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ts of the characters it can invest a scene with terror grandeur gaiety or misery it can propel narrative swiftly forward or slow it down it often lifts mere dialogue into the realm of poetry finally it is the communicating link between the screen and the audience reaching out and enveloping all into one single experience 6 this commitment to transfer the inner thoughts of a character to the viewer in a single experience matches hitchcock s own commitment to make his films emotionally relevant as revealed in several interviews hitchcock injected himself totally into his films 7 from his personal views and feelings to his fleeting appearances so it is not surprising he had definite views on how music can be useful it is in the psychological use of music which you will observe they knew something about before talkies that the great possibilities lie it makes it possible to express the unspoken for instance two people may be saying one thing and thinking something very different their looks match their words not their thoughts they may be talking politely and quietly but there may be a storm coming you cannot express the mood of the situation by word and photograph but i think you could get at the underlying idea with the right background music the basis of cinema s appeal is emotional music s appeal is to a great extent emotional too words and incidental noises and song numbers are surely not all the sound track was invented for 8 hitchcock s interest in the human psyche combined with herrmann s insistence on avoiding scoring the obvious created fertile ground for the composing of music that would transfer the inner thoughts of characters it could be said that with this type of film music scoring herrmann peaks with psycho 1960 perhaps proven by the fact we hear a marked difference in the quantity and type of music following marion s death from that which precedes it as music was so integral to maintaining the tension and anxiety of the lead character once she is killed off the role that the score plays is greatly diminished preceding psycho in the hitchcock herrmann output separated only by north by northwest is vertigo 1958 vertigo is a masterpiece examination of what could be summed up as obsession in fact this film doesn t merely investigate obsession but produces obsession and uses it intrinsically throughout scottie ferguson the once ambitious now forcibly retired acrophobic detective and his obsession with the kim novak character represents a spiraling psychotic state based on different levels of perceived realities the novak character is a tabula rasa a blank canvas on which scottie paints his fevered art his own carlota valdez the pursuit of which will deliver him from his haunting past from scottie s first gaze upon madeleine in ernie s restaurant he is infected with an obsession that until the final plummet to reality from the bell tower he cannot explain judy cause i remind you of her and not even that very much scottie no no judy it s you too there s something in you the colour of your hair with vertigo herrmann has nearly completed his transition into a composer that locks in on the psyche of the characters in the film in psycho the tension is maintained primarily by the music however in vertigo herrmann s music works in conjunction with swirling camera work saul bass s geometric patterns the editing and mise en scène how herrmann handled this interaction makes vertigo a film worth analysing representing a point on a continuum that progresses on to psycho vertigo is a major indication of herrmann s ability to hone in on the inner thoughts of a film s character showing a development from the likes of hangover square with its abundant music diegetised as the product of a character s psyche the emotional angst of on dangerous ground and the strange atmospheres of the man who knew too much for vertigo herrmann composed an economical and modern sounding score 1 gorbman claudia unheard melodies p 7 2 truffaut francois the definitive study of alfred hitchcock p 75 3 roget peter mark explanation of an optical deception in the appearance of the spokes of a wheel seen through vertical apertures 4 wertheimer max drei abhandlungen zur gestaltstheorie 5 freud sigmund jokes and their relation to the unconscious 6 christopher palmer the composer in hollywood p 253 7 truffaut francois the definitive study of alfred hitchcock p 346 8 sidney gottlieb ed hitchcock on hitchcock selected writings and interviews p 243 tags alfred hitchcock bernard herrmann carlota valdez film freud hangover square macguffin music norman bates north by northwest psycho roget score soundtrack vertigo wertheimer categories essays herrmann and hitchcock silence part 1 january 9 2011 0 silence in hitchcock s world reticence at its extreme is emotional paralysis a psychological state indicated by total silence 1 in her book the silent scream elizabeth weis sees a communication continuum in the work of hitchcock with silence at one pole and screams at the other there is a clear effort in hitchcock s work to find a language of heightened representation beyond the conventional in rope the failure of communication alienation and collusion is depicted and achieved through silence in birds the siege like state is achieved through the constant association of silence with the birds so that in an almost pavlovian way the audience is constantly reminded of danger through silence having established such a continuum of emotional communication in his films hitchcock often transformed the opposites of silence and sound through swapping sound for music and vice versa in psycho marion s screams are replaced with shrieking violins in vertigo sound effects are muted as scottie falls in love with madeleine in ernie s and are replaced with herrmann s madeleine cue conversely in the north by northwest crop dusting scene a scene that could be treated as a classic hollywood style action scene there is no music for majority of the scene throughout these films there is a tension between what is scored and what is not it is unclear who out of hitchcock and herrmann was responsible for such music and sound related decisions and the two men would often go against each others wishes for example hitchcock originally intended the shower scene in psycho to play without music 2 but herrmann scored this scene anyway and the music won hitchcock over we do know however that for vertigo according to the sound and music notes hitchcock wanted to use more music than in previous films 3 vertigo presents us with a good example of the use of musical silence in the tower scene towards the finale of the film in this scene scottie takes judy back to the tower where in his words there is one final thing to do following which he ll be free of the past this is the start of the denouement for scottie it is his second chance this time he will climb the tower almost perversely at the point during climbing the stairs at which scottie last time failed to climb above the music stops with a unison resolution from here on as scottie and judy climb we know things are different because we can hear that it s different on screen we see in a claustrophobic close up the two actors struggling up the stairs and as an underscore we simply hear the wind and creaking of wood this is a new scottie one who has overcome his repression and who is perhaps now as strong as his old self significantly as scottie looks down the depths of the stair well there is no vertigo theme the obsession and acrophobia has abated and so has the music as the detective in him returns he realises his new found strength i made it we re going up to look at the scene of the crime come on judy the next thing we hear is the music of the finale 1 weis elizabeth the silent scream alfred hitchcock s sound track p 154 155 2 smith steven a heart at fire s center p 237 3 ibid p 220 tags alfred hitchcock bernard herrmann birds cinema elizabeth weis film music north by northwest rope silence soundtrack the silent scream vertigo categories essays herrmann and hitchcock l idée may 28 2009 0 via shaun at mew lab in 1930 bartosch moved to paris and created the 30 minute film entitled the idea to which he is most remembered for it is described as the first serious poetic tragic work in animation the film s characters and backdrops were composed of several layers of different types of paper from semi transparent to thick cardboard special effects like halos smoke and fog were made with lather spread on glass plates and lit from behind the film was based on a book of woodcuts from frans masereel the idea the idea featured a score by composer arthur honegger including an ondes martenot which is believed to be the very first use of an electronic instrument in film history the soundtrack also includes some sax which is interesting as it predates the saxophone s seemingly unbreakable connection with film noir and on screen coquetry ok so there is a naked female form present within the imagery but honegger has composed for the saxophone a theme portraying ideas of a complex psychological nature a style of film composing scoring the psyche rather than simple scene painting that was championed by bernard herrmann especially in films such as vertigo 30 odd years later tags bartosch bernard herrmann honegger masereel mewlab music ondes martenot saxophone shaun clark technique vertigo categories animation silent light may 26 2009 1 dir carlos reygadas mexico 136 minutes there are so many things to write about with this film but one aspect of this incredibly special movie the cinematography needs special mention silent light s dop alexis zabe has achieved through the poetic use of the wide shot a form of narrative that almost single handedly removes the need for music in this film i ve always maintained there was a close relationship between the cinematography and the music in regards to the narrative territory each covers occasionally they will encroach on each other s patch in silent light zabe says it all through the lens as the film s narrative progresses the wide shots tell more and more of the story through metaphor and minimal imagery the rigid symmetry and thorough structure of the mennonite s lives the open frontier potential of their surroundings and it s beautiful fertility we see two lovers meet in a tarkovskian upshot god is not looking down on these two we watch them from below we come to a t junction and choices must be made but the future is obscured perhaps the future is but a reflection of ourselves and mortality time moves on regardless also just how did reygadas find the black and white archive footage the austere woman at the end of the scene who cannot fathom why everyone is so enthusiastic in their applause is incredible view silent light trailer tags alexis zabe carlos reygadas cinema cinematography long shots metaphor mexico narrative silent light wide shots categories reviews is this the best 80s high school movie montage may 16 2009 0 the donnie darko head over heels montage are there better examples of this in cinema a montage that can summon pleasant thoughts in a sentimental way but also unearthing demons and emotions from the darker parts of your long term memory possibly confined to western culture or those cultures that have lived under the influence of american media for the last 30 years but it definitely brings to the surface feelings born out of attending a high school in the 80s the teasing the politics failure sucess love lust loneliness friends you ll never see again parts of your life you ll never live again and if you could live it again would it be the same would you do it the same tags 80s donnie darko montage school categories montages blindness december 21 2008 0 dir fernando meirelles canada brazil japan 120 minutes cert r the best criticism of this film was given by a pair unwitting critics during the dénouement of blindness the couple s arrival in the cinema during the last few minutes of the film would normally have been infuriatingly distracting and enough to fill other patrons with anger as these people arrived too early for the next feature but the fact that their mistake was caused by the similarity of the end of blindness with the type of advertisement played before a screening led me to forgiveness and them to what was probably a spoiler moment unfortunately it was the film as a whole not just the final cathartic moment that failed to deliver the same level of profundity as jose saramago s source novel so while viewing blindness i couldn t help but be aware of consistent excruciating attempts by the director to manipulate moviegoers into accepting his vision however while gimmicks such as testosterone fueled sound design and shocking imagery constantly hit the audience it simply reminds us of the film s shortcomings the score can play a major part in the furthering of the narrative of a film one could say that it is an integral part of the process by which the audience is manipulated into traveling down certain trains of thought in relation to the themes and plot of the film in blindness meirelles seems to make use of the composed music in a way which is designed to confuse the audience s geographical awareness by relating the themes of the film to not just one culture but seemingly every culture sure enough with each different ethnic instrument from didgeridoos to thai gongs the director s ambition of clouding the geographical location is drummed into us in every sense of the word incidentally the film s composer marco antônio guimarães is founding member of uakti a group i am a fan of he has done some interesting work in the past but not as a film composer his album aguas da amazonia is a beautiful collection of arrangements of music by philip glass played by the uakti ensemble on traditional instruments i imagine it is such work that played a part in his commission as composer for blindness as the stylings of philip glass is a favourite for directors who want to add emotional integrity and momentum to films at risk of lacking in that area perhaps though it is unwise to blame a composer for their work that ends up on screen as it s such a collaborative process the director being the one who stands responsible at the end of the day the music of blindness feels like it never really reaches the level of scoring the psyche of the film it has the feel of a score that was orchestrated before the actual composing happened it was so fixated on using certain ethnic instruments that the actual music melody harmony emotion meaning was left out of the process the opening scenes of blindness were impressive and promised the delivery of a solid meirelles film nicely mixed with the more abstract of film making techniques unfortunately it was not only the music that undermined the director s ambitions aside from an overly enthusiastic bordering on tasteless use of surround sound and aural gimmicks such as the bell heralding...