In Thursday’s class (2/11/10) we watched the wonderful movie SINGING IN THE RAIN. I have never seen that movie before and it was so good. I learned the singing in the rain song in elementary elementary school but never seen the movie.
The movie’s images and color gave of a darkish yellow tone at times then during certain times in the movie, it gave off a bright color tone. During the movie scene when there was Broadway, the colors were very extravagant, loud, bright, and radiant. The color makes the scene showy and exciting like you just have to be at that place at that particular time. It was like a fantasy and where everyone wants to be. The theme of the movie was the introducing of “talkies”. The movie focused on film and that before in film, all of the movies were silent films. In silent movies, actors and actresses work more on expression and their looks. It’s very true that sound can set the tone of an audience of how the movie is perceived. For instance, when the two actors were in the movie when it was silent, everyone loved the movie because the music and the words on the screen gave the audience a particular feeling. However, when they converted the movie to a “talky”, the audience laughed at Lena because of her voice. Her voice was really high pitched and she didn’t have a lick of sense. The tone of her voice didn’t go with the one of the movie. It was hard for the transitions of silent films to “talkies”.
The fantasy aspect of the movie was within the movie scene. It had to be the right setting, the right music, the right color, just the right everything just to say how you really felt. Everyone wanted to live in this fantasy world because it was so perfect. It illustrated the tone can set anything. The characters in the movie were very funny, and lively. The movie overall was exciting. At the beginning of the movie, there was a red carpet, the paparazzi and the fans watching as the actors and actresses came to the movie premiere. Even though time has passed from then to now, the same thing happens today with our stars and how they are treated. They have their red carpets, paparazzi, and their screaming fans to cheer them on.
Ending questions: If Lena did the first “talky” film setting the example, would the audience have reacted the same way?
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I liked your use of an ending question. To answer it I would say, "Yes." They would've still laughed and jeered despite the new technology. But also, "talkies" would've gotten a bad rap at first. People would've seen it as a cheap gimmic that really didn't work that well. They'd be easily skeptical of other talkies.
ReplyDeleteGood question! Audiences certainly knew what good acting with sound was ... they had theaters, plays, Broadway musicals! So their expectations weren't being set by the first talkies necessarily, but by other media. That's how the audience can come out of the first preview version of "The Dancing Cavalier" and make fun of it.
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