Singin' in the Rain, Directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly (1952)
In Friday's session one of the examples that was included on the clips list was from Singin' in the Rain. This is one of my favourite films. It is a musical comedy starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, Jean Hagen and Cyd Charisse and tells the story of the transition from silent movies to talkies in the late 1920s in Hollywood. It is a quick witted, affectionately self mocking look at the movie industry and features many big musical numbers and extravagent, and very clever, dance routines. Given our lecture on Friday in which we discussed the transition from silent films to talkies, I took the opportunity to watch the film again.
The film is a light hearted expose of the early days of the Hollywood film industry and as such contains many, many deliberately unsubtle in jokes that give the film its incredible charm. By setting the story behind the scenes of the movie studios the film deliberately shows the cheats and tricks that studios use to create illusions on screen, and then proceeds to use those very cheats and tricks within the Singin' in the Rain film itself. This is partly what gives the film its charm. The viewer is let into the world that our loveable main characters inhabit completely. They share with us what they do to entertain, and how the formula works. And it does work. For example, one of the scenes that stands out for me is the Cosmo 'Make 'em Laugh' dance routine which shows him running up the wall and doing a back somersault. First he runs up a dividing wall, then he runs up a wall that is a backdrop of a hotel corridor which exposes that it is just a painted flat, used as part of the set. This use of backdrop exposes the earlier scene where Don and Kathy are driving in a car that is obviously on set in front of a back projection.
Another stand out scene is the direction of the Broadway Melody scene featuring Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly. The routine has Miss Charisse wearing a fitted dress with an enormously long train. Throughout the routine the train is kept flowing out behind her as she dances. Given the huge expanse of floor space covered by the routine, on several stage levels, and the runs, turns and lifts included in the routine, and the power of wind machine required to keep the train flowing, the logistical floor planning and synchronisation of the wind machines must have been intricately planned and perfectly executed to achieve the effect. The choreography of the dancers was elaborate and involved many positions so many wind machines must have been placed at varying degrees around the stage, and also incorporated into the set itself where the steps are used, because when you watch the scene the wind direction changes many times to keep the train flowing in the right direction and out to the back of Miss Charisse.
This is an amazing routine because of the effect that all that planning and meticulous switching on and off of wind machines achieves. I was paying particular attention to this as we are using a dancer in our pairs project and I was looking at how we can make a graceful dance scene as our main shot.
The following notes are notes that I have made previously about the use of sound in films.
These two reviews give my initial thoughts on the use of sound in big studio, commercial films. I thought that this would be a good place to start to analyse the sound as it is traditionally used in film, after this I can watch and analyse some experimental films and see how the sound is used differently in those productions.
The French Connection, Directed by William Friedkin (1971)
The French Connection is a good film and I can understand why it was Academy Award nominated. There are quirky, quite experimental, elements in the editing of the film; seemingly random cuts to close ups of shoes or hands, work without really knowing why they work, and the ambiguous gunshot ending is a real emotional tug for the viewer.
The stand out scene for me as I was studying the sound was the scene in the nightclub where the live cabaret act is performing a Motown-esque song on stage in the room in which the action takes place. Sound-wise it was interesting to see how the volume of the singers is edited so that the sound retracts to allow the dialogue to be heard and then gets louder again once the group of people talking move away. In real life the sound of the singers would have been constant but as a viewer we were allowed to be part of the conversation and, as if we were in the room, our attention was focused on the people talking not the singing which has now gone from having our full attention to being background noise. Also, I noticed that in the nightclub scene a hand held camera movement is used when characters are pushing their way through the crowd, as though we are being jostled to keep up with the character, but once we are clear of the dance floor and sit down, a fixed camera is used. This added an element of perceived realism to the scene.
The Thin Red Line, Director Terrence Malick (1998)
I remember that we were shown a clip from The Thin Red Line in one of our sound workshops to show how sound editing in post production works and how sounds are manipulated to highlight poignant things such as, in this film, the silence as the troops approach a danger zone and the only sound is the wind blowing the grass. Another interesting use of sound is the confusion of sounds, layers upon layers, during the bombing scenes. Watching films now I am conscious of the way that sound is arranged on films and how false some of the sounds are and how volume levels are used to guide us through what we are meant to hear and therefore highlight what we are supposed to be focusing on on screen.
Apart from the use of sound, two other things struck me about this film. Firstly the camera is very smooth and flowing, or static, whilst the troops are stealthily heading for the attack or are in a position of safety but once the fighting starts and chaos ensues the camera work is handheld, shaky and erratic which sweeps the viewer up into the confusion and desperation of the fighting. This worked really well. The second thing I noticed was the occasional cut away to images of nature. These, I feel, are placed within the film to remind the viewer of the natural beauty of the landscape and the country in which the war is taking place and the destruction of nature that war causes (including the loss of human life). This was a coincidence because it was the next film I watched after seeing The Driller Killer which also used strategically placed, sometimes seemingly random cutaways to imprint an idea on the viewer.
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