Renewal of the Elements through the Viewer’s Perception - Text 1
The density of filmic elements will never suffice to capture the viewer’s attention: variations are necessary to avoid this attention being scattered. It is for this reason that the rhythmic discourse arises out of more than the beat alone. As a result, notions of the narrative’s tempo and speed – in narratology, Gérard Genette even speaks of rhythm effects[1] – are required. Monotony and repetition can prompt viewers to turn their attention from an element they have already committed to their consciousness and which offers them nothing new.
These new elements need not necessarily be large in number: at a minimum, they should bring to the film something to enhance its narrative by their immersive qualities or descriptiveness. In short, they should sketch out a rhythm with different intervals in order to blend fluidity with singularity. Antonio Sánchez’s drum solos in the Alejandro Gonzáles Iñarritu film Birdman (2014) are one manifestation of this. With its unpredictable rhythm and range of timbres (several kinds of cymbals and attacks, a snare drum, a bass drum), the drumming, brought into the film from the very start, brings its own continuity, constantly different from that of the images. The film’s original music, from an independent and minimal narration (the opening credits) to a simple conduit for accompaniment (hurried walking in the corridors) by way of the materialisation of a brimming over of thoughts (interviews with several journalists at the same time, drumming that saturates the sound space), succeeds in irrigating a large part of the film by matching both the uninterrupted movement of the large-scale sequence shot and the protagonist’s state of mind. This connection is thus dynamic and non-linear.
