Jeff Mills | Cine-Mix | "Woman In The Moon"

Jeff Mills will perform his soundtrack to the 1929 Fritz Lang movie Woman in the Moon at EYE Film Institute. It is the third time Mills soundtracks Lang’s fantasy on space travel, after debuting his all-new electronic score in Paris last year for a Lang retrospective at the Cinématique Française.

Mills, who developed his interest in SF in his childhood and collects classic pulp science-fiction, composed an electronic score for Lang’s masterpiece Metropolis (1927) in 2000. He praises the German director ‘cinematic perspective and apparent devotion to thoroughly play out and address complex social matters in a convincing way.’ Woman in the Moon, originally titled Frau im Mond, was Lang’s last silent movie, and is hailed as the first ‘serious’ SF film. Scientifically spot on, the movie looks brilliant too. Lang used state-of-the-art (for 1929) modernist design for the scenes in the protagonist’s apartment and the launch of the moon rocket is visually and conceptually stunning, using innovative modeling as well as crane shots. Through his storytelling, the director was able to explain the then-new concept of moon travel. Lang today is still utterly modern in his use of media to propel the story.
 
All original compositions
‘One of the first things I realized,’ says Mills of his Metropolis soundtrack, ‘was that techno and electronic music was being greatly understated in terms of its ability to expand beyond the dance floor – that its structure is perfect in relaying certain things about people’s concerns and visions about the future. This is an example of broadening the genre in a meaningful way.’
All of Woman in the Moon’s 164 minutes is set to newly composed music. Mills: ‘I think there is no better way to do a cine-mix than to start from the ground up by creating the music to apply a tailored result. The music can only be heard during this film presentation.’
 
Woman in the Moon by Jeff Mills, EYE Film Institute, Wednesday 17 October, 9pm. Tickets: € 32,50 (reservation mandatory). Jeff Mills will play a 6-hour DJ set on Sunday 21 October at OT301.


Photo credit: Frau Im Mond