Meet Me In St. Louis

Over time cinema has adapted and developed to better entertain the audience. A lot of aspects in film have subliminal messages or specific purposes that the audience normally does not pick up on. An example of this is how different styles in cinema have made it possible to convey emotion without the characters actually speaking. This can be done by using aspects such as: sound, movement, light, and several other aspects. For the purpose of this paper, a utopia is defined as a community or society that possesses highly desirable or near perfect qualities. In Meet Me in St. Louis by Vincent Minnelli, it is evident that different styles, structures, and aspects are used in order to construct the idea of a utopic society and help develop the film’s

As it can be seen in the short clip, Vincent Minnelli’s Meet Me in St. Louis is a musical. Since the scene mostly consists of singing, there is a lot of nonsynchronous sound. This results in the background music having a significant role in portraying the emotion of the actors. In most present day films, the use of music tends to be a lot more significant than it appears to be. One specific example that can be used to illustrate this is with musicals. Musicals, like Meet Me in St. Louis, typically use song placement strategically so that the audience has no difficulty realizing emotions or where the plot is headed. Another major aspect of the use of sound is during the opening scene where everyone is outside and whistling with each other to showcase how perfect life in St. Louis is. Along with whistling, Minnelli chose to add in up-beat background music until the characters got into the house. Besides the music and sound, Vincent Minnelli uses movement in a manor that can be seen as another aspect helping to create the image of the family living in a utopia. One major purposes of movement in the scene was that it was an exposition. An exposition is the director’s way to give background information on characters or the setting of the film. Minnelli uses this method and incorporates it by adding a musical number which helps to emphasize that all

Louis uses movement, sound, lighting, and colour in order to convey emotion to the audience. The scene begins with a carriage ride where colours are significantly vibrant and create texture that seems fake. On this carriage ride the audience hears the first portion of sound which includes neighbours biking, laughing, talking, and whistling with one another; all while there is positive background music playing. The reason for this is that when the audience first is introduced to the film, it is obvious that the family is living in this perfect neighbourhood where everyone seems to be happy. Therefore, through analysis of Meet Me in St. Louis by Vincent Minnelli, it is evident that the film utilizes many different aspects and techniques of cinema in order for the audience to believe in the idea of a