I've always been a fan of early sci-fi movies -- The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951, It Conquered the World 1956, Planet 9 from Outer Space 1959, The Forbidden Planet 1956, Manos: The Hands of Faith 1966 and Robinson Crusoe From Mars 1966, not to forget those silent German films like Metropolis and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari -- aside from them being hilarious and cheesy (the kind of cheese I like), they were undeniably brilliant. Brilliant in a sense that there were enourmous amount of creativity and innovation, almost always prophetic, involved. And you then realize that no filmakers today did something as extraordinary as they did. Maybe Tarkovsky, but he's on another category. My guess is that, those were the times that people were more enthused about technology and outer space. Obviously because they were new and they had a lot of reasons to celebrate the future. On the contrary, sci-fi films of today seemed tired, as if it has seen everything, nothing excites. There was a gleamer of that excitement in AI but Speilberg chose a different way and abandoned it as quickly as possible (I wonder what Kubrick could have done).
Anyway, this entry is not about sci-fi movies, really. I found a documentary on Theremin,I was transfixed by the story of this little instrument.Russian Leon Theremin invented the first electronic instrument which he named after himself. You control the pitch and volume by moving your hand like a Symphony conductor. You do this without touching the metal rods connected to a big wooden box.Supposedly,it is the first musical intrument that is played without being touched. It produces an eerie sound common in the films I mentioned above. Think of UFOs and aliens, and you can easily associate it with the sound. Hitchcock perhaps overused it a little. Unfortunately, the Theremin is associated only with that strange sound and sci-fi movies. What is unknown is that it plays a decent Bach or Wagner in the hands of an adept musician. Leon Theremin was an usual man who had an unsual life and invented an unsual instrument. It is definitely worth seeing. Yesterday I checked ebay for Theremins. The cheapest Theremin on auction is about $200. Apparently,they still make them. It would be interesting to start a band using it.
