Film Rhythm after Sound by Jacobs Lea

Author:Jacobs, Lea
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780520279643
Publisher: University of California Press

FIGURE 71. Transcription of Monte Carlo first conversation.

FIGURE 71. (continued)

At the initiation of MacDonald’s next verbal phrase, “But Duke Otto was there . . .,” the rhythm shifts from cut time to 34 time, and the tempo appears to quicken in relation to the previous ritard (to MM ♩ = 84). While the background music as such never sounds very fast, this small increase lends itself to an acceleration of the action: the actress moves, rising from the couch to wax ecstatic, and her speaking tempo increases to its fastest point. MacDonald speaks the line “But Duke Otto was there so of course that made it impossible for us to stay,” over the descending motive defined by the upbeat chord in bar 190 through to the half-note E in bar 192. Over the repetition of this motive in bars 192 through 194 she continues: “Well, we had to do something.” As she recalls their walk outside the casino with some emotion, the underscore shifts back into melody, ten bars of “Give Me a Moment Please” (bars 194–204).

The first strain of “Give Me a Moment Please” (from the high F-sharp in bar 194 to B-flat in bar 196) is heard high in the violins on the line: “So we went out and looked around.” The melody continues in the lower strings (bars 197–99) as MacDonald gets up from the divan, and the camera pans right to follow her to a position beside her maid. She delivers the line “Bertha, you have no idea how beautiful Monte Carlo is” on this movement. The violins come back in over the phrase “The parks—simply divine. And the promenades—like a walk in the clouds” (bars 199–201). She continues to speak over the melody until the cadence (bars 202–4): “And as far as you could see—not a soul. And so we sat down close.” After the cadence she repeats “Very close.”

The music dies away, and MacDonald abruptly shifts out of her transported state. She informs Bertha that the sea air made her cold (although the term is emphasized enough in performance to indicate that the opposite adjective applies) and suggests that she ordered Rudolph to go to the casino to play for her. Thus, the countess’s retreat from her burgeoning romantic attachment coincides with the cessation of the background score. The underscore does not resume until Mara walks away from her maid and speaks of her longing to see Rudolph again.

The timing of the line readings in this dialogue scene are looser than the patter found in the lunch scene from One Hour with You or the recitative-like structure of the “Always” verse at the beginning of the sequence. It strongly anticipates what would become classical background scoring (even though the use of recognizable tunes and the abrupt shifts in pitch and timbre within the cue make the music more obtrusive than would become the norm). The underscoring’s dramatic import is clear: melodic fragments give resonance to phrases such as “Must have lost it when we

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