I saw the movie "Tuner" today, and one of the
features of the film was the use of sound at certain times when the drama
focussed around the Leo Woodall character in his safe-cracking, and in other action moments.
We were hearing the action from the
sounds in his head. This was interesting, and I recalled the role of sound in
'Rose of Nevada', which I reflected on recently. In that film, oddly distant dialogue, the slightly unreal
soundscape placed a layer of distance between the viewer and the action. Use
of sound in ‘Tuner’ was different.
In ‘Tuner’ the sound design functions as a form of subjective
immersion. When the drama centres on Niki White’s ( Leo Woodall ) safe-cracking,
or on moments of heightened concentration and danger, we are drawn into his sensory world. External reality recedes and we
hear what he hears and what his mind attends to. Small sounds become magnified,
irrelevant sounds disappear; rhythms and mechanical noises acquire an almost
musical significance.
Rose of Nevada had the reverse effect. I guess one way of putting this is that ‘Tuner’ uses
sound to move us closer to experience, while Rose of Nevada uses
sound to move us further away from it.
But in both cases at
least, we are reminded that sound is as important to any film, and cinema is more than a visual art. The eye tells us what is
happening, but the ear helps us to
inhabit what is happening.
In Rose of Nevada, the unusual soundscape contributes
to the feeling that the events are being recollected, half-remembered, or
viewed through a veil of memory and myth. The distant dialogue and unreal
acoustic space make us feel that we are never entirely "there."
In ‘Tuner’, by contrast, sound compresses the distance
between audience and character. Every click, scrape, and metallic resonance
becomes charged with significance because we are experiencing events from
within Niki White’s concentration.
So, in both movies, sound is controlling our psychological distance.
We should look out for the next award season: both movies will surely be listed
for Best Sound?