Hegel once described hearing and seeing as two rational senses working together to give us the complex picture. While sight permits to perceive the object only as a surface without depth, hearing allows to overcome distance between the subject and the object. From this point of view one could assume that the use of sound in film will add to its ability of verisimilitude. Nevertheless, the first reaction to the sound cinema was not always welcoming and numerous film theorist, Rudolf Arnheim leading the list, feared that sound would be a relapse to the old perception of cinema as filmed theatre. In 1929, Weimar director Fritz Lang, the author of renowned Metropolis, “scoffed loudly and publicly at the very concept of the sound film”. However, …show more content…
The technique used here is called voice-over and is bountifully used throughout the whole film, most notably in the sequence of images demonstrating Elsie’s absence (staircase, playground, empty plate) and connected by the voice-over of her mother desperately crying her name. Lang adopts voice-over (predominantly used as a tool for the narration of the story by non-diegetic commentator) as an original way to assemble the consecutive shots by sound bridge – an editing pattern when the diegetic sound originating from one shot segues into the next shot where it becomes non-diegetic or vice versa. Though they surely expand M’s aesthetic dimension, propel its pacing and intensify its complexity, the function of the sound bridges is often more specific, as we can observe in individual sequences of the film: After Elsie is murdered, the black screen appears again and we hear another voice-over. In this case it is not Elsie’s voice as in the first shot but the voices of the newspaper vendors announcing a new edition with the latest reports on her assassination. When the black screen melts away we are shown the view of the street in which the voices origin and finally the camera cuts into the flat of the murderer who is composing a letter to the newspaper. These three shots connected by single voice-over display the city as one organism and the murderer as an equal and unnoticed component of it. In the next sequence we observe the crowd reading the news on the street and we assume that the voice reading aloud belongs to one of the participators. However, in the next shot we find out that it belongs to a man who appears in the next scene. This surprising moment exposes the interconnection of the city by
The decade was largely dominated by silent films, but the creation of movies with sound followed afterwards. These innovations greatly improved the movies and made them more immersive and exciting for the viewer. Soon after the invention of sound in movies, the silent era movies...
In this paper, I want to argue that Fritz Lang's effective use of Cinemascope and Mise-en-scène in Moonfleet, ultimately allowed him to better express his signature stylistic elements, despite the many restrictions he had to work with throughout the production process. These restrictions included but were not limited to: a new stylistic filming process; Cinemascope, and the frayed relationship Fritz Lang was speculated to share with MGM, the production company he worked with for Moonfleet.
Bergan, Ronald. "A History of Creative Sound in Film (Abridged)." The Guardian. n.p, 17 July 2008. Web. 11 Jan 2014
Jensen, Paul M. The Cinema of Fritz Lang. New York, A.S. Barnes & Co. 1969
All you can hear is “Extra! Extra! Extra!”(). Then suddenly you see people handing out newspaper and people huddled around a man with newspapers. The extra being repeated multiple times in a loud shouting voice is there to grab everyone’s attention. Every time someone said extra, more and more people were wanting to know what the crime is and who the murder could be. Then scene fades to a man writing a something while whistling the familiar tune of “In the Hall of the Mountain King”. By whistling the familiar tune, the audience knows that he is the murder and that he is planning something bad because the last time he whistled this tune, a little girl died. The scene quickly goes back to the crowd of people out on the streets. Everyone becomes quiet as a man reads the news report. As he reads the report, the scene changes again to a bird’s eye view of a group of men also reading the same news report. Having both the public and the criminals read the news report at the same time shows how panic and anxiety raised
Released September 29, 1950, Sunset Boulevard is a film noir of a forgotten silent film star, Norma Desmond, that dreams of a comeback and an unsuccessful screenwriter, Joe Gillis, working together. Ultimately an uncomfortable relationship evolves between Norma and Joe that Joe does not want a part of. Sunset Boulevard starts off with an establishing shot from a high angle shot with a narrative leading to a crime scene from a long shot (a dead body is found floating in a pool), this narrative throughout the film establishes a formalist film.
When audiences think of Lang's Metropolis they almost unanimously think of the same image: that of a golden, mechanical being brought to life. It is one of the most recognizable images in German expressionist cinema, on par with the spidery shadow of Max Schrek's Nosferatu creeping up the stairs in Murnau's vampire film, or that of Cesare the somnambulist sleeping upright in Weine's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, yet what separates this i...
Film was not always as it is today due to the digital sounds and graphic picture enhancements of George Lucas's THX digital sound in the late 1970s to enhance the audience's perceptions. Sound was first discovered in 1928 and the first films before that were silent. There is a social need to heighten an audience's film going experience and it allows each person to color their own views of what they see and presents either directly or indirectly society's moral values.
With the discovery of techniques such as continuous editing, multiple camera angles, montage editing, and more, silent filmmaking developed from simple minute-long films to some of the most beautiful, awe-inspiring films that have ever been created—in only a few decades. In Visions of Light, someone alluded that if the invention of sound had come along a mere ten years later, visual storytelling would be years ahead of what it is today. This statement rings true. When looking at the immense amount of progress that was made during the silent era of films, one must consider where the art of film has been, where it is, and where it is
Fritz Lang’s M is very much a product of its time, receiving huge influences from German Expressionism during the 1930s. After World War I, this form of presenting film became very prominent in Germany reflecting the cynicism and disillusionment that encapsulated the country. As a result of Lang’s expressionist approach to the film along with his own unique take on the genre, M is also a very early example of film noir.
I've spent the past two years working at Golden Age Cinemas' Liberty 1 & 2 Theaters. This movie theater is a tremendously important part of my life. Unfortunately, the theater isn't making nearly enough money to survive. It has been around since the 1930's, and quite honestly, is very run down. Very seldom do we see more than 15 people for a movie, which is an unsustainable amount of revenue to keep up with the mortgage, wages, supplies, etc. There has been speculation that the theater is going to shut down, this came after the Mayor of Libertyville posted on Facebook desperately trying to get funding to save the theater. As an employee, and a resident of Libertyville, saving the theater is the only option. It has been so important to all of
Thinking Sound. (2011). Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola Talks about the Evolution of Movie Sound. [Online]. Available from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-fNpE9vQJw [Accessed 05 February 2012]
In brief, the audience can see how this 1931 sound film could be shaped by sound in a number of ways. Considering that sound at this time was a new phenomenon it is understood why mostly diegetic sound was used over nondiegetic sound. This director also showed the audience how the story could be affected by sound with examples like the clock becoming a character and storyline of its own and also the murderer being identified with his whistling. With the lack of sound and the collage of images during specific times, the director was able to create a mood without music or sound. Apparently this was a technique that was learned throughout his many years of silent films. These details were what brought the story together and would not have been done so precisely without the technique of sound.
The importance of music in movies is highly regarded for manipulating the viewer’s emotions and helping them immerse into the story. Music is one of the prime elements in cinema. Without it a movie would feel dull and unexciting. There are three elements in a movie: one is acting, the second is picture, and the third one is music. It is a holy trinity; if incomplete, there would be a lack of sensation and excitement. Both acting and picture can stand independently from one another, but music is the one that makes the movie memorable.
‘Then came the films’; writes the German cultural theorist Walter Benjamin, evoking the arrival of a powerful new art form at the end of 19th century. By this statement, he tried to explain that films were not just another visual medium, but it has a clear differentiation from all previous mediums of visual culture.