Bird's Eye View

Salome

with music from Bishi & Neil Kaczor

Filmmaker: Charles Bryant

Alla Nazimova, Mitchell Lewis, Nigel de Brulier

USA / 1923 / 72 min

NFT1 Sat 7th Mar 5.30pm

The mesmeric Alla Nazimova, lesbian Hollywood icon, plays Salome in this adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play, based on the biblical tale. When the Prophet Jokaanan rejects her advances, Salome persuades her step-father Herod to kill him through her entrancing dance. Relish in the stylised performances, with wonderful costumes and Audrey Beardsley-inspired sets by Natacha Rambova.

Alla Nazimova

Russian-born Nazimova trained under Stanislavski in theatre before launching her silent film career. Gaining huge power in Hollywood (earning four times the likes of Mary Pickford), she began to produce and write the films in which she starred. Nazimova was known for her high profile lesbian affairs, whilst she maintained a lavendar marriage with actor Charles Bryant.

BEV Retrospective programmers Kelly Robinson and Ingrid Stigsdotter give us an enticing insight into the lives of these amazing Vamp actresses, the original A-list movie stars, on our BEV blog. 

Bishi

Bishi is a singer, multi instrumentalist and DJ based in London. She studied Sitar at The Ravi Shankar School for Music and has a passion for English & East European folk, progressive pop & electronica. In 2008 alone, Bishi has recorded with a tango orchestra in Buenos Aires, performed shows at Glastonbury and Latitude and held a concert performing her new album Nights at the Circus with the London Symphony Orchestra Strings. This new critically acclaimed album was also nominated for the Times Award and for a South Bank Show Award, and she recently appeared on The Culture Show and Friday Night With Johnathan Ross. Her new album will be released in spring 2009.

Neil Kaczor

Neil Kaczor studied composition at the Royal College of Music and electroacoustic music
composition at City University, London. His music has been performed throughout Europe, South America and Japan. During the 1990s he co-founded The Offset, a multi-media performance collective and also played keyboards in the art-rock band Minty. He has written a number of vocal and instrumental works specially for Bishi, including the song-cycle Mirabai Settings and Khamaj Variations for sitar & orchestra, versions of which feature in the live accompaniment to Salome. Other recent commissions include music for the opening celebrations of the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow; a sound installation for the Museum of Childhood, London and the soundtrack to Julian Cole's film With Gilbert & George - a portrait of the artists which opened the 2007 East London Film Festival.

Immodesty Blaize

Immodesty Blaize is a British burlesque showgirl dancer whose breathtaking performamces are in demand the world over. She was crowned the Reigning Queen of Burlesque at Las Vegas’ Burlesque Hall of Fame in 2007, and is renowned for her extravagant original signature act with her eight-foot Swarovski encrusted rocking horse. Heralded by the Sunday Times as “the undisputed queen of British burlesque,” Immodesty revived her critically acclaimed, sell-out extravaganza The Immodest Tease Show in 2008 and is due to release her debut novel TEASE The Secrets of a Showgirl with Ebury Press in summer 2009.

 

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