The Impact of the Mamoulian’s Moving Camera in His Backstage Music Talkie, “Applause”
A Historical & Visual Analysis Relative to World Cinema
Mamoulian’s musical talkie Applause, released by Paramount Pictures on October 7, 1929, tells the story of burlesque star Kitty Darling. The film stars Helen Morgan, Henry Hadsworth, Joan Peers, Jack Cameron and Fuller Mellish. Applause became extremely well known for Mamoulian’s new technique of camera movement in coordination with talking pictures.
The film opens with a marching band playing “A Hot Time in the Old Town” by Theodore Mentz. The story continues where burlesque star Kitty Darling sends her daughter April to a convent with hope to remove her from the scandalous life she partakes in. This sleazy lifestyle leads Kitty to becoming an alcoholic and engaging in an unhealthy relationship with a man named Hitch, who cheats on and uses her for money. Hitch organizes April's return home upon realizing that Kitty’s money is being spent on convent tuition. April comes home and is displeased with her mother for the life she has led and the man she is associated with. In an effort to please her daughter, Kitty marries Hitch who attempts to push April into participating in show business. She falls in love with a sailor named Tony in the city and they plan to get married and move to Wisconsin. However, when April returns home to tell her mother the news, she catches Hitch speaking to her in a degrading manner. As a result, April calls off their wedding and instead joins a chorus line in a burlesque show. At this time, her mother overdoses on sleeping pills and April volunteers to take Kitty’s place in her show. April is unaware that Kitty passed away during the show and exits the stage to meet up with Tony upon his arrival. The film closes with April telling Tony how she is going to take care of both him and her mother, as they stand in front of a close-up poster of Kitty on the wall.
The Washington Post acknowledges that the praisable technique of Mamoulian’s film is not simply the use of a camera motion, as this had been implemented in multiple films by the Germans and other American directors. Rather, it is the fact that the film was shot with a record-breaking 85 percent of scenes in motion. Mamoulian claims that with silent film, titles cause limitations as action needs to stop in order to provide titles. The presence of sound dialogue allows action to be ongoing. Additionally, he says that the ongoing action gets rid of the need to cut between a long shot and close up. The camera can instead move up and down the stage to follow a character or action. Mamoulian sees this as the key to creating smoother continuity editing and a deeper relationship between the audience and the film (Post, 1929). The source provides information that suggests the importance of originality and innovation to filmmaking. It highlights the brilliance in taking an existing piece of technology and adapting it to the evolution of film. Sound on its own was already a cinematic game changer to be introduced to the art. The combination of the two elements created an experience like none before it for audiences, and critics across the industry recognized Mamoulian as a trailblazer for his pursuit of the ultimate film experience.
In an interview with The New York Times, Mamoulian speaks again on the benefits of continuity that accompany his use of camera motion. He explains how when introducing his first idea regarding continuous motion, his colleagues did not approve. However, he emphasized the strength of uninterrupted scenes that could be created through his technique. Mamoulian advocates for continuous camera movement where there would normally be cuts between shots, such as a close up on one side of the room to a long shot on the other (Times, 1929). The article has an outstanding ethos in reporting on the production of the film due to the credibility of the director’s words. Furthermore, his experience demonstrates how unfamiliar the industry was with taking on cinematography and sound in this way: as well as how close minded it was to experimenting with new techniques. With the film guidelines, restrictions and expectations of the time, taking on a never-before-seen technique was a risk for the reputation of the director and the film studio. Mamoulian’s persistence and success proceeding the disapproval of his colleagues is a key detail in the source that supports his role in the evolution of film.
Paramount Around The World featured multiple pages in discussion of Applause, beginning with emphasis of three premieres for the film: one for critics, one for society and one to honor Rouben Mamoulian and his wife (Pictures, 1928). In a column dedicated to “New York’s Hard Boiled Critic” reviews, The New York “Sun” calls the film “superb” in its review for its “treatment -- both visible and audible” and claims that “On these latter counts alone...it is easily the most important of the talking films” (Pictures, 1928). Brooklyn Daily Eagle calls Applause a “distinctly superior product of the talkies...The masterful direction of Rouben Mamoulian is all the more amazing since this represents his first effort in cinema.” New York “Telegram” commended its “excellent direction and acting” and “Variety” placed “the tricks in this talker, of direction and photography” in its list of elements contributing to its positive review (Pictures, 1928). The film was positively received by critics and had such tremendous expectations that the theater deemed it deserving of three premieres. Critics commonly mentioned the atmospheric elements and characters of the film but always wrapped up their review with attribution to Mamoulian’s revolutionary cinematic strategies. In this source, it is unanimously reviewed as a film one will not forget and received further reviews from other credible critics such as New York “American,” New York “Evening Post,” New York “Evening World” and New York “World.” The accumulation of accolades from such valued sources allowed Applause to positively reflect Paramount Pictures and further build the film’s reputation in filmmaking history.
In a film magazine active from 1927-1933 called Close Up, Gilbert Seldes critiques Applause and claims that the mechanics of the film are misunderstood. He argues that while both the camera and the microphone are recording instruments, the record of the camera is an illusion and the record of the microphone is a duplication of the real sound. His next point is that while the camera is limitlessly mobile, the microphone is essentially stationary. Therefore Seldes claims that the two instruments clash as they have different properties that are incompatible (1930). However, Kenneth Macpherson analyzes Selde’s findings and refutes his statements. He counters Seldes by explaining how the illusion created in a film is done through “the organization of the ‘facts’ -- images or sounds -- as much as the mechanism” (1930). To further counter Seldes, he argues that the camera does not always have to be mobile and that it is simply one way a camera can be utilized. Just as well, he claims that the microphone can become mobile and that many of the sounds in the film are not the simultaneous sounds recorded. Mr. Macpherson does not see synchronization as a necessity in recording sound and images together. He thinks that speed has to do with the audience and that there is a difference between mobility and fluidity, where fluidity is achieved with a stationary camera through montage (1930).
Mr. Macpherson then shares his findings on the film. While he refutes Selde’s harsh critiques and highlights their invalidity, he has negative findings of his own. Nonetheless, he cannot help but commend Mamoulian again for his Hollywood breakthrough. His critique of the film is that there “is no sustained rhythmic structure, and there is no sense of speech as abstract sound” (1930) . He agrees with Seldes in that the relationship between camera and sound is not the ultimate law in film, simply because these are not the only instruments of film. Mr. Macpherson then presents a positive viewpoint toward Mamoulian’s work in that it excelled Hollywood work and will help “extend the American film.” This was said to be accomplished through “virtue of competence” which was enhanced by his “caress of angles and movements of figures” (1930). While it is arguable that there are certain fundamentalist ideas that may be questionable in Mamoulian’s work, the source displays that it is difficult to ignore his accomplishment for the evolution of film. The source presents accurate counterpoints; this alternate viewpoint and analysis of the opinions of two critics poses a well rounded review of both Mamoulian’s faults and accolades in Applause. The source serves a crucial point to the research as it questions various fundamental theories or standards regarding filmmaking and what concepts truly make a film successful or revolutionary.
Of the many instances of Mamoulian’s technique throughout the film, it can be seen nine minutes into the production. The scene begins with a close up of April’s dancing shoes. The camera backtracks and pans upward into a full shot. A cut is inserted to transition into a medium close up on Kitty at the piano. The camera then, in one continuous line, pans left across the room to the door where Joe enters in a medium shot. The audience, as a result, receives a detailed and continuous view of the room that fosters a more inclusive relationship. They are given the opportunity to view the encounter just as the characters do. Although Vertov rations that the Kino-eye takes the reality of the human eye into its control, the camera movements of Applause make the actions of the film seem more natural to the viewer. The camera moves similar to the way a human eye might focus on an object, or scan the room as their head turns to the left. This in conjunction with the free flowing sound dialogue creates a seemingly realistic and cohesive viewing experience.
About an hour and five minutes into the film is a scene that takes place on the dance floor with various couples dancing. The camera begins at the back of the dance floor, pans to the left and in the same take moves forward upstage, interweaving with the couples on the dance floor. Rather than cutting to a different location and shot angle, the shot is continuous and captures the full movement of the room. This technique calls for an attentive audience that will feel more connected with the scene. Although technically an illusion, the camera is looking to present the reality that the viewer is walking through the dancefloor of moving people. This allows the sound and mood of the scene to feel all encompassing for the viewer, as if they are in the very room. With the presence of many cuts, an audience may become more internally aware of editing and that they are looking through a camera. However, with the absence of too much montage, the internal awareness of the camera shooting the scene diminishes, and the film becomes more of a psychological experience than a physical viewing.
Given the statements and analyses of various critiques, reviews, visual evidence and interviews with the director himself, it is evident that in his talkie Applause, Rouben Mamoulian’s groundbreaking strategy for utilization of the moving camera was a discovery that changed Hollywood cinema and the evolution of film as whole. Research to expand on the film’s evaluation could explore the way in which the portrayal of women and sexuality, implemented through mise en scene and sound in the film, was received by both the critical and societal audiences during the time of release. Investigation into the social expectations of cinema during years surrounding and including 1929 might provide more explanation for the film’s success, or why it may or may not have been a shock. Furthermore, research may explore the extent to which the demonstration of such scandalous society and gender roles impacted the evolution of Hollywood cinema for the narrative of future productions.
References
T. (n.d.). Constantly Moving Camera Used in Filming "Applause". Retrieved December 09, 2020, from https://search-proquest-com.washcoll.idm.oclc.org/docview/149916530/pageviewPDF/12E47F68838040B2PQ/1?accountid=14892.
N. (n.d.). Mamoulian's Camera. Retrieved December 09, 2020, from https://search-proquest-com.washcoll.idm.oclc.org/docview/104792117/pageviewPDF/677CBA28E35F4369PQ/1?accountid=14892.
K. M., Ed. (1930, January). Close Up. Close Up, 6, 106-110.
Pictures, P. (1928). "Applause" From New York's Hard Boiled Critics. In Paramount Around the World (Hollywood Studio System, p. 255). Los Angeles, California: Paramount Pictures.
Pictures, P. (1928). Three Premieres Usher in "Applause". In Paramount Around the World (Hollywood Studio System, pp. 254). Los Angeles, California: Paramount Pictures.