Realism and Expressionism

From the heart wrenching Aftershock (2010, Xiaogang) which depicts one family’s attempt to survive a massive earthquake to the iconic noir Gaslight (1944, Cukor) which uses lights and shadows to show a character’s loss of reality from lies and deception, realism and expressionism are both useful ways to communicate the feelings and ideas in a plot. Below are a few scenes to compare both techniques using the films Playground (2021, Wandel) [realism] and Rumble Fish (1983, Coppola) [expressionism] approach towards communicating a character’s feeling of disconnect, the tending of wounds and fight scenes.

Disconnection

In Playground, the movie doesn’t really use any audio outside of the natural environment they are filming in. Consistently, just like in the scene below, the surrounding noises are amplified to signal moving from place to place or to help us understand how disconnected / overwhelmed Nora feels and how busy the school is compared to the small child by increasing the volume of the children and the teachers and the scurrying around to a very uncomfortable level, disconnecting us from the sounds Nora makes - like her backpack jostling as she walks and her breathing.

In this second example, Nora during swim, the opposite happens, the surrounding sounds dull and become almost static leaving only her gasping for air in an attempt to steady her breathing. Like all of the scenes, it is a continuous shot with the focus adjusting to what Nora is focusing on- in this scene, herself.

In Rumble Fish, after tending to his younger brother’s wounds, The Motorcycle Boy (TMB), removes himself almost disappearing into the shadows before he is shown in the kitchen. The voices of Rusty and Steve can be heard but with an almost echo and an added ringing. When discussing expressionistic tools directors use, The Last Detail writes “...they are often trying to express something of substantial emotional import to the characters or to the film's themes” This ringing could represent his partial deafness - this film does add quite a bit of extra sound effects to help emphasize the feelings of the characters - TMB is also color blind.

In the second example, the camera zooms in on TMB and then back to the busy enviroment in a jarring way. The sounds around him are amplified, some echoes and that ringing starts again…a bit later the voices and sounds around him soften. I found his soft and calm voice, as well as his character, isolated from the world and people around him.

Tending to Wounds

In Playground, we can see a school nurse tending the scraped knee Nora suffered after falling while playing a game where she was blindfolded in the previous scene. She is preoccupied with her brother still being trapped in a dumpster. Perhaps that is why she does not wince. 

Compare this to the scene in Rumble Fish, where the pouring of consumable alcohol creates a sizzling or bubbling when TMB pour it onto Rusty’s wound. This…I have only seen happen with hydrogen peroxide…which is not potable. “The goal is not to capture reality but to express how an experience feels.” (The Last Detail) This sound effect along with his wincing did definitely communicate his pain and the serverity of the wound.

Fight Scenes

“A number of filmmakers have adopted a camera style known as verite to communicate a realistic feeling. Verite is French for “truth,” and generally, its shaky camera aesthetic is designed to express reality.” (The Last Detail) In Playground, there are a few fight scenes that are depicted realistically with this camera style- also being used throughout this film. There are no added sound effects or exaggerated movements. We see and hear exactly what it would be like if one was shoved against a metal fence (first fight clip), or what witnessing a fight from a few meters away would (second fight clip), and how a plastic bag would sound like as someone struggles (third fight clip). The fights have believable reactions, very few camera angles and edits with no music. 

We hear the sound of the metal fence and the camera focus shifts from Nora and the fence to her brother, as he intervenes, then not fully to the bully, since he is too tall to even see, but back to Nora as he shoves her back into the fence.

We can hear a fight in the distance but do not see it until Nora removes the blindfold to see what is going on but we do not see the bullies throw her brother into the dumpster. When she replaces the blindfold we do not see the fight again until she falls and takes it off once more. Then we can see the bullies no longer carrying her brother but instead jerking the dumpster back and forth- we are left to assume they have thrown Abel into there. When she is brought into the nurse’s office for her scraped knee she is seen staring out of the window. We are then shown a motionless dumpster. It makes us wonder if her brother is alive or seriously injured with the lack of movement. 

The main sounds we hear here is the plastic bag rustling from the child struggling to break free, the other children playing around them unaware or unbothered by what is going on and Nora trying to stop Abel. When the child does break free from his bullies' grasps, we can hear the sand under his shoes being kicked up and disturbed as he runs away.

In the first fight in Rumble Fish, there are multiple camera angles and edits, intense music with drums and horns in addition to over-the-top reactions and sound effects to capture the scene, like the water pipe breaking and the kicks and punches. In the second clip, there is the crazy and improbable motorcycle flip that happened after it is aimed and let run free by TMB.

In the second fight in Rumble Fish, nearing the end of a wild night out and after being abandoned by his older brother, Rusty and Steve get beat up by a few thugs only to be rescued in the knick of time by TMB. The multiple camera angles and editing, various drums and exaggerated movements are also seen. 

Additional Thoughts

Both films explore the relationship between two siblings. In Playground, we frequently hear the names of Nora and Abel with the kids and teachers in the film referring to them with their names. However, in Rumble Fish, this isn’t the case as we never learn The Motorcycle Boy’s real name while Rusty’s is regularly mentioned. This adds to TMB’s larger than life reputation. The sound editing too is another interesting comparison. Every sound heard in Playground is from the characters and environment compared to Rumble Fish where every sound feels purposeful, almost isolated and manufactured not naturally interacting with the environment. This and the choice to film in black and white helped to create the world TMB experiences and lives in as he is colorblind and partially deaf. Perhaps he can’t hear the smaller sounds within the scenes and that is why the environment and voices sound isolated. In Playground, the camera is set at Nora's height and we only experience the world from her interactions.