April 7, 2008 - 12:00am
By Peter Finocchiaro
The musical score is a vital aspect of any film — it can enunciate themes, build tension, evoke powerful emotional reactions from the audience and even alter the meaning of the images on the screen.
The Valerie Project is the effort of several musicians, including members of the Philadelphia-based psych-folk band, Espers, to explore the powerful effects of music on film in greater detail. The subject of their experiment? Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, a 1970 surrealist fantasy from Czech director Jaromil Jeres.