Sounds from the radio*

Classification in categories

• Formation of a group body (corps)
• Battle and nature
• Homeland, woman, home

 

In this scene, the interplay of the editing with the shot composition and music stages the transition from tension in a hostile environment to joy about a reminiscential reference to home and finally an easy camaraderie staged as a series of spatial figurations.

First, editing and shot composition create an image of fearful tension  (> EMU 1): two alternating, shadowy shots show soldiers in the jungle, their gazes always fixed off screen beyond the camera. This creates a disassociated image space that denies orientation on the levels of shot composition and editing. The rhythm of the repeated appearance of further soldiers gives the tension a temporal dimension, the zenith of which is the start of the sounds of a radio searching for a station; the introduction of a change in the staging of the scene.

A cut opens to a situation that contrasts with the danger and tension, concurrent with a change in the staging of the filmic space: In a long shot that is clearly, on the level of shot composition, framed by walls, the soldiers gather around a radio. In this space, which the editing and shot composition clearly mark as a classical stage(d) interior, the diegetic music from the radio becomes a temporal agent of collectivization, orchestrated on the level of shot composition and taking the form of a shared, reminiscential pleasure  (>EMU 2). Analogous to the course of the musical composition, step by step there is a change in the soldiers' facial expressions and gestures, ending in an image of delight.

A new change in the spatial staging transitions to the staged connection of what has up to this point been two contrasting staged spatio-temporal figurations: A collective meal is staged in two disparate outdoor spaces that the diegetic music connects – by creating a common space of sound – with one another on the one hand, and on the other hand with the previously shown interior space  (>EMU 3). At the center is a gesture of relaxation, stressed by its length, which leads into the image of a relaxed togetherness of individuals.

The temporal order of these three spatial figurations makes a changed relationship to the image space manifest: The association of the environment with danger, always made within the film until this point, is converted through the sequential arrangement of tension, joy and nonchalance, linked to the experience of collectivization that takes place as common joyful memories (of home).  This experience is conveyed through three affective steps: From the tension of fearful individuals (>EMU 1) to joyful collectivization (>EMU 2) and finally a relaxed grouping of individuals  (>EMU 3).

Expressive movement units

01 02 03 

Materials about the scene

Position of the scene in the film