On Thu, 9 Mar 2000 10:11:49 -0000 Jeremy Bowman <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Would someone out there please set me right by giving me a film expert's
> definition of 'lyrical'?
I haven't been following this thread up to now, so I don't know if
John Belton's work has been discussed. In a very subtle and acute
reading of Hitchcock's _Under Capricorn_, Belton uses the word
'lyricism' and defines it in the following manner:
"... the most important by-product of _Rope_ and _Under Capricorn_ was
their relation to the growth of lyricism in Hitchcock's work,
epitomized in films like _Rear Window_, _The Man Who Knew Too Much_,
and _Vertigo_. By 'lyricism', I mean the sustainment of a mood, tone,
or emotion in a work over a period of time. The most lyrical sequence
in _Under Capricorn_, of course, is Hattie's confession, in which
Hitchcock and [Ingrid] Bergman prolong a mood of hypnotic reverie for
an entire reel of film. Even though Hitchcock adandons the long-take
format with _Stage Fright_ (1950), he manages to sutain moods and
emotions by other means. ...". John Belton, "Alfred Hitchcock's _Under
Capricorn_: Montage Entranced by Mise en Scene," Quarterly Review of
Film Studies, Fall 1981, pp. 381-2.
The term 'lyricism' could therefore be linked to mise en scene
criticism and defined further, with additional work in the direction
initiated by John Belton.
Warren
Warren Buckland
Liverpool John Moores University
Dean Walters Building
St James Road
Liverpool
L1 7BR
ENGLAND.
+44 (0)151 231 5111
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