Meet me in St, Louis and the Aspect of Sound :: essays research papers fc

The Aspect of Sound in Meet Me In St. Louis In 1904 Eugene Lauste successfully recorded sound onto a piece of photographic film. This invention was known as a â€Å"Sound Grate† the results where still far to crude to be used to public display. The cameras used to film â€Å"The Talkies† as they where known, had to be kept in enormous soundproof casing. This immediately hindered directors creativity and made movies such as Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) much more rigid. Because of the fascination with the lip-syncing that this new technology achieved less attention was played to other attributes that silent films used such as the comedic elements in Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights (1931.) The invention of talking pictures also had severe repercussions on the censorship process. Initially the entire process was nearly impossible, as any cuts made would have an effect on the synchronisation of the sound and the film. Minnelli’s 1944 musical Meet Me In St. Louis: â€Å"Serves to implicate the contemporary 1944 audience† (Mundy, J 1999.) This because in many ways the film aims to personify a period of loss and change as was the case in America during the Second World War period. This can be witnessed through Rose Smith’s (Lucille Bremer) loss of a possible fiancà © in New York as well as the heartache the entire family feels of the possibility of moving away from St. Louis to New York. John Mundy (1999) sums this up in the following quote: â€Å"Like so many folk musicals, the film is suffused with a yearning nostalgia for a cultural past which is both desirable and as the text suggests attainable.† This also reflects upon the 1944 audience whereby they will be â€Å"yearning† for a happier past when there is no war. The film uses the device of music to make it seem as if this is attainable for the audience. Andre Bazin saw the movement of film as a total progression towards: â€Å"A progressive movement toward an ultimate goal a total and complete representation of reality... the reconstruction of a perfect illusion of the outside world in sound, colour, and relief† (http://www.thestranger.com/2001-07-05/periphery.html) Bazin called this the â€Å"Myth of Total Cinema.† He believed that a total representation of reality was an ideal. Musicals are popularly believed to be leading away from the ideal of total cinema. This is because they are filmed using non-diegetic sound. This is to say sound that originates from outside of the film.