Released in 1951, Singin in the Rain was one of the last films to be produced during the profitable golden age of the studio system. It evokes the typical characteristics of the popular MGM Hollywood musical by relying on superstar names and infectious dance numbers. However, Singin in the Rain incorporates an additional level of parody into its nostalgic plot that focuses on the disruptive shift from silent movies to "talkies." The film showcases classical Hollywood musical numbers supplemented by affectionate satire. The music of the film reflects each inherent level and in doing so becomes an identifiable character. It helps to add irony to the plot as well as comedic support. Singin in the Rain "glorifies American entertainment" while …show more content…
The idea of words and sounds being "out-of-sync" with the actual movie images is a central theme to Singin in the Rain particularly with Lena's deception. The "movie within a movie" plot of Singin in the Rain allows the movie to get away with separate full-scale production numbers as well as in scene numbers. Although the latter is supposed to be spontaneous, all the musical numbers incorporate the typical Hollywood musical ploys. As Feuer points out in "The History of the Hollywood Musical: Innovation as Conservation", "Singin in the Rain demystifies silent movies, serious theater and early talkies while glorifying musical comedy." The characters perform perfected choreography while accompanied by either an orchestra full of strings for the romantic sequences or playful horns for the comedic sequences. The "Broadway Melody" number in particular seems to exhibit numerous musical clichés both in film and theater. There is a large flashy set, hundreds of dancers, and various musical genres presented. First, the music is high paced and hectic during the urban part of the scene as Don walks through the city. Second a jazz rhythm is played during the beginning of the bar scene. During the later part of the bar scene, Don engages in a sexual dance with an exotic looking woman dressed in green. The music transitions to a slinky and sensual melody with trumpets and soft drums. As with many other movies such as The Three Caballeros, the exotic
In this context, I believe that the fruit being cut down symbolizes that Ha is leaving South Vietnam too soon, before she is ready, just as the papaya is cut down before it is ready. I believe this because in the poem “Wet and Crying,” Ha says, “My biggest papaya is light yellow, still flecked with green.” This shows that the papaya is not quite ripe and ready to be picked, just like Ha is not yet ready to leave her home country. Furthermore, in the same poem, Ha says “Brother Vu chops; the head falls; a silver blade slices.” I believe that, judging from the word choice that the author uses, Ha thinks of this as an execution of sorts. I believe this because of the words the author uses such as “Chop” and “The head falls.” This shows that Ha
Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Singing in the Rain (1952) both use the transitions from silent to sound movies to help drive the narrative. Director Billy Wilder’s film, Sunset Boulevard and Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s Singing in the Rain utilize camera movements and sound to advance the plot.
Even though the film is essentially a visual experience, the use of sound has become extremely important in modern film. The modern viewer hears a complicated soundtrack that is as meaningful as the image on the screen. Three elements comprise the film's soundtrack: the dialogue, the sound effects, and the musical score. The proper balance and mix of these elements produced the essential emphasis required, which created the desired effects. As explained by Joseph Boggs and Dennis Petrie,
Singin’ in the Rain (MGM, 1952) is an American musical comedy directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. The film comically emulates the transition from the production of silent movies to ‘talkies’ in Hollywood during the 1920s. The narrative follows a successful silent film star named Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and his glamorous blonde on screen partner Lina Lamont as they attempt to adapt The Duelling Cavalier a silent film, into a talking film. However, the shrill sound of Lamont’s voice cast serious doubt of the potential success of the film. Lockwood’s musically talented sidekick Cosmo Brown (Donald O’conner) suggests that the film be turned into a musical, and recommends Lockwood’s love interest Kathy Seldon (Debbie Reynolds) perform
Herrmann utilized a unified score that is constantly dissonant. Although there are variation of mood from loving sound to the terror of the shower, all the cues are observed to be used with minor seconds and major sevenths. He also uses distinct sound using the “percussive-sounding strings” through deploying microphone close to the instrument to demonstrate the sound to be harsher, which can be seen as some of the new approaches that Herrmann accomplished through this film as the start of “a New American Era”. In addition, new approach in film scoring can be seen through the lack of contrast in a cue. When a cue starts, it stays consistent and repeats the mood with no variation where there are absence of shifts within a cue. Moreover, descending and ascending chords of the Transition theme have an aloof characteristic with no display of emotions. This in return provides an overall disquieting mood to the story. During the Norman’s story, Hermann employs ostinato to maintain tension and discomforting sound of melody.
Upbeat moments such as the film’s opening are appropriately coupled with orchestrations that complement the scene as expected, but there are some moments that feature compositions that don’t truly fit the tone of the film. For example, right before Buddy and his cousin begin counting their change, the music inelegantly changes from and calm and well composed tune to an unsettling and overactive bridge that doesn’t match the scene at all. This part sounds more as if some sort of unfortunate event were about I take place, but instead, the duo begins a simple conversation about a contest they had recently entered.
Many studios at the time probably ended up losing a lot in terms of revenue due to the poor outcome of the new sound films that were produced at the time. With all the challenges faced during the shooting of the films, most of the productions could hardly handle synchronization of sound and video, not to mention the awkward voices of the actors. As such most movies ended up not meeting the expectations of the fans, thereby forcing the studio houses to reshoot or accept the embarrassment and abandon the project altogether. In “Singing in the Rain”, the directors are faced with a similar problem later on in the film. In a certain scene, the movie “The Dueling Cavalier” is finally completed despite the various problems faced during the set; the major one being Lina’s voice as well as her inability to speak through the microphone. Nevertheless, the studio decides to preview the movie in Hollywood. The preview turns out to be a disaster as the fans laugh at Lina’s voice and howl at the synchronization problems in the film. Synchronized sound added to the impact of motion pictures in that the audience was able to get more feeling from the actors in addition to the actions. They found this new feeling to be rather exciting. However, problems with synchronization made the sound films a disaster to watch. The sound and the pictures had to be in sync for the films
Singin’ in the Rain shows how Don Lockwood, played by Gene Kelly, was able to transition from silent films to talking motion pictures while his costar, Lina Lamont, played by Jean Hagen, had some difficulties. Lina and Don were an on-screen romantic couple but in reality, Don despised her. When their production studio decided to change one of their motion pictures from a silent film to a talking motion picture, Lina’s accented voice caused some problems. The studio hired a diction and voice coach for Lina; however it did not help. Then Kathy
I went into this class last week thinking I would not enjoy this movie because it is a musical and because it was also filmed in 1952. However, I surprisingly really enjoyed this movie. I believe that the songs, dancing, and the storyline in Singing in the Rain came together really well and captured my attention throughout the whole movie. Singing in the Rain incorporates many songs and dances which substitutes many of the actor’s dialogue throughout the movie. I believe this allowed the characters in Singing in the Rain to really be able to express their emotions in a different way rather than strictly using dialogue. For example, Don Lockwood sings and dances in the rain when he realizes he was falling in love with Kathy towards the end of
Before the Rain, filmed on location in the Republic of Macedonia and in London is a trilogy that focuses on the conflict between Muslims and Orthodox Christians in the Balkans. The three chapters of the trilogy are " Words," " Faces" and " Pictures." Director Milcho Manchevski states; " Before the Rain, refers to the feeling of heavy expectation, when the skies are pregnant with the possibility of an outburst, when people are silent, waiting for a tragedy of cleansing"(1).
This clearly explains the significance of music and the role that has in motion pictures. Music has to match the emotions that the actors are showing and the environment they are in. If fail to do so, the movie could be a dreadful thing to watch.
The movie “Singing in the Rain” (1952) even offered a lighthearted depiction of Hollywood in the late 1920s where the focus was on the transition from silent films to “talkies”. From the beginning, audiences embraced screen musicals with tremendous enthusiasm, with "The Jazz Singer" (1927) bringing in a slew of newcomer audiences as well as the usual stage musical goers. Even though the stock market crash of 1929 caused almost a third of movies theaters in the U.S. to shut down, the industry survived (but barely), because the public would use the few pennies they had to go see a film that would make them forget the Depression for an hour and a half. Because of this, film musicals attempted to provide happy and uplifting types of musicals, but they were not extremely successful. Fast forward to 1933, when the Warner Bros. Studios gave audiences dance-infused musicals, including “Forty-Second Street”, where Busby Berkeley took his reputation and experience as a dance director for several Broadway shows and helped rebuild film musicals’ rapport.
Adventure, fantasy, romance, and drama are all the beginnings for a beautiful film. Yet to really make an amazing masterpiece, one key ingredient should not be forgotten: music. A huge role is taken on by the composer to fulfill the right tone for the movie, involving the musical depth to a character while helping to move the movie along into the right moments. Mark Mancina composed the score for August Rush. He uses the music of each song like a piece of a puzzle to connect them to a greater whole.
The music interacts with dialogue in the film; the techno beat is, at times, accompanied by vocals, which correspond with not only what is happening in the scene, but also the internal diegetic dialogue—another important motif.
Though these aforementioned motifs are used quite extensively in Hollywood film music, the use of music to augment the cinematic scene in Hollywood films is seen most noticeably during instances of grandeur and opulence. To accompany these scenes, the film scorers elect to use large ensembles, with each family of instrument partaking in the production. This correlation has become a staple in Hollywood films, as “orchestral size not only indicated musical choice or financial well-being but became a status symbol for the music director” (Morcom 70). Such an implementation of emotional mimicry is found in the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Twin Towers, when Howard Shore’s “Helm’s Deep” played during the Helms Deep Charge. In the middle of the Rohirrim charge at Helms Deep, Gandalf the White presents himself at the top of the hill on a great white stallion. Gandalf is magnificence personified, so the choice in musical accompaniment simply strengthens the delivery of this fact to the audience. Therefore, as seen from all three previously discussed styles, there exists a pattern in the field of music, where an inherent sense of strategy and intention is employed when selecting the notes in a piece. In American culture, the general view of film music is that “song sequences, seen as distractions, cast doubt on a film's narrative authenticity by limiting creativity, plot development, and characterization, resulting in a genre that appears to lack cinematic realism as compared to