Arts + Life Movies/TV Nick's List bonus - silent movies aren't | Nick's List bonus - silent movies aren't |
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| Written by Nick Otten, Special to the Beacon | |
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Some people hate silent movies even more than subtitled foreign movies. The problem they have in common is the reading requirement. In a foreign movie, you can’t watch the action while you read the bottom of the screen. If they talk much or too fast, you know the translation will be simplistic and probably “cleaned up.” When a silent movie stops for you to read a card, the whole movie stops. Boring. You want to see what it means. Viewers often object to voice-overs, too. Don’t tell me, show me.
Almost no movie is totally silent, even the old non-talkies. “Silent” movies first came with live music, now with a soundtrack. What viewers anticipate now — along with the reading — is boring, repetitive music. Sleep comes quickly for people listening to an hour of the same endless runs on a rinky-tink piano in a dark, warm room. The problem isn’t silence, it’s bad background sound. Sure, you can actually watch an entire movie in true silence, just turn off the sound, but who would? Even a film teacher won’t dare that experiment for long. The temptation of silence is so overwhelming — soon the expert starts lecturing right over the movie. I’ve been there. You know who sees genuinely silent movies? Movie makers. They need to watch their own silent footage sometimes, especially during shooting and editing, but even they may play background music. Stanley Kubrick played classical music all through the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey and when the commissioned score was finally available, he discarded it for Johann Strauss’ "Blue Danube" waltz and Richard Strauss’ bombast, which he had been using “temporarily.” Speaking of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), more than half — 88 minutes — had no dialogue. That movie and its astronauts in pressurized suits (not Darth Vader in Star Wars nine years later) was the one that first scared viewers with the sheer sound of breathing. The point is that sound is always an important part of the drama, subtle or not. I have a strong memory of reading somewhere that Francis Ford Coppola thought the music carried 60 percent of the meaning in a movie. If you view the same visual with a different soundtrack, you experience a different movie. Want evidence? Watch five minutes of a good Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton film twice. Pick any two CDs and watch for awhile with one playing, then switch to the other. Or just try this: Watch the first three minutes of Blade Runner with no sound — no Vangelis score, no sound effects, no voice-over, no dialog. You make ask, “Who cares?” You will, when you really want to study what you view. For the same reason that painters look at compositions upside down and golfers bounce balls in mid-air with five-irons. Get serious. Play with the tools. |
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Nick\'s List bonus - silent movies aren\'t
May 16 2008 19:45:50 This thread discusses the Content article: Nick's List bonus - silent movies aren't
OK Nick - If you were going to turn off the sound for Harold and Maude, what two different pieces of music would you pick to get two completely varied, but compelling viewings?  |
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Re:Nick\'s List bonus - silent movies aren\'t
May 17 2008 03:04:24 To ryanke:
Okay, cool. We can try several ways. My DVD includes two of the old theatrical trailers, both of which give a typical slide-show of the movie, one with a Cat Stevens track throughout, one with mostly dialog. Pick either one and replace the track with any song from Prime Prine: The Best of John Prine (Atlantic) or any song from Billie Holiday: Last Recording (Verve) or find any CD of Gregorian Chant music and play that. For me, the movie goes from silly-sarcastic to broken-hearted to funereal. See what it does for you. But frankly I'd say just skip the trailers altogether and go straight to my personal favorite scene, when Maude explains to Harold that everybody is someway unique. On the DVD it's labeled Chapter 11 and titled "Sunflowers and Daisies." Have fun re-scoring the movie. Feel free to report any mystical new insights. nickslister |
#32 |
Discuss this item on the forums. (2 posts)
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Secrecy, a movie that explores the vast world of government secrecy, will be shown at 7 p.m. Jan. 9, 10, 11 in Room 123 of the Sverdrup Business & Technology building on the campus of Webster University. For information, go to www.webster.edu/filmseries $6-$4
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