In Singin’ in the Rain, there are scenes that draw the attention of the audience away to other spaces that do not buttress the diegesis. The use of other spaces in this musical function differently from Mary Ann Doane’s theory in that they do not support the credibility of the first. One example would be the sequence of flashbacks at the beginning of the film. In this flashback sequence, the main character, Don Lockwood, takes us back in time to view his development of becoming a rising star. The non-supporting second space is revealed to the audience, and we are able to see something the people within the film do not, which would be the visual truth behind Lockwood’s exaggerated dialogue. Lockwood is able to make his rise to fame sound more luxurious than what the audience sees. There is no evidence for the third acoustical space playing a major role in this part of the film.
This use of the second space opposing Doane’s theory of first space support works within the narrative since this film is meta-filmic or meta-musical, so the point of this scene shows us the superficial characteristics of a typical Hollywood actor that make up the film world. Lockwood is lying straight to his fans faces, or rather he is acting for them, but we as the audience know better, since we are able to view his actual “mental images” of his past put on display for us. This would also be known as the truth.
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