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November 1993

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Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
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Wed, 10 Nov 1993 21:32:26 EST
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As a historical matter films were never shown without some kind of
accompaniment; single piano, string quartet, full symphony orchestra,
or lecture accompaniment.
 
Simply, the current discussion is about something that never existed
historically.  Yes, Japanese silent films were accompanied by a narrator
who told the story that was being played out on the screen.  Many of
these narrators had followings much like any other performer.  There
were star narrators just as there were star actors and actresses.
Donald Richie and Joseph L. Anderson have written about this mode of
performance.  (I don't remember whether it was in their classic book
JAPANESE FILM something written later, as individuals).
 
If someone wants to speak of the joys of viewing silent films in 1993
accompanied only by the sound of their thoughts, fine.  But this
experience has nothing to do with films as experienced in the era
between 1896 and 1927.
 
It is worth noting that the coming of sound was not without its debates.
Many people seriously suggested that only the sound track (music and
effects) be synchronized while the acting continued silent.  Others
argued that sound should be used for special dramatic impact.  A close
viewing will show that this is one of the dramatic techniques used in
JAZZ SINGER.  In a crucial scene, Al Jolson as Jackie Robin (ne Jankele
Rubinowitz) teases his mother while vamping and singing.  Directly in
the middle of the frame in the background a door is seen.  And as anyone
knows a door this prominently displayed is going to be used.  And it was.
Yankele's father, the cantor, burst into the door and the audience hears
him shout: STOP!  The sound track goes silent while the screen displays
an intertitle: POPPA.  The story proceeds without dialogue until another
climactic scene.  (Jonathan Tankel has published at least one paper on
the film analyzing it in terms of the use of sound as a means of
promoting this new device that Western Electric and Warner Bros. had
invested considerable capital.  Sorry I don't have the cite close to hand;
it was during the mid-'seventies in the Journal of the Film and Video Assn.)
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Cal Pryluck, Radio-Television-Film, Temple University, Philadelphia
<[log in to unmask]>  <PRYLUCK@TEMPLEVM>

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