THEREMIN: AN ELECTRONIC ODYSSEY
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1995 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
THEREMIN: AN ELECTRONIC ODYSSEY is a documentary about Professor Leon Theremin (pronounced something like tear-I-men by his associates). If you are like most people, this name means nothing to you. As I was watching the show, I reflected that had I not known that this was a documentary, I could have convinced myself that this was a Woody Allen comedy about a genius inventor of screwball machines that Woody dreamed up because the inventions were so outlandish no one would believe they were real. The movie is complete with a ridiculous kidnapping and exile by an evil foreign power. What makes THEREMIN: AN ELECTRONIC ODYSSEY so fascinating is that everything in the move is true, and the people are not actors.
Professor Theremin was a Russian living in America in the 1920s who was an inventor of many things, but he is most remembered as the father of electronic music. He called his invention a Thereminovox but everyone else called it simply a Theremin. A Theremin is a box with a two foot rod, sort of like a lighting rod, on the player's right side and a one foot loop on the left. The player moves his hand toward the rod to vary the pitch and toward the loop to adjust the volume, but never actually touches anything. The Theremin sounds like a violin, well actually it sounds more like a Halloween parody of a violin.
By now, you are probably thinking, why would anyone want to know more about such a silly instrument? Trust me, this movie is spellbinding and one that kept my mouth hanging open during almost the entire picture. Moreover, you can see how this instrument was used in many movies and heavily influenced all subsequent growth of electronic music and even rock 'n roll. Finally, this professor was a real character that any screenwriter would be proud to have created, except this guy was real.
The style of the documentary is of the typical talking heads, but it has the good grace to spend most of the time showing actually black and white footage of the 1920s-1950s when the instrument was in vogue. When the professor had his first major concert with his device, he had an orchestra of ten Theremins playing serious classical music in Carnegie Hall to a packed house and with front page coverage in The New York Times.
Although most of the film deals with the Theremin instrument, the professor invented many other devices. Some were successes and some were not. After the Lindbergh kidnapping, he invented a crib with a kidnapping alarm, but never sold it. One of his more intriguing failures was a large mat that one dances on to make music. After much practice, even the best dancers could only produce noise from it. In another invention, he produced a mechanical cake for an eighteen year old (Clara Rockmore) he fell in love with. The cake would spin as she walked toward it, and the electronic candle would light. Rockmore would go on to become the premier performer of the Theremin in the world and the professor's lifetime friend. She appears in many of the interviews in the movie.
Since the Theremin had such an eerie sound, it became a popular instrument for movie music in pictures ranging from science fiction (THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE) to dramas (THE LOST WEEKEND) to thrillers (SPELLBOUND) to comedies (Jerry Lewis's THE DELICATE DELINQUENT). The creator of the documentary (Steven M. Martin) included excerpts from all of the above mentioned films. Beside illustrating how effective the Theremin was, watching these classics with the sometimes funny, sometimes frightening sounds is a hoot.
Clara Rockmore "wanted to be serious and play Bach", but after an initial positive reaction, the world found the instrument more quirky that beautiful. After spending almost an hour and a half listening to it, I think it is an influential instrument, but one that is more suited to parody than concerts.
During the height of the initial acclaim of his instrument as a possible renovator of the music world, the professor was kidnapped by the Communists and taken back to his native Russia. After the kidnapping, he totally disappeared for many years, and his friends could not find him. He was even pronounced dead in one publication. It turned out that he was alive, but imprisoned for seven years and then forced to work for 25 years for the KGB. In an interview when he was in his 90s, the professor says, "I was supposed to work on bad things" for the KGB. The documentary does not shed much light on what these bad things were other than some electronic eavesdropping equipment for Stalin.
The Theremin was influential on all later electronic music, and Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog Synthesizer, tells how he built one Theremin after another when he was a kid. In a spaced out speech, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys tells how they used the Theremin in their huge hit song, "Good Vibrations", and how their producer hated the song and did not want them to record it.
Martin follows a straightforward and fairly chronological approach to the documentary medium, and it is the material and not Martin that gives the show its life. The editing by David Greenwald is pedestrian with the exception of the scenes of the professor in his 90s wandering around New York City. Here Greenwald overlays and cuts to classical music being produced on the Theremin.
THEREMIN: AN ELECTRONIC ODYSSEY runs only 1:23, and yet it manages to drag in some spots. It is incorrectly rated PG because Brian Wilson curses some. It is a G show and any kid old enough to be interested in science is old enough for this movie. There is always a dearth of documentaries. I never miss a documentary, and I recommend that you not miss this one either. For people interested in science, inventions, or music, I especially recommend the movie. Personally, I fill all suggestion boxes in theater lobbies with "show more documentaries." I award the movie *** for a fascinating, unknown subject.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: November 5, 1995
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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