Cagliostro

I love mashups, even  (or especially) when they err on the side of camp. So when I learned that a salvaged copy of the 1929 silent movie Cagliostro was released on DVD with two soundtracks, one classical and one abstract (instrumental) hip-hop, I nearly wet my post-geek pants. As you may know, I’m a big fan of both the 18th century and of hip-hop, but powdered wigs/turntable mashups are few and far between. So rare in fact that my girlfriend once took pity and drew one for my birthday (see left).

Cagliostro was fun to watch. The story follows the rise and fall of Joseph “Cagliostro” Balsamo, an 18th century adventurer/alchemist/con man and focuses on the affair of the diamond necklace, popularized in France by Alexandre Dumas’ novels. In a way it delivered the standard silent movie expressionist fare, with actors that roll their made-up eyes like lunatics, different beauty standards for women and very explanatory intertitles. Surprises for me included the lavishness of some of the sets, rather explicit boob displays and learning of all the film techniques that were pioneered either for this movie or shortly before, thanks to the accompanying booklet.

My vision of Jeanne de la Motte and of the queen’s necklace is changed for ever.

But the big disappointment came from the hip-hop “cine-mix”. While I expected an actual soundtrack/score akin to what DJ Shadow did for Dark Days, a cine-mix is just that: a mix. So sometimes the music follows or adds a new layer to the action, but most of the time it neither helps nor hinders and doesn’t follow the scene durations, just as if I had random DJ Cam tracks playing on my stereo while watching the movie. I knew Cam’s style was rather loungy-jazzy-downtempo unobtrusive stype of hip-hop, so I didn’t expect the type of punchy electro heard in Plunkett & Macleane‘s soundtrack, but I would have liked much more interaction with the images. On the other hand, Mathieu Regnault’s classic piano soundtrack completely delivers. Sure my brain is wired to expect such music with a silent movie, but it’s pretty obvious from the bonuses that one soundtrack required hard work and the other seems to have been cobbled together based on live performance, which didn’t translate that well on DVD.

It’s a pity because this may give conservatives more ammo against the concept of mashups, but I remain hopeful that one day I’ll get to experience a successful hip-hop enlightenment. In the mean time I’ll keep working on my kung-fu hip-hop larp, a genre of mashup that has steadily been delivering for the past twenty years.

Abel Gance meets Prince of Persia.