write responses (250 words)

Western Medievalism in Film

• Summary of first four classes Discussion of: what do we think of when we think of the Middle Ages? And what sounds and/or music do we think of? From individual elements (people, things, ideas), we came up with some broader themes of how the Middle Ages is represented:

• Grime and disease (the plague) • Hierarchical systems (political, social) • Fantasy (magic, fantastical creatures, witchcraft) • Town formation • Pastoral (small farms, farm animals) • War (knights, armour) • Chivalry • Religion (monks, nuns, monasteries, cathedrals) • Learnedness (universities, Latin)

Three approaches to medievalism in film and television:

• Focus on specific medieval figure or event • Medieval fantasy world • Uses medieval trope/theme but in different setting

Three kinds of sound in film:

• Dialogue • Music • Sound effects

Viewed a film clip and discussed relationships amongst the sound, the action, and the visual elements, reviewing and introducing terminology: Opening of Princess of Thieves (2001) - up to the cow-milking/Latin lesson scene

• Opens with mountains and mist (visual icon or convention for the medieval or the distant past)

• Voice-over (non-diegetic narrator) introduces the narrative (informational prologue) with a long, anticipatory drone in the underscore and the sound of birds to place the outdoor scene (establishing sound)

• Heroic theme in underscore (Fr. Horn, leaping and rising melody with dotted rhythm) with horse and rider galloping through the forest; “pastoral” setting emphasized with the sound of the horse’s hooves and splashing water

• Dark interior scene and cold stone walls in castle fit with foreboding music (low, drawn-out string drones and dissonant chords); Sherriff of Nottingham and his men express violent ways (“price on the infant’s head”), and misogynistic attitude (“a girl” + evil cackle)

• Dissolve to image of infant with diegetic off-screen voices of mother and child’s protector

• Rooster cawing establishes the place (confirmed by simple interior) • Montage sequence - musical underscore provides continuity as time is

compressed and we see Robin Hood’s daughter, Gwyn, growing up; underscore uses harp and celtic flute with alternating chords to establish gentle, protective and historical setting (medieval or distant past)

• Sound lag bridges to outdoor scene of cow-milking and Latin lesson (Latin, so we know it’s the Middle Ages) with a young monk or novice

Terminology:

• diegetic / non-diegetic • diegesis – story or narrative of film • voice-over • underscore • soundtrack – all audio in a film (often refers to the music) • montage (single shot has meaning only in relation to another shot) • shot – single take (seconds, minutes) • scene – several shots • sequence – several scenes

Review of 5 general categories of music in the Middle Ages:

• Chant • Vernacular song (Troubadours and Trouvères) • Instrumental fanfares • Dance music • Vocal polyphony

Viewing and discussion of Alexander Nevsky (1938)

• Discussion of Brown 1994 and close collaboration between Eisenstein and Prokofiev

• Representation of the medieval through sound and image, while simultaneously promoting communist ideals under Stalin: men fishing together collectively, music is worker’s song sung in unison, all men (including Alexander) dressed in simple fisherman’s clothing

• Sounds of the medieval: war (clashing of swords, horses); church (bells, organ, droning music)

• Meaning of the film in 1938: pre-war, Soviet Union fearing German invasion and recalled an earlier Russian national hero, Alexander Nevsky from the thirteenth century

• non-aggression pact in 1939 – film pulled from circulation; June 22, 1941, Operation Barbarossa: Germany abandoned pact and invaded Russia