Whaddaya hear? Whaddaya say? A sonorização do cinema e o seu impacto na construção genológica em Hollywood entre 1927 e 1939

Abstract

Contemporary film studies regard the synchronization of sound on film as more than a strictly technical innovation. From the moment the audience first heard Al Jolson’s spoken words in The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland, 1927), it emancipated itself from a hierarchically inferior status of complement of the image by directly contributing towards the foundation of new genres in Hollywood mainstream productions. The following dissertation aims to study the advent of sound as a main catalyzer in the expansion of film genres in American classical cinema. In this sense, it features a historical contextualization of the transition process from silent to sound film, followed by an analysis of productions from the musical, horror, screwball and gangster genres, focused on the way the sound track reflects their respective matrixes. This investigation was developed in collaboration with the Portuguese Film Museum and ANIM, and its ultimate goal is the proposal of a film cycle comprised of the most relevant productions within this context.

Date of Award	5 Mar 2015
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Isabel Capeloa Gil (Supervisor)