Analysis of Sound in Film A Streetcar Named Desire

Analysis of Sound in Film A Streetcar Named Desire

黄艳梅

兰州信息科技学院 730030

Abstract: Sound is a powerful film technique for it engages a distinct sense mode, because it can actively shape how we perceive and interpret the image. The film A Streetcar Named Desire depicts a series of characters successfully by a variety of techniques including sound. This paper tries to analyze and appreciate the sound and the voice make by and about the main characters in the film.

Keywords: A Streetcar Named Desire；sound; film

摘要：声音是电影表现技巧中的一种有力方法，因为它能使我们通过荧幕上的图像积极地构造出一种鲜明的感觉模式。《欲望号街车》这部电影应用多种声音技巧成功地刻画了多个人物形象。这篇论文就这一问题从不同方面试以分析欣赏本部电影中主人公的一些声音。

关键词：《欲望号街车》；声音；电影

1. Introduction

Adapted from the drama of the same title written by Tennessee Williams, a famous American dramatist, the film tells a story about a middle-class lady named Blanche Dubois and her miserable fate. The film has given a surprise and also a shock to its audience and brought a fresh breath to the development of film since its premiere in 1951. It captured Oscar’s four awards of that year: best actress, best supporting actress and actors and best art direction. In the film, there are four main characters. Vivien Leigh plays the part of the heroine Blanche Dubois, Marlon Brando the hero Stanley Kowalski, and the two supporting actor and actress act Stella Kowalski who is Blanche’s sister and Stanley’s wife, and Harold Mitchell (Mitch) who is the friend of Stanley, and loves Blanche.

The film begins with Blanche’s arrival at the Kowalski apartment in New Orleans after losing Belle Reve, the Dubois family home. Though completely destitute, she puts on the air of a woman who has never known indignity. After coming to the noisy city, her life doesn’t go better, but ever worse than before, because she suffers a lot from her brother-in-law both psychologically and physically. And the film finally ends in her madness for her desire，illusion and dignity was completely smashed. However, the other main character in the film, Stanley, is of violence, desire and rudeness. It is he that is the direct cause of Blanche’s madness.

2. The Employment of Sound in the Film

Movie sound can take the form of dialogue, music, or noise (thunder, or a car screeching to a halt), any or all of these sounds being naturally or artificially produced. Film sound can have a multitude of relations to the image and the narrative: it can be background music; its source may be on- or off-screen; and it can even precede or follow the image it is linked to (as when a character’s remark forms a bridge into the next image). In the film A Streetcar Named Desire, the director arranged a series of sounds to help develop the plot, set off the change in both psychology and relationship between the characters. This paper goes with the following three factors:

2.1 Blanche’s Voiceand the Sound about Blanche

Acted successfully by Vivien Leigh, Blanche is beautiful, sensitive and frivolous with changeable gesture. Meanwhile, plus the cruelty of the society and Stanley, her frailty and fragility drives her mentally disorder at the end of the film.

From the very beginning of the film, Blanche puts herself in a noisy and busy railway station. She was confused how to get “the streetcar named desirer”，and then comes the sound of the very car that she assumes that it can take her to a better situation. Getting off the bus, she walks briskly on the street resounded with jazz music, sound from the gambling men and laugh of local people. All of that seems that she would have her life changed in the brand-new place. But the meeting with Stanley and a series of things that happened later shatters her dream little by little.

Her songs also suggest her feeling at a specific moment. For example, when she falls in the love with Harold Mitchell (Mitch), she also falls into a romantic world again, singing, “Say, it is only a proper moon, sailing over a cardboard sea- but it wouldn’t be make-believe if you believe in me”. The song may depict the deepest world of her feelings: the desire to be admirable, loved, and pure.

When the loud ringing and a faint tap-taps wake her up from the come, the sound of knock becomes more and more distinct. She asked“who is it?”with a reply “me, Mitch.” on hearing the her beloved voice, she is surprised at first, and then cheers up to make up. Meanwhile, tap-taps are becoming more and more violent so that the door is kicked open before Blanche hurry to open it. When she is talking with Mitch, the music comes again, and then follows a harsh shot. In the film, whenever the music and the shot come to her, she will experience a painful recalling.

2.2The Sound from and about Stanley  

Stanley, Blanche’s brother-in-law and Stella’s husband, is also the direct cause of Blanche’s madness. He is strongly, compactly built. All his animal joy in his being is implicit in all his voice, movements and attitudes. Voice he produced is not complete and ambiguous just like murmuring, and the sound from him is violent, furious. In addition, a variety of loud and rough sound always accompanies him from beginning to the end of the film, for example, slamming the door, kicking the furnish, beating the people around him, smashing things….

3. Conclusion

Sound is considered as one of the most important techniques for it does help the film producer to make a successful movie, but also help the viewers to appreciate the film better, especially in the times with black-white films. In the film A Streetcar Named Desire, sound is employed successfully by the actors and actress successfully.

Bibliography

1、David Bordwell, Thompson Kristin.Film Art: an Introduction. University of Wisconsin, 2003:347-388.

2、Timothy Corrigan.A Short Guide to Writing about Film. Temple University, 2001:83-88.

3、http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTQzNTgyODM2.html, 2009.

作者信息：

黄艳梅(1986年出生)，女，汉族，兰州，兰州信息科技学院（730030），讲师，英语教师，硕士研究生，研究方向：英语教育。

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