DbcultAccessing Vault...
6.3/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.3/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Ben Bernie and His Orchestra remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
You should probably only watch this if you are a total nerd for film history or if you really like old-timey jazz. If you need a plot or even decent audio, you are going to absolutely hate this.
It is barely a movie, really. It is more like a tech demo from 1925 where they were trying to prove that you could put sound on a strip of film without it being a total disaster.
Ben Bernie stands there with his violin and his big grin. He is known as the "Old Maestro" and he really leans into that showman vibe.
The band is all crammed together in this very tight, static shot. Nobody moves much, probably because they were terrified of stepping away from the hidden microphones.
It feels a bit like watching a ghost. The audio has this constant hiss that never goes away, like it is raining inside the recording studio.
Bernie does his famous "Yowsah, yowsah, yowsah" line. It is a bit surreal to see someone from almost a hundred years ago trying to be cool for a camera that barely understood what it was seeing.
Compared to something like The Newlyweds' Christmas Party, this feels much more like a performance and less like a staged play. It is just music.
The drummer has this very intense look on his face. He is working so hard but you can barely hear the cymbals because the tech just couldn't pick up high frequencies yet.
I found myself staring at their shoes for some reason. Everyone is dressed so formally just to stand in a dusty room and play for a few minutes. 🎷
There is a weird moment where Bernie looks right at us and it feels a little bit invasive. Like he’s waiting for us to clap through the screen.
It is way shorter than other musical shorts of the era like Sweet Adeline. But it is also less annoying because it does not try to tell a fake story.
The whole thing is over before you even get used to the scratchy noise. Which is probably for the best because my ears started to hurt a little.
It is definitely more interesting as a historical artifact than as actual entertainment. You can see the roots of every music video ever made right here in this grainy footage.
If you have five minutes to kill and want to feel like you are in a 1920s speakeasy that is also a laboratory, give it a look. Otherwise, you can find better jazz on Spotify without the crackling sounds.
IMDb —
1915
Community
Log in to comment.
