(Alfred Hitchcock, United States, 1963, HD, 119 min)

Original live score!

Puget Soundtrack is a series of live score commissions presented by Northwest Film Forum. The Film Forum invites musicians and bands to choose a film for which they would like to create and perform a live score.

Australian-born, Seattle-based composer Madeleine Cocolas chose to revisit Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller masterpiece, The Birds, for her Puget Soundtrack. Hitchcock’s eerie brand of horror is impeccable in his iconic film about the indomitable power of nature. When a beautiful newcomer arrives in a sleepy coastal California town, an escalating series of bird attacks begins to unsettle and unravel residents. Featuring characteristic visual richness and glacial suspense, The Birds continues to intrigue and unnerve after more than fifty years.

Called at turns a comment on an industrialized environment falling out of balance, and an allegory of the disruption of female sexuality, the film’s bold imagery lends itself to reinterpretation.

Madeleine Cocolas on her selection:

“I have always loved The Birds, from Melanie Daniels’ immaculate wardrobe, to Mitch Brenner’s casual arrogance, to the side glances that Melanie and Annie Hayworth throw at each other. This film is terrifying, it has no music, and it is perfect as it is.

I was initially apprehensive to add a score, because it was so consciously left out in the first place. However, the more I thought about it, the more I thought it would be fun to add music that was an unexpected fit with the film and that didn’t follow typical horror conventions or reference the film’s distinctive era. I am including all the original dialogue and sound effects from the film and adding a dreamy, synth heavy soundtrack. My hope is to achieve a certain uneasiness and tension from the juxtaposition of the perfectly put together horror film from 1963 against an electronic reverb-laden score from 2015.”

More on this event at our website: http://nwfilmforum.org/live/page/calendar/3754