About the Film: LOUIS
While researching and writing the 2019 feature film Bolden, director Dan Pritzker’s mythical interpretation of the life and times of New Orleans jazz pioneer Charles ‘Buddy’ Bolden, he went to see Charlie Chaplin’s ‘City Lights’ with live musical accompaniment by the Chicago Symphony. It took his breath away; it was unlike anything he’d ever seen. At that moment he decided to write LOUIS, a silent film about a little boy named Louis who wanted to learn to play the trumpet.
Realized with the help of Oscar-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, Pritzker took on the mammoth task of directing both LOUIS and Bolden concurrently. “I thought that if I was going to shoot one film, I might as well try to shoot two.” He continued “I’m not sure I’d ever seen a silent film in its entirety before ‘City Lights’. I’d seen my favorite, ‘The Kid’ in bits and pieces but never all the way through. For LOUIS, I watched all the Chaplin films, then the Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd films - I went with the funny stuff first, and then I started watching every silent film I could find.”
Pritzker knew from the outset that he wanted to work with jazz great Wynton Marsalis. Within minutes of their first meeting, Wynton turned to Pritzker and said, ‘So if you’re going to do a film about Bolden, it’s got to be a myth.’ Pritzker knew Marsalis understood the mission who came on as executive producer and composer/performer for both LOUIS and Bolden.
“The idea of accompanying a silent film telling a mythical tale of a young Louis Armstrong was appealing to me,” says Marsalis. “Of course, calling it a silent film is a misnomer — there is plenty of music, and jazz is like a conversation between the players so there’ll be no shortage of dialogue.”
Of classical pianist Cecile Licad, music writer Jeff Distler notes “Licad may have been groomed under Rudolf Serkin’s exacting tutelage, but her visceral, exuberant (Louis Moreau) Gottschalk playing evokes Vladimir Horowitz’s diabolical art.” Marsalis adds “I look forward to playing with Cecile. The contrast between Gottschalk’s music and jazz can be a revelation to those unfamiliar with either Gottschalk or jazz.” For Pritzker “The combination of Cecile playing Gottschalk and Wynton and his ensemble playing jazz reflects the wide-ranging nature of the American musical landscape.”
The late Zsigmond commented at the time of filming, “This was a very interesting project for me because I always wanted to do a silent film and in this era it’s highly unusual for one to be made. I also love working in black-and-white. The most important thing for me in cinematography is the light. Good lighting shouldn’t be visible, it should seem natural.”
Shot in Wilmington, NC and on location in New Orleans, LOUIS was filmed in color because, according to Zsigmond. “Today’s black-and-white film isn’t as good as color when it comes to grain and texture. The color film that we’re using now is much more perfect than black-and-white film. To do a real black-and-white film it’s better to start in color and then take colors out in the process. We did a black-and-white film with a hint of color.” LOUIS features Anthony Coleman in the title role, Jackie Earle Haley as wicked Judge Perry, Shanti Lowry as the beguiling Grace Lamennais and Carmen de Lavallade as scheming Comtesse Willie Piazza.