Film and Music- The Lost Weekend and Spellbound - Essay Example

Film and music- The Lost Weekend and Spellbound I will scrutinize Rozsa’s music for The Lost Weekend (Paramount, 1945) and Spellbound. The music for the film noir has been neglected, and I am going to look at the music aspect of this film. Most film noir have always been defined by their visual and even narrative aspects states Robert Miklitsch. The long weekend film recounts an alcoholics’ life who was also a New York writer going by the name Don Birnam (Breiktkopf & Hartel 58). The film depicts how desperate Don is to get alcohol. The other film am going to look at is the Spellbound. This film too had a John Ballantyne who was going through an almost similar situation. He had gone through a very traumatic event during his childhood which led him to getting amnesia and he even forgot his own name. He was suffering from guilt complex which made him get imprisoned for a crime he actually did not commit. The paper will compare and contrast the two film Noir films. The idea here is to bring out the relationship between the two films. Introduction These two films highly emphasize on the influence of the Theremin and experimental music for the scores. The composers of “The lost weekend” and “Spellbound” have made use of theremin all through the film from the start to the end. Rozsa has made use of theremin as a way of integrating boldness and creativity in the recording. The composer has also used the two films to emphasize on the psychological impacts on the characters. Spellbound is an American Thriller which tells a story of the new mental asylum head who later turns out to be what he does not claim to be. The purpose of the film is to highlight psychoanalysis virtues which come with the banishing of restoring reason and mental illness. The lost weekend film shows the life of an alcoholic writer and particularly on a weekend alcoholic binge. Music in Film Nior-Brief history of the composer Rozsa was born in Budapest, Hungary in the year 1907. He grew up with a love for folk music. He had an increasing interest in two modernist composers in Hungary who made use of Eastern European folk music in doing their compositions. Even though he admired the kind of music they composed he did not think that their methods would work for him. Rozsa’s’ early compositions reflected these influences and much later in the year 1934 he considered engaging in fill scoring. He came to the realization that concert music could not uphold him. He eventually moved to London where he began working for Zoltan Korda as well as Alexander with the hope of setting himself up as a film composer. His music for the Lost Weekend film had in it numerous occurrences of both rhythmically and conflicting violent writing. The Lost Weekend and Spellbound The use of theremin by Rozsa showed just how bold and creative he was in integrating novel approaches. He wanted to use it in The Lost Weekend because he had successfully used it in Spellbound and he thought that the two somehow related. This is alcoholism, which [the character] cannot resist” (Behlmer 38). The theremin is cued every time Don gets the urge to drink alcohol and is overwhelmed by his longing (Breiktkopf & Hartel 58). As we can see at the start of the film, Don is silent, but he does not have to say anything silence all we need to know we can read from the look on his face. We can tell from the expression on his face that he is absorbed as he stares at the bottle that is hanging from the window of his dwelling. The “Alcohol Theme” is cued as he looks down at the alcohol bottle and the theremin has the melody. Music starts to fade as he and his brother Wick begin to talk and is later heard once again as Dons’ brother and Hellen leave the apartment after discovering the alcohol bottle hanging by the window. When Don goes to the bar and asks for a drink, he is given, but he hesitates to take it knowing that once he does he will not stop. The “Alcohol theme” plays once more, but it stops when he takes the shot. A descending music melody is played to signify his fall by a solo violin. Theremin is silent at this part as his alcohol craving has temporarily been satisfied. The alcohol theme is loudest at the point where Don is trying to sell his typewriter at a pawn shop in exchange for booze. Rozsa’ music shows the internal meaning that it emphasizes on both at what can be viewed on the screen as well as what cannot be seen. It is said to be interpretative (Breiktkopf & Hartel 58). The important part of music in films is to also clarify and illustrate on the psychological effects. In most instances that Don is left alone they are meant to lay emphasis on his psychological conflict which is well portrayed by the music that is played. The parts where music is not played is when there is dialogue while the parts where music is played for long is when Don is left alone. The part where he gets the hallucinations about the mouse and bat music is played as well as when he was alone at the hospital. The funereal overtones in the opening theme are tragic, and they even increase after the other alcohol theme has appeared. The theremin could not be loud. The film “The Lost Weekend” has no femme fatale, no murder and no mysteries. In this film thou, Alcohol relates to the femme fatale. There is the use of lighting in this film which is used to emphasize on the hopelessness and the downfall of Don Birnam (Breiktkopf & Hartel 58). Don is going through an internal struggle as he tries to fight his desire for alcohol which in this case can be referred to as his weakness. He lusts for alcohol and cannot do without it. There was the use of theremin throughout the film spellbound which got him his first Oscar. He was trying to let the viewers experience the isolating results of psychosis as well as dealing with psychotics. The score reflects her indecision regarding what is real and what is delusional. Hitchcock’s music in the spellbound reflects his own psychological challenges as well as his characters’. We can see that the fake Dr. Edwardes is suffering from a psychological condition which is affecting him till now. There is the use of theremin just like in the long weekend throughout the film. Music is played loudly when the characters are silent. When Dr. Constance and her mentor are busy analyzing trying to establish what really happened to the fake doctor Edwardes as well as to the missing real Dr. Edwards, music is played at the background which keeps as in suspense as we (the audience await to also find out what really happened). Other than the use of music to create a feeling of suspense, it is also used to show as the psychological torture that John Ballantyne is actually going through. Conclusion Sad alcohol and Theremin theme is evident in “The lost weekend” and “SpellBound”. The sad music just expresses the psychological turmoil perfectly. Just as in the film Nior “The Long Weekend”, the sad alcohol theme was used to reflect the psychological torture and struggle that Don was going through in trying to get over his desire for alcohol which was his biggest weakness. It kept him from achieving his goals of becoming a great writer. At the end of the film the two love birds reunite and it has a happy ending somehow just like in the Lost Weekend which ends with a hope that Don would actually get over his alcohol addiction and be able to salvage his relationship as well as his writing career. Here there was a happy song playing to match or indicate the happy ending. The dreams that John had had were showing us the mental torture he was actually going through and this is very similar to what Don (in the lost Weekend) was actually going through. Here the sad music was played loudly to emphasis on the situation that was there at the moment and how John’s dreams reflected his internal turmoil. Works Cited Breiktkopf & Hartel. The “Alcohol Theme.” Christopher Palmer. Miklos Rozsa. London 58. "Spellbound." 123HelpMe.com. 12 Apr 2013, http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=86844 Read More