ORCHESTRA SCORES 'BOX' OF SEX, BETRAYAL

Sex and betrayal were the explosive themes at work in the classic 1929

German silent film ''Pandora's Box.''

Live music is the exciting new element added for the San Francisco Film

Festival screenings, as Club Foot Orchestra plays its original score to

accompany the movie, today through Monday at San Francisco's Castro Theater.

The Bay Area-based 10-piece orchestra is famous for composing and

performing its original scores to such silent films as ''Cabinet of Dr.

Caligari'' and ''Metropolis,'' from San Francisco to the Smithsonian

Institution. The world premiere of its new work marks Club Foot's first

appearance as part of the San Francisco Film Festival.

''It's such a powerful and mature film compared with most silents,'' said

Club Foot founder-director Richard Marriott. ''As Lulu, Louise Brooks is about

the hottest thing on any screen, and I include Marilyn Monroe in my

assessment.''

Brooks' uncanny ability to seem simultaneously innocent and an irresistible

vamp comes through clearly as she plays Lulu, the showgirl mistress of a rich

newspaper publisher whose obsession for her leads to his tragic end. The same

happens to his son. And, amidst a whirl of circus characters, backstage

intrigue, gambling joints and continental escapades, everyone who comes close

to Lulu falls victim to her enigmatic presence.

The film's subject also inspired composer Alban Berg's opera, ''Lulu.''

After tackling film subjects from vampires (''Nosferatu'') to slapstick

(Buster Keaton's ''Sherlock Jr.''), Marriott had no trouble leading his

ensemble to compose music for this one.

''It's also the longest film we've tackled, at 110 minutes,'' he said. ''It

allows us to state themes and develop them. Where I once wrote the complete

scores, there are eight composers from the band involved in this one

(including Dave Brubeck's youngest son Matt Brubeck on cello), and it's a

delight to hear how they pick up common themes and use them to express Lulu's

allure in different scenes. Some are soft and surrendering, others are

genuinely erotic.''

Because of the era the film is drawn from, Club Foot is working in familiar

territory, mixing elements from Kurt Weill and German cabaret music to with

Duke Ellington, Viennese operettas, Alban Berg's serial techniques, and Frank

Zappaesque musical quick-cuts.

Marriott has made a career of setting music to moving visual images. By day

he works for TimeWarner in Palo Alto writing music for interactive games and

arcade games.

But at night since 1983 the keyboardist-trombonist-trumpeter and flute

player has led Club Foot Orchestra (most of whose members are

multi-instrumentalists), at first playing jazz and period-style band music,

then discovering the joy of setting its own music to silent films. Over the

past decade Club Foot has earned its reputation as a pioneer in the form.

In recent years other artists, from the atmospheric Alloy Orchestra to jazz

guitarist Bill Frisell have plunged into the medium. Frisell just issued two

CDs of his music to Buster Keaton films. Composer Philip Glass' Ensemble will

perform his new ''opera'' score to accompany the 1946 Jean Cocteau film ''La

Belle et la Bete'' (''Beauty and the Beast'') at Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall on

Nov. 3-4.

''Putting your musical creations together with visual imagery adds a level

of communication that music alone sometimes lacks,'' Marriott said, ''and

provides a richer experience. That's why so many people are getting into this

medium.''