Muziek in documentaires van Joris Ivens

Abstract

Joris Ivens (1898-1989) is a Dutch pioneer of rhetorical documentary films. Between 1930 and 1961, he filmed in countries where civil wars were raging or where struggles took place between the working classes and the government. This study examines the meaning, function and use of music in interaction with other film components, by analysing nine rhetorical documentaries of Ivens. How does music contribute to the expression and reinforcement of the ideological messages in Ivens’s oeuvre? The objective of this research is to increase the academic expertise on the analysis of music in documentary films. A fundamental goal of rhetorical documentary is to highlight a disputable social issue and, by extension, to effect change in society. By means of a rhetorical discourse, the filmmaker tries to convince, move or manipulate the spectator’s point of view. In early rhetorical documentaries, the voice-over commentary is a fundamental narrative tool for providing information. Music is an important instrument for the filmmaker to express moods and evoke emotions, always in interaction with images and commentary. In Ivens’s films, music may have evoked feelings of national pride, collective solidarity, and cohesion among the audience at the time, or it may add a melancholic touch to the images. Due to the diverse circumstances in which Ivens worked, the music in his oeuvre is very diverse. Sometimes a soundtrack contains original music that is composed specifically for the documentary (the most famous composer with whom Ivens worked is Hanns Eisler). Noticed is that original fragments often move as autonomous units, somewhat detached from the events and movements on screen, with the film scenes. In other films, fragments of previously recorded and local music, such as anthems, patriotic songs and ritual music are audible. This study demonstrates that existing music in particular, as opposed to original music, contributed to achieving the objective of the documentary, and was possibly a more useful narrative instrument for the filmmaker than original music. The fragments were sometimes familiar to the target audience and/or to the people portrayed in the film, potentially making the viewer feel more involved with the plight of the population represented in the film and identify with them. Furthermore, this research shows that, regarding the way of analysing music in early documentaries, it is essential for the analyst to determine the origin of all the fragments in the corpus, to identify them and to uncover their background and meaning as much as possible. Analysing only the aesthetic elements, such as audiovisual (a)synchronization, is not enough to uncover the contribution of music to the rhetorical or narrative quality of the film. Second, when studying the influence of music in early rhetorical documentaries, it is important to reason as much as possible from the perspective of the contemporary viewer, rather than that of the present-day viewer. This means that scholars must reflect on the experience of viewers at the time, and thoroughly study the historical, political, and cultural context of the film and the film production as well as the music.