Aesthetics of Early Sound Film

Daniel Wiegand is Assistant Professor of Film Studies at University of Zurich. He is the author of Gebannte Bewegung: Tableaux vivants und früher Film in der Kultur der Moderne as well as co-editor of Film Bild Kunst: Visuelle Ästhetik im vorklassischen Stummfilm (edited with Jörg Schweinitz, 2016). Recent articles include “‘Islands of Sound in the Silent Flow of Film:’ German Part-Talkies Around 1930 as a Hybrid Medium,” in Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television (2022).

• 1. The Aesthetics of Early Sound Film: An Introduction - Daniel Wiegand, I. From Silence to Sound, 2. Dialogue Scenes in the Period of Multiple-Camera Shooting: The Example of Arrowsmith - Lea Jacobs, 3. Expressive Visual Effects from Silent to Sound Film - Katharina Loew, 4. From the Lexigraphic to the Melomanic: Accommodations to Sound in American Studio Animation - Donald Crafton, II. From Theory to Practice, 5. To Select, To Organize, To Sharpen: Rouben Mamoulian, Sound Film Theory, and Applause - Michael Slowik, 6. Futurists and 'Homogenizers' in Early Soviet Sound Film - Oksana Bulgakowa, III. National Contexts, 7. Early Japanese Sound Film Aesthetics at Shochiku and Nikkatsu - Johan Nordström, 8. Early Sound Films in France: Contexts and Experiments - Martin Barnier, 9. Reporters, Radio Waves, and the Dispersed Audience: Staging the Radio in Early German Sound Cinema - Jörg Schweinitz, IV: Speech and Language, 10. Talking Photographs: The Speaking Subject in Anglophone Newsreel and Documentary (1927-1936) - Irina Leimbacher, 11. Die Nacht gehört uns / La nuit est à nous and Multilingual Reception in Switzerland - Jessica Berry, 12.The Mimetic Attempt of Multiple Versions: Language, Voice, and Transcultural Talkies (1929-1932) - Maria Adorno, V. Music and Noise, 13. How Did the Music Get to the Fish Market? On the Use of Nondiegetic Music in Early German Sound Films - Daniel Wiegand, 14. The Sounds of War: Reflections on American WWI Films of 1930 - Martin Holtz, 15. Urban Noise in the Early Italian Sound Film Gli uomini, che mascalzoni … - Nadine Soraya Vafi, General Bibiography, List of illustrations and captions, Author Bios, Index.

“In covering cinema in numerous countries, Aesthetics of Early Sound Film takes a step toward in establishing early sound-film style as a distinct area of academic study, putting the study of the sound movies of the late 1920s/early 1930s on par with the study of the early cinema of 1895-1906.” -- Prof. Charles O’Brien, Professor of Film Studies at Carleton University. "The book’s well-grounded claim that the era of the early sound film constitutes a distinct period in film history seems destined to change not only our view of the years in question but also of how we conceive of the history of the cinema in general." -- Michael Wedel, Professor of Media History, Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF