TWITTER PLAY
Are you the guy?
I'm a guy.
Where's the stuff?
Where I left it.
Is it lost?
Are you?
Are you the guy?
I'm the guy
Where's the stuff?
Must of lost it.
Silence is What Happens When You're Busy Making Other Plans
I resonated with the idea of silence and how poignant it can be when used effectively. One of my favorite movies is the classic Paul Thomas Anderson film 'There Will Be Blood'. Before Daniel Day Lewis drinks your milkshake and redefines the sport of bowling the movie has to begin first. And what a beginning it is. Instead of kicking us off with dialogue to illustrate who and what we are about to see Anderson instead takes us on a nearly 15 minute atmospheric dive into location and character through a wordless 5 minute romp through the (hopefully) oil laden desert.
Check it out (could only find 5 minutes) on the right.
Ah, if only all montages could be this poetic. Anderson and cinematographer Robert Elswitt express both the clawing ambition of the protagonist as well as the punishing ambivalence of the environment. So often in good writing and to a certain extent acting we are told to 'show and not tell.' This to me is that notion exemplified. Instead of being told the story, we are shown the story, and when done right, silence can be a highly effective tool to do just that.
I'm sure I won't be the only one to speak about it but another startling example of the use of silence, and one that in fact defines the entire work of art is John Cage's 4'33. If you're not familiar, Cage developed this piece as a sort of rumination about both what constitutes music and to show what sounds do in fact exist within silence. Indeed even when Cage attempted to find total silence he was surprised as to what he found. Visiting a sound absorption chamber at Harvard University expecting to experience total silence he wrote, "I heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation."[14] Cage had gone to a place where he expected total silence, and yet heard sound. "Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. One need not fear about the future of music."[15]
This experience led to the creation of 4'33. What I personally like about it is there is an unexpected participation that takes place between audience and 'performer'. So often in theatre we are happily passive, letting the noise from the stage wash over us, filling our ears and our heads. But when this is subtracted, everyone is suddenly involved. It then becomes a more conscious experience, a more mindful experience, and perhaps one that will not be as quickly forgotten as some other performances. Food for thought!
This is a fascinating exploration of silence and the power of the other senses. It is only when we are deprived of one crucial sense that we become finely tuned into another. I really liked the example you gave of that opening sequence in "There Will Be Blood", and found it an interesting and tasteful tool in establishing character and plot. After watching way too many episodes of Cinema Sins, I have found that one of their biggest nit picks is with the very often obvious nature of expositionary dialogue. With this example, there are no words spoken at all and it is safe to say that this was a brilliant artictic choice.
ReplyDelete"The Illusionist (https://youtu.be/BMqpU7lUlLg) is a 2010 animated film that adapts the tool of silence in a different way. The principle actors make sounds, but never really speak in the conventional way. Rather than relying on speech and dialogue between characters, the film is rich with a soundscape that takes the ears on a journey of discovery.
John Cage found something potent; that silence is not the absence of sound, but rather a conscious awakening of an awareness for sound.