What to expect
The revue preserves the excitement and awkwardness of a medium advertising its newest capability. Rather than a unified story, it offers a studio portrait assembled from voices, personas, technology, and promotion.
How to ease in
Approach it as a programme, not a narrative. Individual numbers vary sharply; the interest lies partly in watching performers and technicians discover what a filmed revue can be.
Heads-up
MGM stars appear in a succession of songs, comedy sketches, dances, and novelty acts designed to display the studio’s arrival in sound.
Everyone has been invited to demonstrate that the screen can speak, but no one yet agrees on what it should say. I enjoy the uncertainty hiding inside the confidence of the advertisement.
Open the note ↓
Everyone has been invited to demonstrate that the screen can speak, but no one yet agrees on what it should say. I enjoy the uncertainty hiding inside the confidence of the advertisement.
— Momo
Credits & versions
Version map
Where to go next
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