{"id":1047,"date":"2012-04-10T10:58:39","date_gmt":"2012-04-10T08:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philippelanglois.net\/lcd\/?p=1047"},"modified":"2023-07-03T15:53:59","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T13:53:59","slug":"the-day-the-earth-stood-still-de-robert-wise-1951","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philippelanglois.net\/lcd\/en\/the-day-the-earth-stood-still-de-robert-wise-1951\/","title":{"rendered":"THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL de Robert Wise (1951)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The text and video excerpt below document the book by Philippe Langlois, Les cloches d\u2019Atlantis, musique \u00e9lectroacoustique et cin\u00e9ma arch\u00e9ologie et histoire d\u2019un art sonore,<\/em> <\/a>\u00e9ditions mf, Paris, first quarter 2012.<\/p>\n

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One of the finest musical integrations, blending traditional symphonic instruments with those of the new instrument-making, is no doubt found in Robert Wise\u2019s cult film, The Day The Earth Stood Still, released in France under the title Le jour o\u00f9 la Terre s\u2019arr\u00eata. (1951). Indeed, no science-fiction film had ever deployed such instrumentation. The symphony orchestra that Bernard Herrmann conceived for this score offers sonorities and atmospheres that are utterly unheard-of in a film score, even in a score of any kind. Four pianos, four harps, some thirty brass instruments, a traditional string ensemble, a vibraphone and a pipe organ make up the basic instrumental line-up, one enhanced by instruments colouring the orchestra with entirely new timbres that suited the science-fiction character of the film:\u00a0 an electric violin and bass, instruments only just invented, and above all two theremins, a tenor and an alto, used as solo instruments.
The film\u2019s first sequence, the flight over Washington, constitutes a genuine homage to Orson Welles\u2019s The War of the Worlds, of which Robert Wise was the editor, notably through the radio announcement, in every language, of the saucer\u2019s arrival, accompanied by an incomparable sound effect. This scene, followed by the landing of the flying saucer, reveals from the outset the full importance of sound in the film. A very rich sound texture, grainy and breathy at once, unfolds there, occupying the entire sound space on its own. Listening to it, this texture might be made up of a sort of tremolo of breathy sounds that are then transformed, and afterwards infested by a rough element that completes the noise of the craft.<\/p>\n