Chapter 102 That year, it had sound

Marguerite Duras wrote about her mother's occupation in her autobiographical novel "The Levee Against the Pacific".Her mother used to be a pianist in a movie theater, and her whole job was to stay in the orchestra pit and play pieces that had nothing to do with the joy and sorrow on the screen.In that half-underground, dark orchestra pit, she lived like a mouse for ten years.The hard-earned money was invested by her to buy a piece of saline-alkali land that would be submerged by sea every year and could not be cultivated. Why did the movie theater need Duras' mother to play the piano?Because the earliest movies were silent, but the scene of a group of people staring at the same silent screen was inevitably a bit embarrassing.As a result, pianists who dubbed music for movies appeared in movie theaters. Some people say that the appearance of these music is to cover up the noise of the projection equipment and the time when changing copies.However, Hanns Eisler, a German film musicologist, said: "Music is sufficient as an antidote to images, because when the viewer witnesses almost all the activities of the real world, he does not hear a corresponding bit of reality." The sound will inevitably cause sensory discomfort... Therefore, music is not only used to fill in the lack of real life in the video, but also can relieve the audience's discomfort and fear when watching the film."

The music that appeared in the movie theater was not specially made for the movie.Some are improvisations by musicians, and some are ready-made works belonging to Mozart or Schubert.Therefore, it is inevitable that the tone will go off the rails and the text will not be on topic.However, starting with Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation", film and music have been intrinsically linked. Griffith collaborated with musicians to create a soundtrack for the film, sending the score to the band in the theater, Ask them to play along with the movie. This situation ended with the invention of the photoelectric cell in 1927.It can convert sound waves into electromagnetic waves, record them on film, and restore them to sound waves when they are projected.Movie companies quickly took advantage of the invention. In 1927, the first sound film "The Jazz Singer" came out. From this day on, Duras's mother, or other people who made music for the film scene, lost their jobs. "Change of ideas" is really painful, so even Zhuo Bellingo stands up against the character speaking.However, once people saw movies with sound and color, they flocked to movie theaters one after another, and the era of sound began.Following the fashion trend, Chaplin also used sound effects and music in "City Lights" in 1931.

Just like once a child has a favorite toy, he will keep it with him all the time; just like once a person has good-looking clothes, he will never wear them at night. As soon as a movie has sound, there will be a large number of people Musicals appeared, such as "Broadway Melody", "Acclaim", "Water Stage", "Snow White", and so on. In 1934, the Academy Awards had three awards for best composition, best soundtrack and best song.Since then, music has become an indispensable part of movies, the soul, rhythm, and even an independent life in movies. After the movies it is attached to have been forgotten, it is still circulating among the crowd for a long time.