Directed by Jacqueline Waeber, this project will be using the resources provided by a database currently in progress, and dedicated to French printed materials from the late 1920s and 1930s that discuss various issues associated with the transition between silent film and synchronized sound film.
The project will encourage different threads of investigation beyond the sole Francophone domain, as the database will offer an ideal tool for encouraging students to compare the respective developments and progress of sound/image synchronization in Europe, America and Asia. Students who are interested in getting involved with this research project should send us a note here. Language skills are a plus, but not a compulsory requirement, as the main French texts will be available in English.
It also intends to highlight how these technical innovations, as well as the commercial competitions between different systems and patents, have conditioned the audiences’ and artists’ aesthetic expectations, but also cinematographic trends and genres, such as the early movie musical, or the careers of “singers-actors” during the 1920s—and beyond.