UnSilent Cinema dumps the player piano and sets Chaplin, Keaton to new electronica and indie music

Go to a screening of a classic silent film and chances are it will be accompanied by a single piano player cranking out tunes influenced by ragtime, jazz and various vaudevillian sounds. But a two-day film fest in Los Angeles aims to update silent classics with a more contemporary soundtrack. UnSilent Cinema, a series of free outdoor screenings to be held at FIGat7th downtown this week, pairs contemporary musicians with classic films by Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, among others. Grammy-winning blues guitarist Alvin Youngblood Hart will provide accompaniment for Fatty Arbuckle's 1918 western satire "Out West," and electronica musician Jimmy Tamborello will score Keaton's 1922 comedy short "Cops." "It's about bringing new audiences to early cinema," says David Spelman, who helped organize the festival.