Screaming through the century: The female voice as cathartic/transformative force, from Berg's Lulu to Tykwer's Run Lola Run
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2218/forum.0.563Abstract
Alban Berg's opera Lulu, dating from the early part of the twentieth century, and Tom Tykwer's film from the end of the century, Lola rennt, (known to English-speaking audiences as Run Lola Run), have one striking feature in common: both culminate in an ear-splitting scream. At first glance, these two works appear poles apart in time, genre and cultural context, although both are Teutonic in origin. Berg's "high-art" opera, based on the serial techniques of the Schoenberg school of composition, derives from Frank Wedekind's fin-de-siècle Lulu plays, Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box. By contrast, Tykwer's film is an end-of-millennium "art-house" film that, on its release, quickly became a cult movie in Germany and beyond; fast-paced, visually and technically innovative, and backed by a driving techno soundtrack, its resonances with many aspects of video games and hypermedia position it as a text that heralds the twenty-first century. This article will explore how the screams (marking points of transformation at the denouement of each of these early and late twentieth-century works) are very different.Downloads
Published
01-Aug-2006
How to Cite
Macmillan, Maree. 2006. “Screaming through the Century: The Female Voice As Cathartic Transformative Force, from Berg’s Lulu to Tykwer’s Run Lola Run”. FORUM: University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & The Arts, August. https://doi.org/10.2218/forum.0.563.
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