Iris Talks: Celebrating Arthur Kleiner, MoMA’s First Silent Film Pianist

Film

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Held on Wed, Nov 20, 2019, 7:00 p.m.

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2

Portrait of Arthur Kleiner. Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive

During the silent era, films were always accompanied by live music, a tradition also observed at MoMA. Iris Barry hired Arthur Kleiner in 1939 to compile, arrange, and perform musical scores for the silent film screenings. For this Iris Talk, film accompanist Ben Model and associate curator Anne Morra will present film excerpts, music, and discussion illuminating Kleiner’s 30 years of pioneering silent-film scoring at MoMA. Films include Three American Beauties (1906), Lonedale Operator (1911), In the Street (1952), and Hollywood’s Musical Moods (1972; courtesy Michael Blackwood Productions).

This film accompanies Modern Matinees: Iris Barry’s History of Film.

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