Deburau effect; linguistic Deburau effect
The Deburau effect (CHION 2009, 474: "Debureau [sic] effect") happens when a character, having remained so far silent or mute in a film, makes his or her voice heard, and in so doing creates an effect of surprise due to the unusual quality or tone of the voice.
- The Deburau effect owes its name to the French actor Jean-Gaspard Deburau (1796-1846), a celebrated mime mostly known for his incarnation of the character of Pierrot.
- The Deburau effect is frequently used for comic effects when the voice clearly does not correspond to the body that is supposed to produce it. In horror films as well, the Deburau effect is efficiently used to characterize cases of possession.
- While most the the Deburau effects are created by the unexpected (whether comic, or horrific) sound of the voice, it can also be caused by a normal voice, yet talking in an unusual language, or for being heavily accented. This can be described as a linguistic Deburau effect.
A classic example of a Deburau effect is provided in Stanley Donen's Singin'in the rain (1952, USA). The actors Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont, both stars of the silent era, come to greet the audience at the end of a movie premiere. While it seems clear that Lina wishes she could greet and talk too, only Don Lockwood speaks, seemingly anxious not to let her speak. Once offstage, Lina eventually speaks, revealing her heavily accented and shrieking voice—a major impediment for trying to launch her new career as a talking actress.
At the end of the same film, another Deburau effect is created, again with Lina Lamont, who comes to greet the audience at the end of her new movie musical, The Singing Cavalier—for which she was dubbed by a young and talented female singer, Kathy Selden, a fact that the audience is unaware of. This time, we, the nondiegetic audience, as well as the diegetic audience, are aware of Lina's shrieking speaking voice (this revelation took place for the diegetic audience a few minutes earlier). But the audience is still convinced that she has a lovely singing voice, so they beg her to sing again. A last-minute trick is arranged, so Kathy Selden can recover the fame that she is entitled to get; the peak of the comic effect is here created by the absurd mismatch between Lina's body and her voice—momentarily a male one.
[E. G.]
A linguistic Deburau effect is found in Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936, USA), in a sequence in which the voice of the Tramp is heard for the very first time; but the viewer's surprise here does not come from the sound of his voice; it is created by the fact that he sings in an nonsensical idiom, a macaronic language seemingly made up from elements of French and Italian. Chaplin would go back to such linguistic Deburau effect later in his very first "talking picture," The Great Dictator (1940, USA) with the famous macaronic speech of Hynkler. To some extent, the revelation created by the Wizard's real voice in The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) also relates to this effect.
[C.V.; J.W.]
Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist (2011, France/USA), also uses a linguistic Deburau effect by making the voice of its main character, the silent actor George Valentin, being heard for the very first time—since the whole movie is shot in the style of a silent film. Valentin's voice is nothing of the unusual, except for the heavily French-accented way he pronounces "with pleasure." Here the Deburau effect is also enhanced by the sudden presence of heavy breathing from him and his dancing partner—such sounds were never heard throughout the whole film.
[C.V.; J.W.]
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