plato's cave nine (being a film journal)

otto preminger - bunny lake is missing - 1965

a classic british film made by an american (originally austro-hungarian) director, with a mainly british cast (except the two americans keir dullea; later in 2001: a space odyssey, and carol lynley), and shot by the great british cinematographer denys n. coop.

had seen this film once but mainly remembered laurence olivier's wonderful nonsense with the junket. this time was especially struck by the extremes in the black and white photography, and the camera movements. it got me to thinking of how the french new wave (with a few exceptions) never struck me much beyond intellectually understanding the new found freedoms of the camera etc. i am probably more attracted to the 60s british films because the stories and characters strike me as more worth the viewer's time. i wonder if other people feel this way?

one interesting bit of info on the making of the film - the "frogmore end" house at the end of was the novelist daphne du maurier childhood home. gives some extra ambiance to the film!

films shot by denys n. coop

- this sporting life - 1963,  lindsay anderson
- billy liar - 1963, john schlesinger
- bunny lake is missing - 1965, otto preminger
- the birthday party - 1968, william friedkin
- 10 rillington place - 1971,  richard fleischer

the birds (manifold shrieks)

alfred hitchcock - the birds - 1963
(daphne du maurier story)

classic drone series
sound, sound design, music in film

oskar sala - electronic sound production and composition
remi gassmann - electronic sound production and composition
bernard herrmann - sound consultant

the trautonium, invented in berlin in 1930, is still considered today one of the most versatile and interesting instruments of the early electronic instruments. the fact that it could produce sounds far more complex than the piano meant that a wide variety of applications were found for it. from producing the manifold background shrieks and screeches in alfred hitchcock's film the birds (1963).... the trautonium has played a key role in the development of electronic and atmospheric music.

from mark prendergast's the ambient century