MovieChat Forums > Hallelujah (1929) Discussion > Photography, directing, and sound are ex...

Photography, directing, and sound are excellent, actually

posted 18 years ago by mapsnmad
4 replies | jump to latest

<spoiler alert>
Chemi Che-Mponda wrote, "The photography is that of the time, right out of the Silent film Era. Even with its technical flaws, this is a powerful film whose message is valid today."

It seems to me the photography was pretty darn good for those days. There are some fascinating scenes, from a cinematographer's perspective, like the fight scene shot in the swamp. I've seen far worse; this was good directing, good photography, and, considering how new talkies were, *excellent* sound.

[–] bilsnod 18 years ago

Yes, I agree the photography is that of 1929 indeed Silent Film Era type. So people who are used to all the fancy high tech stuff of today would definitely have a problem enjoying the film.

Wasn't a lot of the footage shot to be a Silent Film? The sound was added later.

[–] splendor 17 years ago

The movie was always shot to be a talkie. It is just that at that time, shooting sound on location was difficult, if not impossible. So some scenes were shot silently and the sound added later because that was the only way to get decent sound quality.

[–] zboston3 16 years ago

Yeah, I've seen talkies from the early 30's that weren't as good in cinematography and sound quality as this one.

[–] bradford-1 10 years ago

Most early sound films I've seen have a leaden pace, but HALLELUJAH and APPLAUSE actually move.
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