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DIALOGUE AND SOUND 119
Authority, is so vivid a pictorial narrative that only a minimum of speech would be needed to fill the few gaps left. Yet Lorentz finds its necessary to superimpose upon this narrative endless lyrical tirades. They largely duplicate the imagery; and the spoken place-names, especially, evoke associations and poetic images which remove the visuals still further from the center of attention.
Second, all important communications are entrusted to the commentator from the outset so that his verbal statements jell into a coherent and intelligible whole: then it is inevitable that the synchronized pictures should be cast in a subsidiary role. Instead of being interrelated in an organic manner, they succeed each other jerkily, supplementing, somehow, the speaker's self-sufficient recital. Documentaries in this vein are very frequent indeed. Their prototype was, perhaps, the March of Time series, which included many films that were just spoken editorials, with the visuals thrown into the bargain.20 And what about the residual functions of the visuals themselves? But this matter will be taken up later on.*
Type IV: Sham counterpoint It has already been shown (under the heading Type II) that, as long as speech prevails, attempts at a contrapuntal handling of synchronous sound are doomed to failure. Of course, in case of asynchronism such attempts stand no greater chance of being successful. To illustrate, first, actual asynchronous sound (IVa), consider the above-cited Pudovkin example of the three ways in which we may follow a conversation. Of interest here is especially the last alternative— the so-called "reaction shots" which focus on the faces of listeners for the obvious purpose of making us aware of their reactions to the speaker. Well, under the given conditions these images will beckon us vainly. Drawn into the orbit of the words that fall on our ears, we cannot help losing sight of what hovers before our eyes. The sway of speech voids the listeners' faces, to the detriment of their contrapuntal effects.
A nice example of sham counterpoint involving comment ative sound (IVb) is Hamlet's great soliloquy in Laurence Olivier's adaptation of the play. This sequence has on an earlier occasion served to demonstrate that an equilibrium between words and images of approximately equal weight, if possible at all, is likely to result in their mutual neutralization rather than a reinforcement of either. Two points remain to be added. First, the soliloquy must be characterized as commentative speech because Olivier, by means of the echo-chamber device, conveys the impression that it is not so much Hamlet as his incorporeal soul which does the talking. The Hamlet we see is, himself, a listener, not a speaker; he listens, and reacts, to his own "inner" voice which rises from depths beyond the world presented.