Study List: Giannetti, Chapter 5 – “Sound”Akira Kurosawa’s quotation on p. 207: sound is not an extra, an add-on!Define and contrast synchronous and asynchronous soundThe passage from silent to sound movies (late 1920s: The Jazz Singer,5-1; see also Singin’ in the Rain, 1950).Cinematic problems caused by the advent of sound – e.g., opposition of early masters likeEisenstein; the trials of John Gilbert (5-6).The fundamental superiority of sound movies. They are more realistic; and they give extra means of expression. No more titles!How creative directors in the early period dealt with the transition.Sound room; dubbing.Charlie Chaplin very reluctant!René Clair’s asynchronous sound (210-11). Ernst Lubitsch’s similar use of it in Monte Carlo (p. 212).Orson Welles and “sound montage” (p. 213-214).Creative use of sound effects (asynchronous sound)Hitchcock’s Psycho – Bernard Herrmann’s outstanding score; his use of musical motifs.(215-16)The swishing of Lady Kaede’s gown in Kurosawa’s Ran (5-9). The aural poetry of violence (The Seven Samurai, p. 215). Silence in Ikiru.Sound brings in off-screen space – e.g., villain’s whistled tune in M (p. 215).The use of silence (impossible in silent movies!). Last scene in Bonnie and Clyde (p. 218); dream sequence in Bergman’s Wild Strawberries.Music (Isn’t this a sound effect?)Different ways used in realist (minimal), formalist (expressive), classical Hollywood movies (continuous).Creative use of music in movies.Use of popular songs in Sleepless in Seattle (5-18); Last Picture Show; American Graffiti.Stanley Kubrick (225-26): poetic use of Strauss waltz in 2001: A space Odyssey; irony at the end of Dr. Strangelove; distancing irony in A Clockwork Orange.Francis Ford Coppola: Wagner, high-volume sounds in Apocalypse Now (5-13).Lush baroque scores of Sergio Leone in his “spaghetti westerns,” e.g., Once Upona Time in the West.Lush and brassy symphonic score of George Lucas’ Star Wars (5-16).Amadeus! (5-17)The Musical – perhaps the greatest American genre.Realist and formalist musicals.Eras: 1) 1930s (Astaire and Rogers, Busby Berkeley, etc.); and 2) 1940s and 50s (MGM musicals like Singin’ in the Rain, The Band Wagon (5-21), etc.)The way language is spoken (not plot or narrative) can have an impact on movies. Regional dialect in Bull Durham (5-26); British dialect dichotomy in Trainspotting (1996); impact of foul language in Reservoir Dogs (5-35).Voice-over monologues: limited understanding in Badlands (5-32); lying and prevaricating in The Usual Suspects (5-31); tragic irony in Sunset Boulevard