation from the American Guild of Organists and has played recitals at Notre-Dame in Paris, Riverside Church and Trinity Wall Street in New York, and Old South Church in Boston, where he maintains an active career.
Krasinski is also credited as organist and choir leader in the recent Oscar-nominated hit The Holdovers, being a vital contributor toward director Alexander Payne. Krasinski has previously performed at Epsilon Spires, providing an energetic live soundtrack for Fritz Lang's 1927 masterpiece, Metropolis.
Flesh and the Devil became notorious for its emotional swings - from youthful cheer and love to uninhibited lust, jealousy, and wrath. Gilbert was at the peak of his career when he played Flesh and the Devil's lead, and his electric chemistry with Garbo led to three more movies together as well as an off-screen romance.
"Their iconic love scenes together - some more documentary than fiction - helped to make the film a box-office hit," say organizers. Cinematographer and Oscar-winner William H. Daniels continued to work with Garbo as her principal lensman throughout the rest of her career.
Tickets are available by sliding scale, $10 to $20; popcorn included.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.