Sound and Image Theory

Some of the most exciting theoretical moving image work in recent years has centered on the problem of the acoustic sign in cinema and especially around the relation between image track and sound track. This course rethinks the history and theory of cinema from the point of view of sound: effects, dialogue, music. It begins with some history of cinematic sound recording and play-back technologies and ends with contemporary digital audio experiments. Basic theoretical constructs revisited are realism (sound perspective, dubbing), anti-realism (contrapuntal and dissonant effects), genre   (the leitmotiv), perception (the synaesthetic effect) as well as word vs. wordlessness. The silent to sound divide considered from the silent film composite score to the Wagnerian classical Hollywood score associated with the Viennese-trained Max Steiner and Eric Korngold to the scores of John Williams. Western contrasted with non-Western traditions in musical scoring. Films screened include: King’s Row (Sam Wood, 1942), Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945), Dreams (Akira Kurosawa, 1990), Komal Gandhar (Ritwak Ghatak, 1961). Undergraduate permission required.