Two comments today by Don Larrson, my MN colleague, seem connected.  He
mentioned in one message the "communal experience" of the movie theater vs. the
home video, however well projected.  He also, in a different message, suggested
that the greater frequency of non-diegetic sound over non-diegetic images can be
traced to silent film and theater, with the current movie sound track (often
non-diegetic) used instead of live music in silent film, vaudeville, opera, etc.
I'd suggest this might be traced to the  ritual, communal element of a chorus in
ancient Greek theater--crucial to theater's "birth" according to Nietzsche, but
lost as Sophocles and Euripides made their chorus more diegetic (which Aristotle
liked).  Renaissance opera tried to reinvent Greek drama with chorus, but
perhaps not in Nietzsche's sense (until modern opera and Wagner, if then).  Much
of modern and postmodern theater either tries to return to such non-diegetic
sound and imagery, as ritual chora (in Kristeva's sense), or repress such a
disruptive womb--either for the sake of diegetic "realism" or for other
non-diegetic twists (such as Brecht's A-effect).  This may be stretching the
film terminology too much for some on the list, but what ties do any of you see
to theater's communal "womb" in the convention/experiments of non-diegetic film
sound or imagery?  (I apologize if the details above seem excessive, but I just
finished a 300 page book manuscript on the subject.)
 
Also, an unrelated (?) question: one of my screenwriting students wants to know
what you call that black dot at the end of some Charlie Chaplin (and other)
films.
 
Mark Pizzato
Univ. of St. Thomas
St. Paul, MN
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