Overall, I found Distant Voices.. Still Lives to be confusing and hard to follow. Although the out of order scenes created a unique aspect to the film, I would have preferred if the scenes were chronologically placed. It was clear that the music played a major importance to the emotions of the scenes and the overall message of the film. Because the music was so different than what I am accustomed to hearing, I didn't exactly find it enjoyable. I felt that in many times throughout the film, the music strongly contrasted to the events which were playing out on the screen. For example, in one scene, the husband/father was brutally attacking the wife/mother as calm and soothing music played. It was very ironic and emphasized the horror of the images.
In addition to the music playing in the background, the scenes where all the family members sang together unified them and in a way, showed the connection between the family and the memories they were recollecting towards the father. The funeral scene which showed the family mourning over the death contrasted with the unfavorable memories and images of the father. I had to try and remember that beatings and other brutalities were common and accepted in that time period and that it was a much different time than today. It was shocking to watch that happened and that those were the most popular memories.
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Your post has some interesting responses. First, your statement of your preferences and such. This is a good place to start examining what you expect from narrative and why? I think you are right that it is all a matter of lack of familiarity not an issue of "bad" vs. "good". Of course, you need to follow this out more: what does this say about how we learn? About how we don't learn?
ReplyDeleteYou also have a good idea of how sound was used to counterpoint the image track rather than just reinforce it literally.
And I also think you're just about two steps away from making some interesting comments on how memory functions: what things remain "popular", i.e., significant and well remembered moments, and how different emotions can collect around the same set of memory images.