Theremin World

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