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Jonathan
Auerbach: The Vocal Gesture. Sounding the Origins of
Cinema
This essay examines
the kinetics of vocalization in early cinema, how sound in these brief (silent)
films was visually registered by way of mouth and lips. I show how initially
for Edison and other inventors of the cinematic apparatus, it was the
phonograph, not the photograph, that offered the closest analogy for their
development of moving images; as a result of this analogy between ear and eye,
early filmmakers anchored the sources of sound in the human face.
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Izabella Füzi: Functions of sound in Balázs's
film aesthetics and in the context of the transition to sound
Cinema is defined as
an audiovisual medium, but establishing the functions of sound in its relation
to image is still a problematic area in film studies. Béla Balázs in his second
film aesthetics, The Spirit of Film
(1930) draws a distinction between sound as representation and sound as
mediation; the gap resulting from the definition of reproduced sound as a sound
without origin and as pure repetition is surpassed by assigning the sound to
image and to space. Based on the synchronization of sound and image, the
sound/image interface articulates sound film as the flickering of visual
presence and absence of the source of sound. In contrast, the sound/space
interface makes noise (usually defined as something which frustrates
communication) a source of information. In this way sound is an event which
cannot be isolated from the corporeal and perceptual experiences of the auditor
placed in a space defined by acoustic qualities. Mediating between aesthetics
and technology, Balázs tries to find ways to show "the spirit of a technology
and the technology of a spirit."
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Anna Paech: A néma alakja a hangosfilmben
The German cinema historian, Anna Paech examines how mute characters in
sound films cite the tradition of silent cinema. This question is particularly
interesting because the very existence of the mute character has been made
possible by the sound film. However, in case a film focuses on a handicapped
character, the visualization must follow some special rules in order to achieve
an authentic representation. These techniques and their effects on the filmic
narration are introduced with the help of two examples, Robert Siodmak's Spiral staircase and William Castle's The Tingler.
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Melinda Blos-Jáni: Is silence
hereditary? Written words and acoustic events in contemporary silent films: Guy
Maddin Careful (1992) and Esteban
Sapir La Antena (2007)
Within the strategies built upon the
intentional weakening of the diegetic efficiency, a group is formed by those
films which try to reach this gesture of destruction by resorting to the
diegetically weaker, in this sense pre-discursive way of expression of the
silent cinema. In this paper the author analyzes two films from this
perspective: Guy Maddin's Careful
(1992) and Esteban Sapir's La Antena
(2007).
The plot of these films, coupled with the
effect achieved by the mimicry of the silent film, challenges interpretation. Regarding
a contemporary context, the following questions arise: what are the discursive
functions, on the one hand, of the style of silent cinema and, on the other, of
the techniques weakening the diegetic effect, such as the absence of the synchronized
sound and the use of intertitles in the film? The hypothesis of the argument is
that turning to the visual style of silent film problematizes the medial
relationship between image and text, image and voice respectively, and is
manifested both at the level of the fable and in the use of filmic techniques.
Full text in Hungarian →
Michel Chion: Lines and points
The present article is chapter three of Chion's book entitled Audio-Vision [L'audio-vision], exploring the relationship between cinematic
sound and image. The author questions the horizontal understanding of the two,
which is used frequently in analyses of audiovisual aspects of films, and is based
on the musical parallel of the counterpoint. Opposing this view, the author
argues for a vertical perspective of audiovisual relations, which is further
supported by his understanding of the soundtrack as track merely for technical
reasons, and by regarding the auditory track not as the equivalent of the
visual track. Through establishing a catalogue of various aspects of filmic
sound (cut, audio-visual relations, dubbing), he introduces the reader into the
system of his analysis through several filmic examples.
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Péter Szendy: On the Road (Fast forward)
Szendy examines the genre of the road
movie as the representation of the audiovisual experience, primarily through films of David Lynch. Film has been
haunted by tracks, trails and lanes. With the appearance of sound, however, the
gaze equipped with hearing [l'oeil-oreille]
experiences the process of dromoscopy,
of being on the road. The essay points out the special relationship between
cinema and the double track road, which functions as the metaphor of
audiovisuality.
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Zoltán Varga: A substitute for
speach: the unique role of noise in animated film
The basic premise of the essay is the assumption that the "strategic
combination" of the types of film sound, also known as the soundtrack, in
live-action films and animated films can be organized differently. While in the
live-action film the three basic sound types (speech, music, noise) generally
tend to form a hierarchy, in which music and speech are primary, and noise is
secondary, the animated film seems to revise this hierarchy of sound
established by the live-action film. Although music still has a primary role
among the sound types of the animated film, speech and noise are attributed an
opposite function compared to live-action film: the soundtrack of the animated
film frequently relies on the importance of noises instead of using articulated
speech. The text discusses these observations in detail by examining very
different animated films, however, they are definitely similar in their almost
exclusive use of noise (e.g. Gerald
McBoing-Boing, The Hand, Balance, Walls, Quest, Darkness, Light, Darkness, Moto perpetuo, Jumping).
Full text in Hungarian →
Anikó Zemankó: Musical sound and film. The
examination of micro- and macroformal relationships between musical sound and
image, musical piece and film
The paper examines
structural parallels and links between two branches of art: music and film,
focusing on the possibilities of music to connect to the image sequences of
film. Film and music may be regarded as equal in a relationship in case a
common denominator is found for their structural principles. Since the
reception process involves cognitive processes restructuring related systems as
wholes, the article reviews the results of cognitive psychology regarding
parallel processing. As a first step, the argument provides parallels between
film and music at three microstructural levels, after which it discusses more complex,
macrostructural similarities.
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STUDENTS'
WORKSHOP
Zsolt Zsombor Kapás: Mockumentary, a reflection
of documentarist signification
Films labeled as "mockumentaries" (mock-documentaries)
display a unique mixture of the logic of signification characteristic of
documentaries and feature films respectively. The paper examines the ways
mocumentaries reflect on a documentarist style of signification, starting with
a brief definition of mocumentarism, stressing the aspects of filmic code
systems relevant to them, as well as the interpretative processes related to
them via their contexts. The mockumentary is based on the signifying mechanisms
of documentaries. Individual mockumentaries turn to the apparatus of
documentaries within a network of various intentions and influence mechanisms.
The paper offers a system of categories in order to present the mutability of
the examined form.
Full text in Hungarian →
Tamás Bodroghalmi: Minimalism in the films of Robert
Bresson
The paper offers an experiment interpreting the
minimalist technique of the French film director, Robert Bresson. It discusses
the possible definitions of minimalist style, it deals in detail with its
important characteristics, and thus contextualizes Bresson's minimalism. The
main stylistic features of Bresson are treated through the discussion of
illustrative examples. Bresson's style is treated vis-à-vis two minimalist contemporaries,
Yasujiro Ozuv and Carl Theodor Dreyer. The paper hopes to contribute not only
to a more nuanced understanding of Bresson's oeuvre, but also of minimalism in
film.
Full text in Hungarian →
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