Z Online Class: A Zoom invitation link will be sent one day before class begins.
The stranger-than-fiction story of the father of electronic music is told in this acclaimed 1995 documentary. Leon Theremin was a teenage prodigy whose experiments caught the attention of Russia’s leading physicists. He was mentored, then put to work helping to develop electronic listening devices useful in espionage. On the side, he invented the world’s first musical instrument played without physical contact by the musician. In 1928 he emigrated to the United States, where his invention brought him fame, concert demands, an American wife, and a life among New York’s social elite. In 1938 he abruptly and mysteriously disappeared, not to be heard from again for over 50 years. Interest in his instrument was revived in post-war America by electronic music pioneers. The spooky sounds of the theremin made their appearance in numerous science fiction and horror movies. They also found frequent use by many of the most creative rock and roll groups. Leon Theremin was eventually found teaching physics in the Soviet Union. For this documentary, he was brought back to America as a still-spry 95-year-old for a touching reunion with his friends and former colleagues.
John Stewart is a retired software developer with degrees in biology from the University of Michigan. He is not a movie maven, but he enjoys films with a foreign touch and believes this one will appeal to Elderwise cinema lovers.
