I did some research to narrow down the rather broad para-text topic I posted a few days ago, but I didn’t have much luck finding sources.  I haven’t looked too far, so I’m not dismissing it, but I have been pondering a couple other possibilities:

1.         Music as a narrative device in film.  Most horror movies and thrillers (often a fuzzy distinction) aren’t very scary without the score, which serves to build tension and emphasize moments of surprise.  Score music like this is obviously of direct relevance to the unfolding story.  Then there are movies that seem to define themselves by their use of popular music.  The Graduate is an important example of pop music as a fundamental aspect of film, standing in contrast to the way most every contemporary new release uses at least a few pop songs, most of which aren’t terribly important to the plot.  Movies like The Graduate, Rushmore, Garden State, Juno, and others have soundtracks that take on lives of their own and set the tone for the films, but may or may not operate as a significant force in the narrative.  Obviously, soundtrack music for movies about music takes on an additional importance—I’m thinking about High Fidelity and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (yes, I’m ashamed), though there are many others.  Another consideration is soundtrack music helps characterize time within a film, like the way Forest Gump moves through rock and roll history.

            So, I might narrow this down to one of the soundtrack pop music use categories above, or look at score music within a genre over a few films.  My main concern with this approach is that I’m not a particularly musical person.  I listen to music, but I definitely can’t dissect music and comment on notes or patterns within a piece the way I am comfortable picking apart a series of shots.  Maybe good research would allow me to work around this, but I’m a bit apprehensive.

2.         The issue of adaptation from literature to film.  This is a huge topic, but I’d like to look at it with respect to the french new wave.  This question of adaptation was something Cahier critics and company thought a lot about, considering the analogy between filmmaking and writing, beginning with Astruc’s camera-pen manifesto.  Directors of the new wave regected the literary adaptations of the “tradition of quality” cinema because they just took the story and put it into conventional film form, rather than creatively adapting the form of the novel.  This often took the tedious form of vioceovers, frequently excerpts from a novel, with images that simply illustrate what the narration says.  Turffaut tries his hand at adaptation with Shoot the Piano Player, where he experiments with tension between voiceover and image to play with the idea of cinematic “writing.”  I’m not sure exactly where I’m going with this, but it’s fascinating and seems relevant to the course.