Abstract
The topic of this article is the intersection between media genres in 1960s Sweden. In a case study of Ingmar Bergman’s Hour of the Wolf (1968) it is shown how the music contributes to intermedial qualities through the film’s connection with opera. It is argued that the film, by how the music is related to sound effects and images, can be seen as an example of formal imitation. The imitation of opera is created through technical media of film, such as foregrounding of media in the audio-visual space, and manipulations of sounds, music, and images. Of special interest is how, by alternating between synchronicity and counterpoint between images, sound effects, and music, Bergman attracts attention to the media as visual and sonic experiences and creates formal structures that deviate from the overall character of the film. The intermedial dimension of the film revealed by the analysis is contextualized in relation to the historical discussion of mixed versus pure medialities. The film is seen in the light of an interest in media genre mixedness versus media genre specificity in 1960s Sweden.
Highlights
The topic of this article is the intersection between media genres in 1960s Sweden
It is argued that the film, by how the music is related to sound effects and images, can be seen as an example of formal imitation
Of special interest is how, by alternating between synchronicity and counterpoint between images, sound effects, and music, Bergman attracts attention to the media as visual and sonic experiences and creates formal structures that deviate from the overall character of the film
Summary
In a review of Ingmar Bergman’s Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen, 1968) published in the American film journal Film Quarterly. Bergman’s experience as opera director and his interest in this media genre are factors that make it interesting to take the audio-visual space as a whole into consideration when analyzing the film In his autobiographical book Images (Bilder, 1990) Bergman described how he had been fascinated with opera, and with Mozart’s The Magic Flute since childhood. By filmic technical media (such as sonic extension, foregrounding, and backgrounding) the voices are related to each other in textures evoking the illusion of an ensemble number in the qualified medium opera It is an interchange between monologues with accompaniment, counterpoint, 34 Cf. Broman, “Music, Sound, and Silence,” 24. This is achieved through the use of technical media of film, such as manipulations of tape of sound effects and tape of speech
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