In 1927, The Jazz Singer, the first feature film to synchronize singing and dialogue with a pre-recorded musical score and sound, came out. In less than three years, sound technology has established itself in the film industry. Enter 1931, and Charlie Chaplin, one of the greats of silence, has just completed City Lights, defying the age of sound with his silence. Yet it would be reductive to say that Chaplin completely rejected sound technology without considering how it might add to his style (Flom, 61). The reality was that City Lights represented the beginning of Chaplin's gradual integration into sound and appropriation of sound into his distinctive Chaplinesque style (Flom, 63). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Critics like Eric L. Flom and Donna Kornhaber have made arguments for Chaplin's distinctive cinematic style and his creative integration of sound into his pantomime style. This essay will reiterate and build upon the dominant discourse on the use of sound in City Lights (1931), through a deeper textual and theoretical analysis of the film, informed by Fran Apprich's article "Born into Sound." The essay will use Apprich's image-sound approach to explain how Chaplin skillfully plays with silence and selective sound, the substitution of dialogue and sound, and the precision of the musical score in tandem with the images to emphasize the the alienation of the Tramp Figure and to elevate the sentimental melodrama (Woal 5). Finally, the essay will present an analysis of Chaplin's unconventional use of the shot/reverse shot convention, thereby demonstrating that the powerful economy of Chaplin's visual style obviates the need for conventional use of sound and dialogue, to paradoxically allowing a more liberating unconventional use. sound. In his article "Born into Sound", Apprich supports the concept of "neutralization" and "visibility" which this essay will use to analyze the selective use of non-diegetic sound effects and the foreground "visibility" of sound in the silence. . An image or sound can be neutralized when it is taken out of its original context and then associated with another image or sound. This is presented in the film through the creative substitution of conventional dialogue with a non-diegetic soundtrack and sound effects. Furthermore, Apprich argues that the power of images can evoke the imagination of an associated sound, even in its absence, and that it is this imagined sound that allows possibilities of meanings, between the imagined sound and the image, diegetic and non-diegetic. sound, with an imagined sound. The concept of visibility was based on Balaz's belief that the standardization of sound or music in a film made the use of silence or the use of a singular sound located between silences all the more apparent. The article will briefly reference these ideas put forward by Apprich when discussing the use of sound in film to advance the current discourse on city lights. In City Lights, the Tramp meets a blind flower girl, but a misunderstanding causes the blind girl to think. that the Tramp is a rich man. The Tramp then befriends a Millionaire by saving his life, but the Millionaire only recognizes the Tramp as his friend when he is drunk. Meanwhile, the Tramp continues to maintain the bridesmaid's idealization by borrowing money from his millionaire friend or working to support the girl's financial needs. In order to obtain money for the rent of theyoung girl and to pay for an operation aimed at restoring her sight, he manages to borrow enough money from the millionaire. However, after sobering up, the millionaire accuses him of stealing the money and sends the police after the tramp. The Tramp manages to give the money to the girl, but tells her that he is going to leave. The police catch him and he is imprisoned for a few months. Upon his release, the Tramp tries to find the young girl but she is no longer at his corner selling flowers. While walking down the street, the young girl, now clairvoyant, takes pity on him and gives him flowers. She then recognizes him as her benefactor after touching his hand and hearing his voice. The film then ends with their ambiguous and bittersweet reunion. In the opening sequence, the kazoo sound replaces the voices of government people, who are making a public presentation of the statues. This has a comedic effect by ridiculing political figures, but it also makes a larger conceptual point by undermining the nature of dialogue, particularly its use by those in power. This suggests that the dull political rhetoric of the leaders, unintelligible to the masses, does indeed translate into gibberish in the film. Alternatively, beginning with such a scene can also be read as Chaplin's sarcastic take on the novelty of sound in the film industry (Kornhaber 195). A close reading of the meeting sequence between the blind flower girl and the Tramp reveals the subtleties of the emotions, skillfully heightened by the sensitive use of the soundtrack, the silence and the precise movement of the characters (Preminger 172). The subtle tonal shifts in the soundtrack serve to express the emotion of the characters, an affective linguistic form that transcends the limits of speech and dialogue. In the Tramp's significant realization that the bridesmaid is blind, the soundtrack stops for a moment of rich silence. Shocked, the Tramp places the flower on the girl's hand. The music resumes at a slower pace, almost as if reflecting the hesitant tenderness of the Tramp's behavior towards the maid of honor. After which, we note that the audience's sonic imagination constitutes the premise of the film, which is the blind girl's idealization of the Tramp as a rich man (Davis 55). The cause of this misunderstanding is explained visually in their meeting sequence, avoiding exposition or dialogue. The Tramp enters and exits an expensive limousine to avoid a policeman, but the blind girl hears the door slam of the car Tramp is exiting from and assumes he is a rich man. Here, the visual movement allows the audience to imagine the implicit “sound” of the door slamming (Brownlow, Unknown Chaplin). More importantly, it is functional to the narrative since the ensuing drama relies on the narrative plausibility of the misunderstanding. This misunderstanding is repeated when the rich man's owner returns to get his car, slams the door and drives away. Panning the camera makes this bad hearing easier to see by panning to the left of the screen, to frame the Tramp standing next to the car before it drives off, before panning back to show the young girl calling him. The simplicity of this misperception deepens the comic pathos of the blind girl's idealization, which depends so precariously on the aural construction of the Tramp as a rich man. The soundtrack also serves a more explicit linguistic function, as evidenced by the exchange between characters. millionaire and the Tramp (Kornhaber 189). When he convinces the millionaire not to commit suicide, the Tramp launches into a mini speech,and the soundtrack changes accordingly to reflect a soothing and pleasant melody, while the intertitle states "Tomorrow the birds will sing". After which, Tramp straightens his posture to implement the stern pep talk; the soundtrack follows suit, high-pitched tensions of the strings while the inter-title declares “Be brave!” » Face life! The substitution of the soundtrack draws attention to the affective power of music, while the fusion of music with expressive actions creatively expresses emotions in a way that transcends conventional dialogue. Sound effects are used selectively, serving the function of an auditory close-up as it draws attention to specific points in the frame. Yet the artistic choice of selectivity is deliberately non-naturalistic and therefore self-reflexive in its nature. 'visibility'. In the second party scene, Chaplin accidentally swallows a whistle and develops uncontrollable hiccups that resemble the whistle he ingested. The whistling interrupts the professional singer just as he is about to sing. Here, the “visibility” of the sound of the whistle is increased, such that it is the only sound we hear; we do not hear the sounds of the surrounding party scene and, ironically, we never actually hear the singer (Kornhaber 189). Thus, this visible and neutralized sound, in conflict with the imagined agitation of the party, and made visible against the silence, underlines the comic alienation of the Tramp. As spectators or listeners, we cannot “hear” surrounding noises either. Chaplin therefore creates this distinct aural dimension that places us in sympathy with the Tramp as an outsider figure of high society (Preminger 169). It is through the use of this close-up of sound that Chaplin conveys alienation economically, without recourse to dialogue or conventional sounds. In the final scene, Chaplin re-appropriates the usual shot/reverse shot convention to heighten the emotions of the scene and to subtly convey the unequal power dynamic (Kornhaber 202). It is a medium shot framed directly behind the bridesmaid, with the Tramp's body facing directly into the camera but with the line of his eyes matching that of the girl. The flower girl sits, her body at a 45 degree angle to the left screen but turning to look at the Tramp, so that we only see the back of his head. As such, the camera angle exposes and emphasizes the Tramp's vulnerability. His facial expression is fully captured, a smile of unbridled joy at finding her. He holds the flower sentimentally and looks in wonder at the bridesmaid, whose face has turned away from the camera. The camera then shows her, alone in a separate frame, laughing and ridiculing him in a sarcastic intertitle: "I've made a conquest!" Visually this represents their relationship, the flower girl is like a disinterested spectator, maintaining a safe and judgmental distance while the Tramp stands, vulnerable and exposed (Calhoon 393). Their interaction is a direct reversal of their first meeting, with the flower girl now in a position of power. This is also visually represented by her indirect eye line matching the left screen when the camera frames her, as opposed to the Tramp who is directly facing her. This unnatural distortion of the usual shot/reverse shot convention creates visual unease, reflecting the painful and unequal power dynamic between the two characters. It's only when the bridesmaid touches the Tramp's hands that the power dynamic evens out. Cleverly, Chaplin reverses. 3-15.