The Earth Sings
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| The sequence from Karol Plicka's aestheticized semi-documentary The Earth Sings (Zem spieva, 1933) introduces the viewer to spring and to its own narrative techniques. The straightforward content of the mountains still under the winter blanket and of the cemetery provide context for the equally straightforward early spring of the budding trees and a meadow with lingering patches of snow. |
| The images of water transit from straightforward content to a reference to the Europeans' ancient spring rituals and the commonly recognized symbolism of cleansing and renewal. Both referential and symbolic is also the little boy's budding twig and what the script has him do with it – a readable co-symbol of spring here and a traditional magical act employable as a command to the earth to open up a spring or to release new life to nature. |
| Part of the film's non-referential content is the casting of children in its opening spring sequence, the girl's and the boy's acts (other than the twig hitting the earth), the gradation of the shots of the stream, the decision to stop with white water instead of taking the shots all the way to a river, and other filmmakers' choices. The clip ends with what is a major part of The Earth Sings, folk dances, in this instance a variation on a circle dance, which is believed to be among the oldest forms of human dancing. |
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