Among the content explored this week I particularly found Louis Feuillade's Les Vampires series interesting. The accompaniment caters towards the dynamic scenes and also foreshadows what is to come. Another intriguing component is the use of space in the film.
Immediately once the man in the top hat appears you know something is going to happen because of the darker and increasingly eerie music that springs into life amidst the portrayal of banter that is in the room. The story of crime here is much more complicated than the simpler stories that have taken place vaudeville-style in the previous years.
The use of space is explored more with foreground and background. I have noticed in most of the films, usually there is only one area where action takes place. Now, specifically in "The Ring That Kills" there is action that takes place in both the foreground and background. I believe this is a more realistic portrayal of an environment, and I am mostly saying this because of my familiarity with contemporary film is far more than that of silent film.
It makes me think about how important space is within films. Space helps portray narrative in a senes that it moves the story along. The negative and positive space is used to create the mood, to create spectacle, and to express the dynamics between characters.
Film is a play with time and space and I think you are very astute to see how this series develops a dynamic use of space in telling its story. I think the sense of dynamism in the narrative is carried more by elements like this then by the complexity of the plot. I think that black and white film does negative and positive space so much better than color film.
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