A father who is obsessed with music won't let his daughter marry anyone who isn't a musician, so the girl's fiancé poses as a violin playerA father who is obsessed with music won't let his daughter marry anyone who isn't a musician, so the girl's fiancé poses as a violin playerA father who is obsessed with music won't let his daughter marry anyone who isn't a musician, so the girl's fiancé poses as a violin player
Photos
- Director
- Alice Guy(unconfirmed)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaSolax production #198.
- GoofsWhen Evelyn's Dad kicks Billy out of the house, Billy's not wearing a hat but he has one on when he arrives at his apartment.
- Quotes
Title Card: HE HEARS HARMONIOUS LIP-MUSIC AND RETURNS
- ConnectionsEdited into Women Who Made the Movies (1992)
Featured review
Synchronized Sound in a Silent Film
One of Alice Guy-Blaché's Solax productions, "Canned Harmony" recalls Guy's earlier films at Gaumont, specifically her Phonoscène synchronized-sound experiments. Those films tend to be theatrical and of not much interest beyond the ancient sound-recording technology and subsequent lip-syncing of it with film (the very same practice mimicked in "Canned Harmony"), but there is an interesting silent film, "Alice Guy Films a Phonoscène" (1905), that shows the director at work on one of those productions. Additionally, Alison McMahan (in her book "Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema") speculates that Guy may've made a similar film to "Canned Harmony" at Gaumont in the otherwise uncredited "Les Débuts d'un grand ténor" (1907, a.k.a. "Eine Tenorstimme"). Regardless, as opposed to that reflexive documentary footage in the 1905 film, "Canned Harmony" is something of a parody. A father won't allow his daughter to marry a non-musician, and her boyfriend is so musically inept that his only attempted use of a piano is as a chair to sit down on. But, the Romeo (or rather his flatmate) has the bright idea of pretending to play the violin to the "canned harmony" of a concealed phonograph record. He also dresses up as a stereotypical composer, "Paderewski curls" and all.
As Barbara McBane argues convincingly in an excellent essay ("Imagining sound in Solax films of Alice Guy Blaché: Canned Harmony (1912) and Burstop Holmes' Murder Case (1913)," Film History), it's also significant that the female character, Evelyn, is the one who operates the phonograph during her beau's masquerade for her father, her "responsible for assuring the ultimate synchronization of the elements - live piano playing with mimed violin playing - by timing her phonograph playback perfectly." Note, too, that these operations are the only shots to receive close-ups in the picture. And, as McBane points out the entire "harmonious" narrative is one that asserts Evelyn's choice of mate over patriarchal authority.
He the actor-playing-an-actor and her the on-screen surrogate for the film's maker, Guy, who likewise handled Gaumont's Chronophone sync-sound system as she directed performers. Adding to the abstraction, the illusory construction within the scenario is all to achieve the grand stage of a wedding scene, which is also where the deception is finally revealed--much like the film in its reference to itself and prior sound films had been undercutting the illusion of cinema in general. Actors as an actor, musician and filmmaker, for a theatrical ceremony, sound recording alluding to the recorded and ironically then-silent nature of film as well as phonograph music--quite a reflexive piece of filmmaking for a 1912 one-reeler. Adding further to the real-world allusions of the film, Guy, or Guy-Blaché, also met her husband, Herbert Blaché, through her work on Gaumont Phonoscènes before the two emigrated to America and founded Solax.
"Canned Harmony" is otherwise rather well made, including the insert close-ups of the concealed phonograph and its operation, as well as a bit of comedic crosscutting, although the titles announcing subsequent actions are still in the dated tableau tradition. There's a triptych scene for a phone conversation, which besides is another case of audial technology in a silent film. Plus, the title cards are composed of several musical puns. What more is there to ask for than that.
(Note: The film being restored by the combination of two 16mm reduction prints and recreated title cards, I'm not sure who to blame for the grammatical error of "its" instead of "it's" in one intertitle instance.)
As Barbara McBane argues convincingly in an excellent essay ("Imagining sound in Solax films of Alice Guy Blaché: Canned Harmony (1912) and Burstop Holmes' Murder Case (1913)," Film History), it's also significant that the female character, Evelyn, is the one who operates the phonograph during her beau's masquerade for her father, her "responsible for assuring the ultimate synchronization of the elements - live piano playing with mimed violin playing - by timing her phonograph playback perfectly." Note, too, that these operations are the only shots to receive close-ups in the picture. And, as McBane points out the entire "harmonious" narrative is one that asserts Evelyn's choice of mate over patriarchal authority.
He the actor-playing-an-actor and her the on-screen surrogate for the film's maker, Guy, who likewise handled Gaumont's Chronophone sync-sound system as she directed performers. Adding to the abstraction, the illusory construction within the scenario is all to achieve the grand stage of a wedding scene, which is also where the deception is finally revealed--much like the film in its reference to itself and prior sound films had been undercutting the illusion of cinema in general. Actors as an actor, musician and filmmaker, for a theatrical ceremony, sound recording alluding to the recorded and ironically then-silent nature of film as well as phonograph music--quite a reflexive piece of filmmaking for a 1912 one-reeler. Adding further to the real-world allusions of the film, Guy, or Guy-Blaché, also met her husband, Herbert Blaché, through her work on Gaumont Phonoscènes before the two emigrated to America and founded Solax.
"Canned Harmony" is otherwise rather well made, including the insert close-ups of the concealed phonograph and its operation, as well as a bit of comedic crosscutting, although the titles announcing subsequent actions are still in the dated tableau tradition. There's a triptych scene for a phone conversation, which besides is another case of audial technology in a silent film. Plus, the title cards are composed of several musical puns. What more is there to ask for than that.
(Note: The film being restored by the combination of two 16mm reduction prints and recreated title cards, I'm not sure who to blame for the grammatical error of "its" instead of "it's" in one intertitle instance.)
helpful•10
- Cineanalyst
- Mar 9, 2021
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Harmonie en conserve
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime12 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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