Sound-Over (or) In?-Image
Introduction 1: The use of a narrator’s voice is one of the cinematic techniques. Although American cinema after Griffith, unlike Porter’s cinema, avoided any sound with moral or political content within the film. (1) Proponents of pure cinema also sought to completely eliminate sound and writing from cinema and return to the era of silent films.
A more modern form of using sound over image can be seen in the works of directors like Terrence Malick, especially in the film “The Tree of Life.” Malick is recognized as a pioneer in the use of the voice-over technique. He has attempted to give a more serious role to this technique in cinema by precisely combining sound and image. In Malick’s works, sound and image are deeply intertwined (2), which has shaped his unique visual and auditory style.
Introduction 2: Miller, a prominent American critic, believes that watching Hitchcock’s films in a fragmented and repeated manner leads to the discovery of hidden aspects of his cinema; a method that contrasts with the traditional and integrated viewing of films.(3)
Relying on this background and adopting a similar approach, one can examine the relationship between sound and image in a brief segment of the film “Conflict of Meanings” directed by Soore Vahe. In modern art, cinema, painting, and photography strive for purity by seeking to separate image from sound and touch. Previously, in classical artworks, touch and image were experienced simultaneously and integrally (4); for instance, in Shakespeare’s works (5), the sight of lovers was considered one with their touch and sound. Among films, Wong Kar-wai’s “In the Mood for Love” also attempts to convey the experience of romantic touch without its physical depiction by focusing on the images of Hong Kong’s confined spaces.
However, the film “Conflict of Meanings” takes a different approach to the relationship between image and sound.
Firstly, the director adopts a Pythagorean approach by personally executing the sound in the film; the Pythagorean acousmatic sound, through the creation of silence and articulation of words, invites the audience to “only” listen. In the first ten seconds of the film, multiple audio transitions accompanied by silence affirm this focus. Additionally, the manner of pronouncing the word “No!” with an inflation of audio volume and music illustrates the transition of the audience from one section to another, accompanied by a mysterious and whisper-like Pythagorean teaching.
Secondly, by selecting a painting as a static image and moving over it, the image is presented in its strongest visual state. This movement is akin to a journey from a normal state to one of wonder. Initially, we perceive the image of a woman, but as we move downward, we realize she is seated on a mount. Finally, to our surprise, we see that both are carried on a man’s shoulders. This gradual mechanism for creating astonishment in the audience serves as a means to escape the mundane world and enter the realm of the image. This state provides the audience with more opportunity to reflect and uncover the hidden meanings within the image(6).
Thirdly, by choosing a painting as a static image and moving over it, the image is presented in its strongest visual state. This movement represents a transition from a normal state to one of wonder. Initially, we are confronted with the image of a woman, but as we move, we realize she is seated on an animal. Ultimately, to our surprise, we see that the animal is carried on a man’s shoulders. This stepwise mechanism of seeing something extraordinary in something ordinary serves as a gateway to enter and focus on the world of the image.
Conclusion: The “form” of the film is a blend of sound and image; neither sound nor image dominates the other. Instead, the wondrous image serves the whispering sound and vice versa. There is neither a gap between sound and image nor is sound merely seen as a direct narrator. This approach is noteworthy in its own right.
Recourses:
D.W. Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative Film: The Early Years at Biograph p 93-94
the eloquent screen a rhetoric of film p 280
Hidden Hitchcock p 86-99
Techniques of the observer p 19
A Natural Perspective by Northrop Frye
Sound Unseen: Acousmatic Sound in Theory and Practice p 46
