The Primacy of Sound in Robert Bresson’s Films

Sound and Image, in ideal terms, should have equal position in the film. But somehow, sound always plays the subservient role to the image. In fact, the introduction of sound in the cinema for the purists was the end of movies and the beginning of the talkies. The purists thought that sound would be the ‘deathblow’ to the art of movies. No less revolutionary a director than Eisenstein himself viewed synchronous sound with suspicion and advocated a non-synchronous contrapuntal sound. But despite opposition, the sound pictures became the norm in 1927, after the tremendous success of The Jazz Singer . In this paper, I will discuss the work of French director Robert Bresson, whose films privilege the mode of sound over the image. Bresson’s films challenge the traditional hierarchical relationship of sight and sound, where the former’s superiority is considered indispensable. The prominence of sound is the principle strategy of subverting the imperial domain of sight, the visual, but the aural implications also provide Bresson the opportunity to lend a new dimension to the cinematographic art. The liberation of sound is the liberation of cinema from its bondage to sight.

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Amresh Sinha

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Publication date: August 2019

Publication date (Print): August 2019

Pages: 36-42

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[0001]School of Visual Arts

209 E 23 ^rd St, New York, NY 10010

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.6

SO-VID: d3ad00b8-f88b-43d7-9562-ca150b01ac3b

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: RE:SOUND 2019 – 8th International Conference on Media Art, Science, and Technology

Conference acronym: RE:SOUND 2019

Conference number: 8

Conference location: Aalborg, Denmark

Conference date: August 20-23, 2019

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Media Art, Science, and Technology

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

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Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

A. Bazin 1967 What is Cinema? 1 Hugh Grey University of California Press Berkeley
D BordwellK. Thompson 2008 Film Art: An Introduction Eight McGraw-Hill New York
R. Bresson 1997 Notes on the Cinematographer Jonathan Griffin Green Integer KØBENHAVN
M. Chion 1999 The Voice in the Cinema Claudia Gorbman Columbia University Press New York
M. Chion 1994 Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen Claudia Gorbman Columbia University Press New York
S. Daney 1999 The Organ and the Vacuum Cleaner (Bresson, the Devil, the voice-over and other things) Arthur Goldhammer http://sergedaney.blogspot.com/2019/06/another-one-from-larampe.html August 14 2019
G. Deleuze 1989 Cinema 2: The Time Image Hugh TomlinsonRobert Galeta University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis
J. Derrida 2000 Of Hospitality: Cultural Memory in the Present Rachel Bowlbey Stanford University Press Stanford, California
S. Eisenstein 1949 Film Form Jay Leyda Meridian Books Cleveland
W. Murch 1990 Foreword. In Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen Columbia University Press New York
J. R. Taylor 1964 Cinema Eye, Cinema Ear: Some Key Film-Makers of the Sixties Hill and Wang New York

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[1] A. Bazin 1967 What is Cinema? 1 Hugh Grey University of California Press Berkeley

[2] D BordwellK. Thompson 2008 Film Art: An Introduction Eight McGraw-Hill New York

[3] R. Bresson 1997 Notes on the Cinematographer Jonathan Griffin Green Integer KØBENHAVN

[4] M. Chion 1999 The Voice in the Cinema Claudia Gorbman Columbia University Press New York

[5] M. Chion 1994 Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen Claudia Gorbman Columbia University Press New York

[6] S. Daney 1999 The Organ and the Vacuum Cleaner (Bresson, the Devil, the voice-over and other things) Arthur Goldhammer http://sergedaney.blogspot.com/2019/06/another-one-from-larampe.html August 14 2019

[7] G. Deleuze 1989 Cinema 2: The Time Image Hugh TomlinsonRobert Galeta University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis

[8] J. Derrida 2000 Of Hospitality: Cultural Memory in the Present Rachel Bowlbey Stanford University Press Stanford, California

[9] S. Eisenstein 1949 Film Form Jay Leyda Meridian Books Cleveland

[10] W. Murch 1990 Foreword. In Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen Columbia University Press New York

[11] J. R. Taylor 1964 Cinema Eye, Cinema Ear: Some Key Film-Makers of the Sixties Hill and Wang New York

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