The creativity of Sunrise
In his book American Silent Film (New York: Oxford UP, 1978) William K. Everson suggests that the silent film Sunrise is “equipped with an evocative score and sound effects that are used extremely creatively” (324). The musical score and sound effects are used to not only reiterate the plot, but to reveal the varied settings of the movie.
The director of Sunrise, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, uses his score to display to the viewer that the storyline should be represented in the music to further reveal the plot and have the viewer get a sense of setting as well. When the couple go to the city, the score changes to a fast-paced tempo, showing the hustle and bustle of the city. The viewer gets a sense of being overwhelmed as the characters travel throughout the busy streets. When they go to the circus, the music is still frantic and the sound effects show a busy night of partying and fun. Murnau uses the sound effect of the pigs to show the greediness of the city people and is also used to reference the girl from the city who the male character had an affair with.
The entire cast is also showcased through the use of the music and sound effects. When the man is plotting to kill his wife, a dark tempo song is playing, but when the wife is displayed on screen, a sweet melody plays to show her innocence and purity. Murnau uses the score so effectively to show characterizations and plot that Sunrise will forever go down in history as one of the best silent films.
Body Language of Sunrise
William K. Everson, throughout his analysis of Sunrise, suggests what in fact was true of German Expressionism in silent films: that sets, incidents, props, sound effects (sic), and even the style of acting-“body language”- were used symbolically to communicate to the audience. A few important ways this occurs in Sunrise is through the use of makeup and costume and ironic events.
In Sunrise, the costume and makeup of the characters reveals a vital definition of who the character is. In the opening scene, the "femme fatale" is getting ready to see her lover. She is smoking, which is pertinent to the femme fatale archetype, and shows that she is not virtuous. Also, she is wearing mostly black and has dark hair, which furthers her seediness and foreshadows the events to come. In opposition to the femme fatale, the wife is refreshingly plain and simply clad. She is light-haired, revealing to the audience that she is pure and she also wears light clothing which also suggests her innocence and frailty. The two women are juxtaposed in the movie and cause the male character much grief. In the beginning of the movie, the male character is scruffy and poorly presented, having dark rings around his eyes to show his unhappiness. His distain for his wife is show through his garb. As the movie progresses and he falls back in love with his wife, his face is shaven and he undergoes a symbolic rebirth. The dark rings around his eyes are gone and he can finally be happy with his wife.
The director also employs special scenes solely for the purpose of revealing the characters further. When showing the wife, she is feeding some baby chicks and it is evident that she is a kind soul, unlike the man. When the couple goes for a boat ride, the man takes the dog and puts it back into its gate, which shows that he is no friend to animals and can not be trusted. Scenes like this are not the only important scenes in the movie. Ironic scenes, like the wife drowning, show how the plot and the characters have progressed throughout the course of the film. At first, the man took his wife out in a boat to drown her, but towards the end of the movie, the man is distraught because he thinks she drowned during a storm.
Melodrama Today
Reservoir Dogs by Quinton Tarantino is a contemporary film that was not discussed by Belton in Chapter 6 of American Cinema/American Culture.
In his book American Silent Film (New York: Oxford UP, 1978) William K. Everson suggests that the silent film Sunrise is “equipped with an evocative score and sound effects that are used extremely creatively” (324). The musical score and sound effects are used to not only reiterate the plot, but to reveal the varied settings of the movie.
The director of Sunrise, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, uses his score to display to the viewer that the storyline should be represented in the music to further reveal the plot and have the viewer get a sense of setting as well. When the couple go to the city, the score changes to a fast-paced tempo, showing the hustle and bustle of the city. The viewer gets a sense of being overwhelmed as the characters travel throughout the busy streets. When they go to the circus, the music is still frantic and the sound effects show a busy night of partying and fun. Murnau uses the sound effect of the pigs to show the greediness of the city people and is also used to reference the girl from the city who the male character had an affair with.
The entire cast is also showcased through the use of the music and sound effects. When the man is plotting to kill his wife, a dark tempo song is playing, but when the wife is displayed on screen, a sweet melody plays to show her innocence and purity. Murnau uses the score so effectively to show characterizations and plot that Sunrise will forever go down in history as one of the best silent films.
Body Language of Sunrise
William K. Everson, throughout his analysis of Sunrise, suggests what in fact was true of German Expressionism in silent films: that sets, incidents, props, sound effects (sic), and even the style of acting-“body language”- were used symbolically to communicate to the audience. A few important ways this occurs in Sunrise is through the use of makeup and costume and ironic events.
In Sunrise, the costume and makeup of the characters reveals a vital definition of who the character is. In the opening scene, the "femme fatale" is getting ready to see her lover. She is smoking, which is pertinent to the femme fatale archetype, and shows that she is not virtuous. Also, she is wearing mostly black and has dark hair, which furthers her seediness and foreshadows the events to come. In opposition to the femme fatale, the wife is refreshingly plain and simply clad. She is light-haired, revealing to the audience that she is pure and she also wears light clothing which also suggests her innocence and frailty. The two women are juxtaposed in the movie and cause the male character much grief. In the beginning of the movie, the male character is scruffy and poorly presented, having dark rings around his eyes to show his unhappiness. His distain for his wife is show through his garb. As the movie progresses and he falls back in love with his wife, his face is shaven and he undergoes a symbolic rebirth. The dark rings around his eyes are gone and he can finally be happy with his wife.
The director also employs special scenes solely for the purpose of revealing the characters further. When showing the wife, she is feeding some baby chicks and it is evident that she is a kind soul, unlike the man. When the couple goes for a boat ride, the man takes the dog and puts it back into its gate, which shows that he is no friend to animals and can not be trusted. Scenes like this are not the only important scenes in the movie. Ironic scenes, like the wife drowning, show how the plot and the characters have progressed throughout the course of the film. At first, the man took his wife out in a boat to drown her, but towards the end of the movie, the man is distraught because he thinks she drowned during a storm.
Melodrama Today
Reservoir Dogs by Quinton Tarantino is a contemporary film that was not discussed by Belton in Chapter 6 of American Cinema/American Culture.
Melodrama is a drama accompanied by music, but has been morphed into all types of cinema today. In Reservoir Dogs, the soundtrack is evidently just as important as all of the monologues that accompany the score. Tarantino used music, explicitly the song 'Stuck in the Middle with You' by Stealers Wheel, to built tension when the psychotic character Mr. Blonde was about to torture a police officer. The music was not vital to the plot, but helped me to appreciate the insanity of Mr. Blonde. The music created a feeling of sympathy for the police officer and utter fear for Mr. Blonde.
The opening scene also made me realize that Reservoir Dogs was a melodrama when the main characters all had their own monologues, which is an important element to the melodrama genre. Although some were comical, like the monologue given by Tarantino’s character Mr. Brown, I still got a sense of the complacency felt by all the characters as they were about to rob a bank. They were more concerned with Madonna, tipping the waitress, and an unknown person named Toby than with the nervousness that comes with committing a crime.
The next and following scenes are hard to watch as a viewer. I became particularly sympathetic to Mr. Orange, who is screaming for his life in the backseat of the car, having been shot several times. The entire purpose of the melodrama is to evoke some sort of sympathy for the characters and Tarantino uses this genre quite effectively.
Towards the end of the movie, we find that Mr. Orange is in fact an undercover police agent and the plot twists. A sudden urgency to find out the conclusion overwhelmed me and I was attached to the screen. The use of the melodrama in Reservoir Dogs enhanced my appreciation for the film and it evoked a special emotion that is synonymous with the melodrama genre.
My response to The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing
I actually found the documentary The Cutting Edge to be very informative, as I am hopefully pursuing a career in the film industry. It enhanced my appreciation of film editing and gave me a sense of history on the subject.
Before watching the documentary, I was not enlightened on the history of film editing. I learned that women mainly held the Editor title due to their intricate handling of the film. Most of the time, men directors get all the credit for the entire film and it is good to know that behind some male directors, like Quinton Tarantino, there is a talented women Editor. They were, sadly, not recognized for their art and most male directors took all the credit. I also learned that movies were put out once a week and the Editor’s hands had to be quick in order to effectively edit a good film. I had no idea how movies were edited back then and the documentary enlightened me extensively.
Also, I was not aware of the progression of technology that was used to edit films. Over the years, the film editing process has changed so that one doesn’t need small hands or good eyes to edit a basic film. With the rise of the computer, editors made the change to digital copies of the films and thusly digital editing software for the films. This knowledge greatly enhanced my appreciation for the editor of film as one of the most important jobs to have in the film industry.
The opening scene also made me realize that Reservoir Dogs was a melodrama when the main characters all had their own monologues, which is an important element to the melodrama genre. Although some were comical, like the monologue given by Tarantino’s character Mr. Brown, I still got a sense of the complacency felt by all the characters as they were about to rob a bank. They were more concerned with Madonna, tipping the waitress, and an unknown person named Toby than with the nervousness that comes with committing a crime.
The next and following scenes are hard to watch as a viewer. I became particularly sympathetic to Mr. Orange, who is screaming for his life in the backseat of the car, having been shot several times. The entire purpose of the melodrama is to evoke some sort of sympathy for the characters and Tarantino uses this genre quite effectively.
Towards the end of the movie, we find that Mr. Orange is in fact an undercover police agent and the plot twists. A sudden urgency to find out the conclusion overwhelmed me and I was attached to the screen. The use of the melodrama in Reservoir Dogs enhanced my appreciation for the film and it evoked a special emotion that is synonymous with the melodrama genre.
My response to The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing
I actually found the documentary The Cutting Edge to be very informative, as I am hopefully pursuing a career in the film industry. It enhanced my appreciation of film editing and gave me a sense of history on the subject.
Before watching the documentary, I was not enlightened on the history of film editing. I learned that women mainly held the Editor title due to their intricate handling of the film. Most of the time, men directors get all the credit for the entire film and it is good to know that behind some male directors, like Quinton Tarantino, there is a talented women Editor. They were, sadly, not recognized for their art and most male directors took all the credit. I also learned that movies were put out once a week and the Editor’s hands had to be quick in order to effectively edit a good film. I had no idea how movies were edited back then and the documentary enlightened me extensively.
Also, I was not aware of the progression of technology that was used to edit films. Over the years, the film editing process has changed so that one doesn’t need small hands or good eyes to edit a basic film. With the rise of the computer, editors made the change to digital copies of the films and thusly digital editing software for the films. This knowledge greatly enhanced my appreciation for the editor of film as one of the most important jobs to have in the film industry.
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