The Voice in Cinema

by Michel Chion, Claudia Gorbman (Translator)

Overview

How can a voice whose source is never seen—such as Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey or the mother of Norman Bates in Psycho—have such a powerful hold on an audience? When does "synchronized sound" fail to link bodies to their voices, and how do such great stylists of sound film as Jacques Tati, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Marguerite Durgaas deploy the power of the voice? In this brilliant essay, Michel Chion, internationally cited authority on the history and poetics of film sound, examines the human voice in cinema. The Voice in Cinema begins with the phenomenon of film's hidden, faceless voices and their magical powers, particularly in the context of Lang's Testament of Dr. Mabuse. Chion then explores subjective voices, bonding and entrapment by telephone, voice—thieves, screams (male and female), siren calls, and the silence of mute characters—all uniquely cinematic deployments. In conclusion, Chion considers "the monstrous marriage of the filmed voice and body" as embodied in Norman Bates. Claudia Gorbman's fluent translation retains Chion's sophisticated and accessible style, introducing readers to a distinct and paradigm—changing voice on film.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231108232
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	02/10/1999
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michel Chion is a composer of musique concrète, a filmmaker, an associate professor at the Université de Paris, and a prolific writer on film, sound, and music. His other books with Columbia University Press are Film, A Sound Art and Audio—Vision: Sound on Screen.Claudia Gorbman is a film studies professor at the University of Washington, Tacoma. She is the author of Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music (1987), the editor of several books, and the author of many articles on film sound and film music. She is also the translator of Michel Chion's Film, A Sound Art, Audio—Vision: Sound on Screen, and 2001: Kubrick's Cinema Odyssey.

Table of Contents

I. Mabuse: Magic and Powers of Acousmetre1. The Acousmetre2. The Silences of Mabuse3. The I-VoiceII. Tamaki: Tales of the Voice4. The Voice Connection5. The Screaming Point6. The Master of Voices7. The Mute Character's Final Words8. The Siren's SongIII. Norman; Or The Impossible Anacousmetre9. The Voice that Seeks a Body10. The ConfessionEpilogue: Cinema's Voices of the 80's and 90's

What People are Saying About This

Rick Altman

For two decades, Michel Chion has been asking basic questions about cinema sound and coming up with startling, seminal answers. It all started with The Voice in Cinema and a simple question: why are so many films built around voices separated from the image of their sources? Elementary questions, creative responses, and clear prose make this one of the few books on film sound capable of simultaneously satisfying scholars and students alike. How wonderful to have The Voice in Cinema available, finally, in such a readable English translation.

— Rick Altman, author of A Theory of Narrative and Silent Film Sound

Editorial Reviews

[A] creative look at sound in the cinema.

Choice - R. Blackwood

[A] creative look at sound in the cinema.

— R. Blackwood

Choice

Elementary questions, creative responses, and clear prose make this one of the few books on film sound capable of simultaneously satisfying scholars and students alike. How wonderful to have The Cinematic Voice available, finally, in such a readable English translation.

Rick Altman

[A] creative look at sound in the cinema.

R. Blackwood

Constructs an outline for a theory of the film as sound film, taking examples from a wide range of movies, but calling heavily on Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and Fritz Lang's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. Chion limits the discussion here to the speaking voice and is working on another book about singing and music in the cinema. First published as La Voix au cinema by Editions de l'Etoile in 1982. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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