Nosferatu- Also a vampire (coincenence?)
I remember when I first saw "Hush" when it first aired those many years ago. At the time I thought it was the best episode, not only for the creepy "gentlemen" (which I thought were very original) but for the fact that there was no dialogue through most of the episode. It was such a creative idea and I love creative ideas.
Everything that is filmed now seems to have to be loud and chaotic. This episode of Buffy made you have to pay attention to visuals. What I realized while watching it again was that the show reverted back to a silent film era. This might not be a "eureka!" notion but it is not something most filmmaker's are willing to play with in this 20th/21st century. This episode, minus the sound effects, played like an early century silent movie. All there was were visuals. The slide show that Giles made even acted as the text cards that would appear in the movies to add the minor dialogue and story. (This was a strange coincidence because only last week we had to watch Nosferatu in my French class).
I also like to think of this silent film as "radio opposite" because the radio gives you all sounds but no picture. This episode gave you all picture and no sound. It made you have to use your imagination and sort of "rewrite" the episode in your mind. The acting made you think of the dialogue they were not saying. It created a little mystery which I always find intriguing.
4 comments:
I think it's so great that you can connect "Hush" to the horror film you just watched for another class! After reading your post, I agree with your ideas about "Hush" as a (perhaps much needed) homage to silent film. Often what we think of in our imaginations establishes so much more fear than what is actually happening. I think all of the characters were very scared before they even realized The Gentlemen were responsible. This was one of the first episodes of Buffy that made me go, "Oh gosh -- how ARE they going to solve this?" The Gentlemen provided such a unique (and scary) predicament, even for powerful Buffy.
Very smart post, Adam!
I love this post. I definitely think silence was a key ingredient in making this episode great. If the characters could have spoken the episode would have been merely average. Silence allows one's imagination to take over and that was what made the episode so incredible.
The "Nosferatu" reference was epic. As soon as I saw it, it reminded me of when the professor said that because the movie was silent, the acting was much more exaggerated, which is something seen in "Hush" as well.
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