The Shining
I found The Shining by Stanley Kubrick to be pretty entertaining to watch. I really enjoyed how pretty most of the scenes were with all of the coordinating colors despite how creepy and uncomfortable it was. However, the thing that really stood out out to me in this film was the sound and music. I watched this with my mom, and she had commented how this The Shining would not be nearly as terrifying if it weren't for the use of music throughout. The sound was so assaulting to me when viewing this film. One example of this is in the various scenes where Danny is experiencing the shining. There would be a super high pitched sound that cut through the texture of whatever was going on to signal he was either experiencing something abnormal or having a vision. For me, this added so much tension to what I was seeing even if it was not necessarily threatening (like when the cook mentally asked him about having ice cream).Another aspect to the sound of this film that I found particularly interesting was the inclusion of the first movement from Bela Bartok's piece "Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta." This is gonna be kinda whacky explanation of the analysis of this piece and why I feel it makes so much sense being in this film! Here is a link to a Youtube video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m129k5YcQnU . We spent quite a bit of time analyzing this piece in my music theory class last term which is probably why it stuck out to me as much as it did. This is a pretty contemporary piece of music and is known for being very creepy and unsettling. This first movement follows the form of a fugue which is a type of piece that has an established melody that plays over and over again throughout different voices or instruments. In Bartok's piece this melody can be heard from 0:07 to 0:27. What Bartok does (that is super unconventional for a fugue), is he eventually inverts the original melody at the end of the movement. At 6:14 - 7:00, the original version of the melody is playing in dialogue with the inverted form to the point where they are happening at the same time! It has such! a creepy! effect!!!
OKAy That was A Lot, BUT I think it is so interesting because this "inverted melody" seems to exist almost as Jack's other identity that either lives within him or was insinuated to really be his own experience in another lifetime... I also think it is interesting to think about because there are so many scenes in this film with mirrors. Whether it is Danny talking to Tony in the mirror or Wendy seeing that redrum really means murder, mirrors hold an important place in this film. It makes so much sense to me that this piece was chosen to play in various parts of the film because the two separate, but very similar melodies exist at the same time - kind of like how Jack and this other crazy murder man exist with the same story of losing their minds while isolated in a hotel with their families.
I love that you knew the specific composition and that was such a great explanation because that music was super spooky... but I never could have articulated why. The inverted melody helps to explain the "double life" or doppelganger theory which is so fascinating to explore in the context of the film, and I noticed all the shots with mirrors too (which were composed in such an interesting was that made Jack Nicholson look so much creepier seeing two of him is just too much).
ReplyDeleteI also think the music is fucking genius and I'm glad you pointed out the fugue composition as well! I studied a poem in my German class that had a pretty similar format (it's called Todesfuge or Death Fugue and it's fascinatingly dark). I think it's so interesting when this type of composition is used in conjunction with the sinister and horror because of the double meaning of the word 'fugue'. It is both a composition style as well as a psychological state in which one experiences a (and yes I did just copy paste this from dictionary.com) "state or period of loss of awareness of one's identity, often coupled with flight from one's usual environment, associated with certain forms of hysteria and epilepsy". I think this perfectly encapsulates what happens to Jack throughout the film.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder how effective this film would be without all of the music and audio it uses (and close-ups of Jack Nicholson's face). Kubrick lights to use bits of music and eerie sound to instigate psychological and aural unease. This is particularly relevant in 2001: A Space Odyssey as it features less dialogue but sharp frightening noises even though it isn't technically a horror film. If Kubrick were to use less music and startling sounds in his films, what would you recommend as other filmic ways to instigate fear? (Or perhaps a combination of sound and image without the abundance of music)
ReplyDeleteIts great to have your musical expertise on this film! Thank you for sharing this. Most films rely more on sound than your average viewer perceives but horror as a genre relies much more on it to spark emotional cues and to reveal information than other genres. You give a stunning account of why this is so. If I do this class again while you are still at Lawrence I would love for you to come and talk about it with the class.
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