Bernard Herrmann's The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by David Cooper

Author:David Cooper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2005-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Analysis and Readings of the Score

And how often have I seen The Big Steep since? I’ve lost count, but that was the first time and what can compare to the first time? Nothing. Everything else is a repeat, a copy—plagiarism. Afterwards it’s just a continuation. Next time it’s just a shadow. But the first time is real. You are present, you are suddenly there in your own life; you can put your finger on the moment and feel the pulse of time. And at the same time you know too that the moment has passed, slipped away in the pulse’s muddied wake. (Lars Saabye Christensen, The Half Brother).

Barnum Nilsen, Christensen’s narrator in The Half Brother, is surely correct in his identification of the potency of the first experience of a film. If we are not immediately attracted by, and find a connection with, a film’s themes, characters and execution, we are unlikely to want to explore it further. However, even if subsequent viewings do not have the immediacy of the first encounter, I would contend that a well constructed film rarely reveals the depth and complexity of its fabric on first encounter. Although The Ghost and Mrs. Muir moved me when I first saw it, I am writing about it here because it has retained its effect, perhaps with an even greater intensity, after it has been viewed many times and subjected to detailed analytic scrutiny.

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