LAC (Lugano art and culture)

Cinema with live music at the LAC in Lugano

09 December 2025

Curated by Editorial Team

Two evenings between Hitchcock and Ruttmann's Berlin bring the big screen back to center stage

In December, the Theater Hall of the LAC returns to being a place where image and sound intertwine in real time: cinema with live music in Lugano becomes a magical experience. Two consecutive events—Wednesday, December 10th and Thursday, December 11th—offer a journey through classic cinema, avant-garde, symphonic music, and electronic music, bringing rare experiences to Lugano.

Psycho with live orchestra

The Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, conducted by Anthony Gabriele, will perform live the famous score of Psycho, while Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece unfolds on screen. The complete performance of Bernard Herrmann's score allows us to rediscover the impact this soundtrack had on the grammar of cinema, from its treatment of narrative rhythm to its radical use of dissonance and orchestral color. For many scholars, the interaction between Hitchcock's directorial choices and Herrmann's score has redefined the role of music in building suspense.

Shortly before the screening, at 18:00 pm, in the LAC Hall, audiences will be able to attend an introductory conversation with Giona A. Nazzaro, artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival, who will offer a reflection on the film, its visual codes, and the reasons for its lasting impact.

Ruttmann's Berlin with DJs Gebrüder Teichmann

The next day, at 18:00 pm in the Sala Teatro, a classic of the silent avant-garde will be screened: Berlin – Die Sinfonie der Großstadt by Walter Ruttmann. A defining film of the 1920s, the film depicts an entire day in the German capital like an urban symphony, amidst metropolitan frenzy and social conflict.

In Lugano, the screening will be accompanied by a live soundtrack by Gebrüder Teichmann. The Berlin duo, known for their exploration of club culture, experimentation, and interdisciplinary collaborations, will create a sonic reinterpretation that blends material from decades of the city's musical production: from the deep techno of Basic Channel to the industrial passages of Einstürzende Neubauten, from David Bowie's Berlin period to the most recent voices on the contemporary scene.

The performance, presented as an extended DJ set, also includes references to the Swiss tradition closely connected to the Berlin scene: from Dieter Moebius (Cluster) to Alexandre Babel & Latifa Echakhch, by way of Thomas Fehlmann, Walter Fähndrich, and Ali Dada. The result is a sonic mosaic that engages both with Ruttmann's era and the subsequent cultural history of the German capital.

Cinema with live music in Lugano

The two evenings demonstrate how cinema can reemerge in renewed forms when music becomes an active part of the experience. On the one hand, the pinpoint tension constructed by Herrmann and Hitchcock; on the other, the layering of sonic and visual memories of twentieth-century Berlin, reinterpreted through a contemporary language.