Historical and Theoretical Issues in the Coming of Recorded Sound to the Cinema

Alan Williams

Abstract

The author polemicizes with the widely-accepted thesis that the transition to sound cinema was supposedly related to a natural development of the medium toward more convincing realism the viewers were to crave for. Williams refers to the history of the development of sound technology in the cinema, and argues that the driving force of the process were advancements in the mechanization of a film spectacle, which helped cut production costs and standardize the form of the spectacle lest it should not hinge on the proficiency or imagination of a cameraman. The first important sound film was The Jazz Singer. Williams analyses the reasons of the popularity of this film, and points out that the very introduction of sound was not of key importance, what mattered most was a related shift in a style of acting and plot expansion.

• The text is a translation of the chapter Historical and Theoretical Issues in the Coming of Recorded Sound to the Cinema from the volume Sound Theory, Sound Practice, ed. Rick Altman, Routledge, New York – London 1992. © 1992 by Routledge and American Film Institute.

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