Early Theories of Sound in Cinema

Let's look again at a few key passages from the Filmish reading.

 

Michel Chion 

Michel Chion is a French Film Theorist that is primarily focused on sound and image relationships in cinema.  He currently teaches at several institutions in France and is also a composer of experimental music. 

 

Michel Chion at a lecture series on his work

 

His book The Audio-Vision, paved the way for the study of sound and image as two distinct languages in cinema. This is in contrast to narrative implications overwhelming the sound design of a film. Here's a quote from one of his writings on cinema: 

“Since the very dawn of time, voices have presented images, made order of things in the world, brought things to life and named them.”

As Ross states, language and sound are forces that bind us together as a social beings and helps us make sense of the world around us.

 

Performative Vocalization

Throughout cinematic history, specific vocal performance has also enhanced a character’s representation to an audience and amplified the film’s meaning. Of course, performances by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight and Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain are memorable for their exuberance. However, it's important to also recognize subdued performances. In these instances, slight changes in tone, volume and/or tempo of speech can reveal magnitudes about a character. Consider this while viewing François Leterrier's understated performance in A Man Escaped. 

 

François Leterrier in A Man Escaped from rogerebert.com Links to an external site.

 

Christian Metz

Finally, while we've overviewed sound design and vocal performance, it's also important to recognize the language of cinema and how associations through editing or the juxtaposition between sound and image can have a profound effect on the material. 

“In the 1960s, film theorist Christian Metz suggested that cinema itself should be seen as a kind of language, with its own grammar, syntax and vocabulary. In this figuration, single shots can be seen as something like 'the equivalent to an oral sentences,' which can be strung together with others to generate meaning.”

This is achieved through the Kuleshov Effect. We'll explore this editing style, which originated out of Soviet Montage theory next. 

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