Film developed when the successive stages of technological advancement throughout the 19th century led to simple optical devices used (previously used for entertainment) grew into sophisticated machines which could convincingly represent empirical reality in motion. Thomas

Sound had always been intended to accompany films, and unknown to most people today, always has been a part of the movies we know as “silent”. With piano or orchestral accompaniment, sound effects provided by individual performers or machines, movies were rarely that. Melies personally provided piano accompaniment for the Paris premiere of A Trip to the Moon, and the score for Metropolis (Lang, 1926) was composed for Fritz Lang by Gottfried Huppertz. Music was chosen and performed to fit mood, and it was always generally accepted that sound not only complemented the experience of cinema, but vivified it, and enhanced the realism. Synchronised sound in particular, thrilled early audiences, bored with the conventions of movies without dialogue, as they were not so much hearing as “overhearing”- making them feel a part of the action, and by 1930 the industry had almost been totally converted to sound. In Sunshine the use dialogue between characters is an important part of the narrative. Gustave is a socialist, Valerie is a budding Hungarian nationalist, whilst Ignatz is a steadfast believer in the empire’s brand of liberal multiculturalism. The stagy political shouting match between Valerie, Ignatz and Gustave on the eve of World War I, turns out to be the key to Mr. Szabo’s understanding of the 20th century. He imagines socialism, nationalism and liberal imperialism as siblings, born out of an essentially decent impulse, but all vulnerable to horrifying moral corruption, and uses the dialogue between the characters as a way of showing this subtly. Sunshine would be seriously disadvantaged without synchronised sound for this reason.

Some topics in this essay:
Hanging Rock, Emperor Assassin, Gon Li’s, Grand Illusion, Art Thou, Robbery Porter, Meanwhile Dickson, Mc Craw, Nosferatu Murnau, Georges Melies, special effects, technological innovation, picnic hanging rock, art thou, hanging rock, emperor assassin, colour film, changes technology, picnic hanging, film maker, trip moon, american folk music, la grand illusion, filmed separately computer, enable film maker,