Tag: Film website

Film, Film Music and Sound

The Harp And The Sound Of Snow – Citizen Kane, Lost Horizon and Ikiru.

The use of harp in film scores has gained a number of clichéd uses over the years.  It can be seen as the most typical of ways to introduce dream sequences, even in more adventurous visual forms of dreams such as in Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1954) (score by Miklós Rózsa) or can be used as a leitmotif for harmony, paradise and utopia which also handily connects … Continue reading The Harp And The Sound Of Snow – Citizen Kane, Lost Horizon and Ikiru.

Unknown's avataradamscovellLeave a comment
Film, Film Music and Sound

Silence as Resistance – Le Silence De La Mer (Jean-Pierre Melville)

It is an oft stated belief that silence is the most powerful effect in the canon of film sound techniques and tricks; a seemingly obvious nod to the lack of music to the lead the viewer emotionally and also a gentle nudge at the general over abundance of non-diegetic score in film.  One of the most stark and allegorical uses of silence can be found … Continue reading Silence as Resistance – Le Silence De La Mer (Jean-Pierre Melville)

Unknown's avataradamscovell2 Comments
Film, Film Music and Sound

David Lynch’s Avant-Garde Uses Of Music – Part 3 (Influence).

Part 1. Part 2. Mulholland Drive In Context of Other Subversive Mainstream Films (Eyes Wide Shut). “For the duration of his career, and despite the size of his productions and the fact that they were all studio funded, Kubrick was very much an independent filmmaker.” – Horsley (2005, p.54) Lynch isn’t the only director to take Hollywood visuals and use them for his own artistic ends.  A … Continue reading David Lynch’s Avant-Garde Uses Of Music – Part 3 (Influence).

Unknown's avataradamscovell1 Comment
Film, Film Music and Sound

Solitary Music In Melancholia and The Turin Horse (von Trier and Tarr).

This article contains spoilers. Considering the large amount of time and effort that goes into creating and putting together the soundtrack to a film, one of the most interesting creative choices for filmmakers (often outside of the mainstream) is to use a piece of music continuously throughout rather than use different music for different scenes and segments.  This choice often highlights a desire for the … Continue reading Solitary Music In Melancholia and The Turin Horse (von Trier and Tarr).

Unknown's avataradamscovellLeave a comment
Film, Film Music and Sound

David Lynch’s Assimilation Of The Avant Garde – Part 2 (Musical Score and Club Silencio).

Part 1. Musical score – In the Context of David Lynch and Film Noir. The score for Mulholland Drive is a melting pot of ideas, genres and textures all of which add to the ineffable nature of the film.  Instead of putting the music in contrast with outside environments and films like most normal critiques would, the analysis is firstly in the context of Lynch’s … Continue reading David Lynch’s Assimilation Of The Avant Garde – Part 2 (Musical Score and Club Silencio).

Unknown's avataradamscovell2 Comments
Film, Film Music and Sound

Musical Emphasis on Visual Words (François Truffaut and Pier Paolo Pasolini)

The relationship between sound and vision in film is one that is complex and almost indefinable in a broad sense due to each director and composer treating such relationship in different ways.  The two examples about to be discussed are almost reverse images of each other’s effects; the same method has been applied but for different reasons and different results.  Much examination has taken place … Continue reading Musical Emphasis on Visual Words (François Truffaut and Pier Paolo Pasolini)

Unknown's avataradamscovell1 Comment
Film, Film Music and Sound

David Lynch + Assimilation of Avant-Garde Aesthetics in Subversive, Mainstream Soundtracks (Part 1)

Introduction – The Boundaries Of Criteria. “He was the most original director in 1980s cinema, its only surrealist” – Mark Cousins on David Lynch (2004, p.394). The Avant-Garde is like a spark or a flash of quick-fire creative ideals.  The idea of Avant-Garde cinema is not so much to present an experience or escapism, but is there instead to quickly question the ideals of the audience … Continue reading David Lynch + Assimilation of Avant-Garde Aesthetics in Subversive, Mainstream Soundtracks (Part 1)

Unknown's avataradamscovell4 Comments
Film

The Blue Angel – Josef Von Sternberg (1930, Masters of Cinema)

This review contains spoilers. For a filmmaker who was supposedly uninterested in visual allegory, Josef Von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel (1930) is full of potential for visuals readings if wanted.  One of the first sound films to come out of Germany, it is astonishing how the medium’s relative newness seems to have had little negative effect on the visuals of this pioneering film.  However it … Continue reading The Blue Angel – Josef Von Sternberg (1930, Masters of Cinema)

Unknown's avataradamscovellLeave a comment
Film, Film Music and Sound

Maya Deren And The Scores Of Teiji Ito (Meshes Of The Afternoon + Others)

Time past and time future, What might have been and what has been, Point to one end, which is always present. – T.S Eliot (Four Quartets) There’s a clash often present in the films of Maya Deren but especially in the ones that incorporate music into their styling.  From her most famous short Meshes Of The Afternoon (1943 or 1952 with music) to other titles such as … Continue reading Maya Deren And The Scores Of Teiji Ito (Meshes Of The Afternoon + Others)

Unknown's avataradamscovell1 Comment