The polyphonic film
2008; Routledge; Volume: 6; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/17400300802098313
ISSN1740-7923
Autores Tópico(s)Cinema and Media Studies
ResumoAbstract In music, polyphony is the arrangement of multiple and heterogeneous voices which, though simultaneous, remain independent of one another. The most compelling analysis of polyphony as it relates to narrative form comes from Mikhail Bakhtin, for whom the polyphonic novel was perfected by Dostoevsky. This musical analogy is not only extraordinarily rich but, given the increasing number of films receiving critical acclaim for their multi‐plot structure, useful and relevant. The polyphonic film, however, does more than depict simultaneous events and assemble multiple plots. Unlike the critically acclaimed multi‐plot films Babel (dir. Iñárritu, 2006), Syriana (dir. Gaghan, 2004), and Traffic (dir. Soderbergh, 2000), Magnolia (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999) achieves true cinematographic polyphony by depicting simultaneity without unity, multiplicity without completeness. Keywords: BazinpolyphonyBakhtin, musical analogyrealist theoryPaul Thomas Anderson Notes 1. It should be stressed, however, that actual contrapuntal music was not used in the early sound films of the Soviets. For the Soviets, counterpoint wasn't meant to be the guiding principle in the composition of a film's score. Counterpoint was simply one of many concepts used, as analogy, to counter naturalist tendencies in cinema – specifically, the use of synchronous sound. ‘Sound used in this way,’ so the ‘Statement’ on sound goes, ‘will destroy the culture of montage, because every mere addition of sound to montage fragments increases their inertia as such and their independent significance; this is undoubtedly detrimental to montage which operates above all not with fragments but through the juxtaposition of fragments’ (371). The counterpoint film, then, was meant to achieve a non‐naturalistic relation of sound and image. 2. ‘Non moins important nous semble ce passage qui, concernant la poesie, nous parait s'appliquer mieux encore au cinema, dans la mesure ou le fonctionnement meme de la camera repond aux dernieres lignes du fragment qu'on va lire et auquel repondrait un texte celebre d'Andre Bazin’ (8–9). 3. This passage is mistakenly attributed to Bazin in Dudley Andrew's The Major Film Theories: An Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976 Andrew, Dudley. 1976. The major film theories: An introduction, New York: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]). See 245. My thanks to Dudley Andrew for helping me locate the true source of the passage. 4. ‘The Evolution of the Language of Cinema’ is actually a compilation of three earlier essays, including a piece Bazin contributed to the inaugural issue of Cahiers du cinéma, entitled ‘Pour en finir avec la profondeur de champ’ (no. 1, April 1951). It is this piece that contains Bazin's ideas about the importance of deep focus. The essay in which Bazin refutes the myth that the cinema ‘is believed to have died of the soundtrack’ is ‘Le decoupage et son evolution’, published in L'age nouveau (no. 93, July 1955). 5. This is Bazin's criticism of Alfred Hitchcock's Rope: ‘I would say that Hitchcock's Rope could just as well have been cut in the classic way whatever artistic importance may be correctly attached to the way he actually handled it’ (1967b Bazin, André. 1967b. “The virtues and limitations of montage.”. In What is cinema?, 41–52. Berkeley: University of California Press. Vol. 1. Trans. Hugh Gray [Google Scholar], 50). 6. In the 1981 French restoration, this scene comes quite early, which suggests Sartre may have seen a severely truncated version of the film, 4 years before the notorious American re‐release of 1935. 7. See ‘Synchronization of the Senses’. The Film Sense, ed. and trans. by Jay Leyda. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1942, 69–109. 8. Todd McCarthy, Esquire, March 2000. 9. Performance artists often distinguish between works or pieces that have a compartmental structure and those that have an informational structure. Swan Lake is a dance that possesses, like most drama, an informational structure; modern dance, by contrast, is made of segments that are not integrated into a totality but are self‐contained units. The idea is to produce works that are non‐hierarchical. Chekhov's plays tend to be segmented rather than plotted. See Michael Kirby, The Art of Time: Essays on the Avant‐Garde (New York: Dutton, 1969). 10. As I have written elsewhere, ‘Several scenes in this film involve verbal exchanges between Barton (John Turturro) and his neighbor, Charlie (Jon Goodman). Barton, the New York playwright, is determined to speak for the common man, never with him. Alas, whenever Charlie says ‘Boy, do I have some stories to tell …’ Barton interrupts: ‘And that's just the point!’ In reprisal, Charlie unleashes his fury (‘I'll show you the life of the mind!’) – something which might have been avoided had Barton only taken the time to have a good listen (‘That's your problem, Barton’ says Charlie, ‘you just … don't … listen!’).’ Barton Fink, dir. Joel Cohen, screenplay by Ethan Cohen and Joel Cohen (Rank/Circle, 1991). See Bruns (2005 Bruns, John. 2005. Baffling Doom: Dialogue, Laughter, and Comic Perception in Henry James.Texas.. Studies in Literature and Language, 47: 1–30. [Google Scholar]). 11. Critics often mistake this song for ‘Save Me’, which is also heard in the film. 12. Lions Gate Films, ‘Production Information’. Crash (2004). http://www.lionsgate.com/profile/crash.php (accessed April 1, 2008). 13. Stephen Benson rightly draws parallels between Komarovich's musical analogy and ‘Gorky's ideologically objectional harmonious orchestra’ (300). It is Gogol, however, who invokes this musical analogy, not Gorky (see Laszlo Tikos, Gogol's Art: A Search for Identity. Meverett, MA: Bati Publierhs, 1997). Nevertheless, Benson's point is important, as it stresses the ‘ethical intent’ of Bakhtin's conception of polyphony: ‘musical polyphony is already inflected with ethical questions regarding the nature of individual parts and the relation of part to whole; indeed, one of the defining features of the aforementioned period of polyphony was an absolute belief in the ethical significance of music, and so of the broader social significance of particular compositional practice’ (300).
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