Film Sound THEORY AND PRACTICE Edited by Elisabeth Weis and John Belton el CCOLUMBUA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK.Library of Congress Caalogingin-Pubseton Data Main enty under ie Fi sound “Annotated biography on fn sound (excluding musi} / Claudia Gorbman™: > Includes biblographies and index 1 Moving petres, Talking —Aadreses, essays lectures. 2 Sound Recording and reproducing — [Adarones, essays, lectures” 3. Mong pctres— ‘Reset Addresses, esas, lectures. | Weis, Elaabeth i Beton, John. PNI995 753 1985 79148024 8425117 ISBN 978-0.231-085373 (pbk) Columba Unversity Press NewYork Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © 1985 Columbia Univesity Press A rights reserved Pnted in the United States of Americ For permission to rept copyrighted mate, acnowiedgment& made 10 {he publahers named on pages 463-64, which constitute an extension of this copyright page CCothbound editions of Colambla Unversiy press books ere printed on pet manent and durable ace paperThe Voice in the Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space MARY ANN DOANE ‘Synchronization ‘The ilent fm is certainly understood, a lens etrospectvely and even (itis arguable) in is me, as neompete, a5 lacing speech. The sed gestures Of the sien cinems, fs heawy pantomime, have been dein as form of Compensation for tat lek, Hugo Minsterberg wrote, in 1916, "To the ae {orf the moving pictures. the temptation offers self to overcome the Ufilency he absence of "words andthe modulation ofthe woe”) by & heightening ofthe gestures and ofthe foci ply, wth the result hat the modonel expresson becomes exagjeratod"! The absent vole reemerges IMgestues and the contorons ofthe fce—it is spread over the body of the fidoe The uncanny eet ofthe sent fim inthe ea of sound i in pat Tred tothe separation, by means of ners, of an actor's speech fem Sage eer ee tra of cud nec Go hot Ns an tstatonay ged tao gue ote ae ales) et Senders oneucia apr whose nol pot pan be the by cy coy respond hl con “tral” can conse o 1a voice without a body?* However, the body reconstituted by the technol Auprond pace of he cma amon oy ih fer uP Suto wl se ponttWnaion re bjt adeeb then Je pow o ress simply 0 ce some of he wy nw is Toenail corn cat paczs orp ‘Sot and sinus nd outa ind suber of straps Demce vou ad ge "eb ois arash re bt a oem uty eoush te emp on aherens othe seers and presence ol {fe sion of und tthe enema rode the poy free Senn fler an rail erie) Boyan of config the sts {Sptch a an nhl propery fT polenta nunber and Kode 31 Serataoe bomen und and sage re Tedd by fe ey name ‘THE VOICE IN THE CINEMA 163 tached tothe new hotrogencous medium he "tale." Histoses of the neta asctbe theses on synchronzaon to a “pubic demand”: “the publi, fascinates by the novel, wanting to be sure they were hearing what {hey su, would have ef that ack was belng played on them they were not shoun the werd coming fom the ps of the actors" Ir Lewis dcabs's ‘ecount, this fear onthe par ofthe audlence of being “cheated” is one of the factors which inal Ets the deployment of sonorous mater (as wl ‘the mobility ofthe camera) From ths porpactve, the use of vole-off or ‘oge-over must be ate aculsion,alempted ony afer a certain "break Ingin” period during which the novelty of the sound fim wae alowed to wear ise out But, whatver the fascination of the new medium (r what ver meaning & atached to by reospectve readings of fe presto) ther sno doubt that synchronization {inthe fxm of “Bp-syc") as played "major role inthe dominant naraive cnem, Technology standardizes the ‘loon though the development ofthe snchrian, the Movil, the Natbed ting table The mabing apparatus allows a greater contol ove the estab Isbment of relationships between dalogue, music, and sound effects and in proctce the level of the dalogue general) determines the levels of sound fects and: music* Despite number of experiments with eter types of Seunditmage relbtonshipe (those of Cla, Lang. Vigo. and, mee ferent, Godard, Staub, and Duras, synchvonous logue remoins the dominant form of sonorous representation i the cinema "Yor, even when asynchronous or “wd” sound ls utized, the fonismatic body's atibute of unly not lost. I simply deplaced the body in the fl Becomes the body ofthe fm. ls senses workin tender, forthe combination of sound and inage is described in terms of “rally and the “organic "® Sound cares withthe potent kof exposing the ‘mata heterogeneity ofthe medkum: stems fo contain tha ik sfc Sn the language ofthe tology of organic unity. Inthe discourse of teh ‘Gans, sound i “marie othe image and as one sound engineer putt inva artcle on posiynehvonizaton, “one of the baste goals ofthe motion Bere Indy to make the screen lok alle in the ees ofthe sud Concomitant with the demand fora ele representation is the dese for “presence” a cancep which is nt speci othe cinematic sound "rock but which acts sa standard to measure qualty nthe sound recording industy as 9 whole. The tam “presence” oller «certain legacy othe ‘ish for pure Yeprodution ond becomes sling point inthe constuction ‘of sound as commediy. The tlevsion commercl ase whether we can "el the diference™ betwen the voice of El Fagerald and that of Me ‘fe (and since our reprseniatve inthe commercial the ardent fan—can- ‘nok the only caneluson to be dau i that owning a Memorex tape Is