Review: Musique Fantastique: A Survey of Film Music in the Fantastic Cinema by Randall D. Larson

This article reviews four major Chinese animated adaptations based on the classic Journey to the West. It shows how these adaptations, spanning four historical phases of modern China, encapsulate changes in Chinese national identity. Close readings underpin a developmental narrative about how Chinese animated adaptations of this canonical text strive to negotiate the multimodal expressions of homegrown folklore traditions, technical influences of western animation, and domestic political situations across time. This process has identified aesthetic dilemmas around adaptations that oscillate between national allegory and individual destiny, verisimilitude and the fantastic quest for meaning. In particular, the subjectivisation of Monkey King on the screen, embodying the transition from primitivistic impulse, youthful idealism and mature practicality up to responsible stewardship, presents how an iconic national figure encapsulates the real historical time of China.

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Ian Johnson, William Alwyn: The Art of Film Music

Journal of British Cinema and Television ◽

10.3366/jbctv.2006.3.1.187 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 187-188

Author(s):

Jeffrey Richards

Keyword(s):

Film Music

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Restrained Airs: The Diegetic Surface and Nondiegetic Depth of British Film Music

Journal of British Cinema and Television ◽

10.3366/jbctv.2019.0493 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 429-443

Author(s):

Paul Mazey

Keyword(s):

Film Music ◽

The World ◽

British Cinema ◽

Film Making ◽

The Way

This article considers how pre-existing music has been employed in British cinema, paying particular attention to the diegetic/nondiegetic boundary and notions of restraint. It explores the significance of the distinction between diegetic music, which exists in the world of the narrative, and nondiegetic music, which does not. It analyses the use of pre-existing operatic music in two British films of the same era and genre: Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), and demonstrates how seemingly subtle variations in the way music is used in these films produce markedly different effects. Specifically, it investigates the meaning of the music in its original context and finds that only when this bears a narrative relevance to the film does it cross from the diegetic to the nondiegetic plane. This reveals that whereas music restricted to the diegetic plane may express the outward projection of the characters' emotions, music also heard on the nondiegetic track may reveal a deeper truth about their feelings. In this way, the meaning of the music varies depending upon how it is used. While these two films may differ in whether or not their pre-existing music occupies a nondiegetic or diegetic position in relation to the narrative, both are characteristic of this era of British film-making in using music in an understated manner which expresses a sense of emotional restraint and which marks the films with a particularly British inflection.

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