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THEREMIN: AN ELECTRONIC
ODYSSEY
USA, 1994
Director/Producer/Screenwriter: Steven M. Martin
Cinematographers: Frank De Marco, with Robert Stone, Cris Lombardi, Ed Lachman
Editor: David Greenwald
Music: Hal Willner
Print Source: Orion Classics
84 minutes
This story seems too incredible to be true: the scientist who invented a
new musical instrument was kidnapped by the Russians, had a seminal
influence on the Beach Boys and Alfred Hitchcock, and was decorated by
Stalin for inventing the bug that helped the Russians spy on the
Americans. Yet it all happened to Leon Theremin, the fascinating subject
of this amazing film. Born in St. Petersburg in 1895, Theremin excelled
at both physics and the cello. In 1920, while trying to repair a radio, he
invented the theremin, the only musical instrument played without being
touched --sound is produced by waving a hand near an antenna-like wand.
The resulting eerie wail will be instantly recognizable to those familiar
with the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" or '50s sci-fi films The Day the
Earth Stood Still and The Thing; it also signals the onset of Gregory
Peck's psycho dream in Hitchcock's Spellbound. But if the instrument is
spooky, that's nothing compared with Theremin's life. He had been living
in New York for 10 years when, in 1938, Soviet secret police walked into
his studio and kidnapped him. Nothing more was heard of him for decades,
and it was assumed he had been executed in Stalin's purges. But in
reality, after seven years in a labor camp he was rehabilitated for
scientific services to the state and continued to do research. Filmmaker
Steven M. Martin tracked him down in Moscow and brought Theremin, an alert
nonagenarian, to New York for the first time in over 60 years. There he
had a sentimental reunion with his muse and former romantic interest Clara
Rockmore, the world's greatest theremin virtuoso. It is a fitting end to a
truly incredible saga.
Awards: Filmmakers' Trophy (Documentary), Sundance Film Festival, 1994;
Golden Gate Award, San Francisco Film Festival, 1994
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