The Spectator From 28 November 2015

Breath, Wind. The image flies away, it disappears from our memory. It was that evening when Ibrahim Maalouf came to the Cinémathèque française to play his music accompanying the film of René Clair, the prey of the wind. A silent film made in 1927. Holding her breath, the room listened to Ibrahim Maalouf and put himself in the rhythm of the film to accompany the breath of images. Bet won! Jazz + silent film, what a pretty alliance, what a sweet way to bring back to us the silent mystery of cinema from another era.
The film of René Clair can be seen without accompanying music. The music of Ibrahim Maalouf can be listened to alone, without images. But the meeting of the two creates an incredible ensemble, a kind of telescoping unreleased, a live spectacle very moving because the music in a sense interprets the film…