6 - Sound and Silence

Sound and Silence

by Aileen, Erin, and Alexandre

Music plays an important role in our lives; it has the ability to alter our moods for better or for worse. In most big name Hollywood films, the movies are scored with great soundtracks to exemplify drama, tension and comedy on screen. But what if the director chooses to create a movie without speech or sound? In silent films, we are able to explore how sound changes our viewpoint for the images on screen. The films Window Water Baby Moving, Berlin: Symphony of a Great City and Night and Fog all use sound in unique ways. In silent films, the images on screen were powerful enough to stand on their own. The films which used rhythmic music complemented the images and actions on screen in a soothing yet nonobstructing way.

Window Water Baby Moving

            The short documentary film Window Water Baby Moving, directed by Stan Brakhage, was released in 1959. The film documents the birth of his first child, Myrrena. After months of editing, and delays by unexpected problems such as Kodak seizing the film, Window Water Baby Moving was released as a 13 minute experimental short film, which is an artistic practice incorporating both visual arts and cinema.

The film’s opening immediately invites viewers in by its portrayal of intimate behavior that is being exhibited by Brakhage and his pregnant wife. Through the use of extreme close-ups and fast-paced clips and images, Brakhage portrays the feeling of intimacy and tenderness. Some scenes include images of his wife’s swollen stomach, as the couple’s clasped hands graze her skin. About halfway through the film the delicacy of the previous scenes is replaced with raw footage of childbirth at its core. Viewers are now witnessing the birth of a child, usually a rather private affair, at a very close range.

In class we touched on themes of sound and silence. The exclusion of sound or music in the film Window Water Baby Moving was entirely intentional. Without sound, we are required to create in our minds a soundtrack of our own. With the absence of sound, there is also a feeling of awareness that occurs not only when regarding the film’s content, but also with the space in which we are sitting and with whom we are sharing the experience of observing the film.

Also, with sound, the film might have been too intrusive; looking and listening to raw footage of a woman giving birth would have been too much for some sensitive audiences to handle.

There is a kind of honesty in creating a film without sound. There are no obstructions in what we are feeling for the images we are seeing. Music, just like images, stands alone and allows us to take on certain moods. By refusing to pair music with his film, Brakhage has left us with nothing but the raw intensity that we are supplied with through the blunt images on the screen.

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City is a black and white silent film, directed by Walter Ruttmann. It was released September 1927 in Germany. It focuses on the events that unfold during one single day in Berlin in 1927. The film is divided into five acts, each depicting a specific time of day; from early morning before anyone has risen, to deep into the night. Each act was paired with a musical score to reflect the mood of the scenes composed by Edmund Meisel, but the score was lost until 2007. In 1993, a score by Timothy Brock was made for the film – this composition was the one we listened to in class. In 2007, the movie was rereleased to the Berlin public with its original score. 

The film depicts everyday life, and portrays one day as a cycle. Act 1, starts the film by showing, mostly male factory workers heading off to work. The city starts to get for the rest of the people who are still sleeping. Once everyone is awake the city will be ready for the day to come. In act 2, white collar workers are starting to head off to work. The women are getting their children ready for school. Not only are humans starting their day, but machines in general are on the move. In act 3, the city is at full function. Everyone is in their proper location, and performing their respective tasks. Next is act 4, when the city slows down for lunch. A class division is prominent in this act because we see the wealthy population enjoying a fancy meal out, while the blue collar workers are sitting outside eating a bagged lunch. After lunch the factories and employees are back to work. At the end of the afternoon, the day is over; men are washing their hands, cleaning themselves after a day’s work. The city starts to relax, but people stay out to enjoy leisurely activities such as sports and entertainment. When night arrives, in act 5, the people of Berlin are shown enjoying fine entertainment at the local theater. There is dancing and large productions, also juggling and trapeze acts.

Every occurrence that is filmed is seen as just another everyday affair. The way Ruttmann achieves this is by showing many different images one after the other, so that we may take a rather holistic approach to the film instead of seeing each scene as an isolated incident. There is also a sense of time passing while watching Berlin: Symphony of a Great City. Since we are shown every detail in a day in the life of Berliners, we get the sense that we just lived through that day as well, and that we are involved in that lifestyle. Different dynamics in amplitude and frequency are recorded to capture and retain the attention of the audience. The pieces composed by Meisel and Brock are also split into separate acts to mimic the daily lives of Berliners. Music used to be the only time based art – there is no still sound, as there is an image or photograph. Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, being part of the genre of Avant-garde film, depended on musical theory for its effect on an audience.  

In class we discussed how similar the “cycle” of a day is today in relation to 1927. Workers still flood the streets, trains and take to their automobiles when the sun rises. They still attend work and provide themselves with some form of entertainment when work is done. They still go out at nighttime to see shows and live performances. Every day life still has the same basic structure, only minor details have been altered like the source of the entertainment, what types of occupations are available, technological advances and a more obvious factor – the fashions!

Night and Fog

Night and Fog (Nuit et brouillard) is a French documentary short film, directed by Alain Resnais, which portrays the history of Nazi Germany’s death camps. It was made in 1955, ten years after the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. Night and Fog was written by Jean Cayrol, a survivor of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. The music was composed by Hanns Eisler, an Austrain composer, and the film was narrated by Michel Bouquet, a famous French film actor. The documentary features gruesome images and footage of the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained within the grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek. The thirty minute documentary shows the truth behind the barbed wired gates.

 While Michel Bouquet is speaking, the director takes the audience from lush meadows to wired fences with high watch towers, and finally into the heart of the camp. After each description the narrator refrains from speaking, letting the powerful images progress. As the film develops, historical documents from the war are presented with present footage to show the effects the war had on the surrounding area. Even though the 1955 footage was in colour, it does not look at all “colourful”.

As the film advances, it takes the audience through a history of the concentration camps. In 1933, when the Nazis took over in Germany, concentration camps were built, creating new businesses all over.   As the film continues to show the war’s development, gruesome images of starvation, abuse, and living conditions are displayed on screen. In 1945, by the end of the war the camps had turned into crematoriums, killing over 1.3 million people in Auschwitz alone. Over 17 million people, including Jews, Soviet POWs, disabled people, and homosexuals died during the Holocaust.

The film begins by stating that even a peaceful landscape, a road where cars and peasants and couples pass, a resort village, can result in a concentration camp. Night and Fog is different and honest – an uncommon trait amongst most popular cinematic movies. Unlike most Holocaust films, Night and Fog is unique because the director, Alain Resnais did not presume to speak for the victims within the concentration camps. Instead the voiceover by Hanns Eisler, which was very poetic despite the horrors on screen, was filled with a sympathetic awareness of the audience’s unwillingness to accept or grasp the horrors within the camp; “[…] useless to describe what went on in the cells… Words are insufficient.” (Night and Fog)

In Night and Fog, similarly to Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, and the others viewed in class, music plays an important role. These films depend upon musical theory for their effect. As mentioned in class, sound must exist in time. The composer of Night and Fog was well aware of this fact because even as still pictures were shown on screen classical music played in the background, with interchanging dynamics and instruments. Every piece was elegant and dramatic to match the mood of each picture. This helped the viewer grasp the sorrows that went on within the camps. Like sound, the world will never be still. Together the combination of voice-over, music and silence leave the viewer feeling calm but aware of how important it is to remember the past. Without music, the film would have been too intrusive, and would have left the viewer feeling aggravated and upset. 

“We pretend to take up hope again as the image recedes into the past, as if we were cured once and for all of the scoured of the camps...We turn a blind eye to what surrounds us and a deaf ear to humanity’s never-ending cry.” (Night and Fog)

What Sound Brings to Movies and Our Everyday Life

The films Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, Night and Fog, and Window Water Baby Moving were all made before the 1960s. They are all very artistic, avant-garde experimental films. These film styles incorporate musical theory and visual arts to affect their audiences. Even though Window Water Baby Moving is completely silent, it is still incorporated in the category of Avant-garde because its use of silence is what gives the film such profound affect. All films require the viewer to evaluate the images presented on screen in great depth. They make the audience look at images which are both poetic and gruesome.  They make us realize that we occasionally have to go back to the root of things to understand and acknowledge details that can sometimes be overlooked, like the way music makes us feel, and what stories images can tell us.

The lack of modern sound technology in old films simplifies what we are watching and shows us that music, just like words, can guide our understanding. The directors of the films we watched in class shape the sound and pictures to manipulate the way they want the audience to feel.  In modern day cinema, sound is present in nearly every film and piece of media. Whether it’s scored with an amazing soundtrack or simply dubbed over with a laugh reel, sound is important. Sound and visuals are the perfect marriage because they both enhance an experience. Seeing and hearing are two extremely important senses that we rely on as humans to absorb what is happening around us. When we watch a film, we are completely consumed in that world, and we use our senses to do so.

Directors are aware of how manipulative sound and music can be which is why soundtracks are carefully constructed to enhance the mood in the scene. For example, in Pitch Perfect, the characters are always making reference to the Breakfast Club as the best scored movie of all time. The Breakfast club would have never remained an all time classic if it wasn’t for the soundtrack put in place. After all, music withstands the test of time.

Sound not only plays an enormous role in our lives and how we perceive things, but it is also a beautiful thing that we take for granted. It unites those who truly appreciate it. So whether you tear up every time you hear Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony, or you rocked harder than anybody else at that Metallica concert of ’03, sound is a universal tool through which we can all communicate and comprehend the world around us.

The films watched in class are an amazing introduction to Avant-garde and experimental cinema. Each one of them offers their own unique artistic styles, seen through music and image. Berlin: Symphony of a Great City uses sound to set a room tone, and create a sense that time is passing. It helps create continuity between the images. Soundscapes present within the film Night and Fog are synchronous with the images and commentary, which help enforce the message that we must never forget our history. All of the films reinforce the relationship between visual arts and sound. Window Water Baby Moving, Berlin: Symphony of a Great City and Night and Fog transform our vision of the world by suggesting another way to understand a series of images without the use of speech. After all, rhythmic music is the same in every language.