As the first collection of new work on sound and cinema in over a decade, Lowering the Boom addresses the expanding field of film sound theory and its significance in rethinking historical models of film analysis. The contributors consider the ways in which musical expression, scoring, voice-over narration, and ambient noise affect identity formation and subjectivity. Lowering the Boom also analyzes how shifting modulation of the spoken word in cinema results in variations in audience interpretation. Introducing new methods of thinking about the interaction of sound and music in films, this volume also details avant-garde film sound, which is characterized by a distinct break from the narratively based sound practices of mainstream cinema. This interdisciplinary, global approach to the theory and history of film sound opens the eyes and ears of film scholars, practitioners, and students to film's true audio-visual nature.
Contributors are Jay Beck, John Belton, Clark Farmer, Paul Grainge, Tony Grajeda, David T. Johnson, Anahid Kassabian, David Laderman, James Lastra, Arnt Maasø, Matthew Malsky, Barry Mauer, Robert Miklitsch, Nancy Newman, Melissa Ragona, Petr Szczepanik, Paul Théberge, and Debra White-Stanley.
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Future of Film Sound Studies 1
Jay Beck and Tony Grajeda
Part 1: Theorizing Sound
1. The Phenomenology of Film Sound: Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped 23
John Belton
2. The Proxemics of the Mediated Voice 36
Arnt Maaso
3. Almost Silent: The Interplay of Sound and Silence in Contemporary Cinema and Television 51
Paul Theberge
4. The Sounds of "Silence": Dolby Stereo, Sound Design, and The Silence of the Lambs 68
Jay Beck
Part II: Historicizing Sound
5. Sonic Imagination; or, Film Sound as a Discursive Construct in Czech Culture of the Transitional Period 87
Petr Szczepanik
6. Sounds of the City: Alfred Newman's "Street Scene" and Urban Modernity 105
Matthew Malsky
7. Film and the Wagnerian Aspiration: Thoughts on Sound Design and the History of the Senses 123
James Lastra
Part III: Sound and Genre
8. Asynchronous Documentary: Bunuel's Land without Bread 141
Barry Mauer
9. "We'll Make a Paderewski of You Yet!": Acoustic Reflections in The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T 152
Nancy Newman
10. Paul Sharits's Cinematics of Sound 171
Melissa Ragona
11. "Every Beautiful Sound Also Creates an Equally Beautiful Picture": Color Music and Walt Disney's Fantasia 183
Clark Farmer
Part IV: Film Sound and Cultural Studies
12. "A Question of the Ear": Listening to Touch of Evil 201
Tony Grajeda
13. "Sound Sacrifices": The Postmodern Melodramas of World War II 218
Debra White-Stanley
14. Real Fantasies: Connie Stevens, Silencio, and Other Sonic Phenomena in Mulholland Drive 233
Robert Miklitsch
Part V: Case Studies of Film Sound
15. Selling Spectacular Sound: Dolby and the Unheard History of Technical Trademarks 251
Paul Grainge
16. (S)lip-Sync: Punk Rock Narrative Film and Postmodern Musical Performance 269
David Laderman
17. Critical Hearing and the Lessons of Abbas Kiarostami's Close-Up 289
David T. Johnson
18. Rethinking Point of Audition in The Cell 299
Anahid Kassabian
Works Cited 307
Contributors 327
Index 331
