Film Sound

3 units

Although film critics and theorists tend to think of cinema as a visual art, this shorthand description of the medium overlooks the importance of film sound in cinematic storytelling. This course is intended to provide a general overview of the way in which film theorists have treated the issue of sound in the cinema. Among the issues addressed in the course are: the contribution sound technology and practice makes to film form; the various possible formal relationships between sound and image; the effects of sound technologies on notions of realism and verisimilitude; the importance of sound to particular genres, like the horror film; and lastly, the role of sound in film spectatorship. The course will also showcase the work of the most important sound stylists in film history, such as Fritz Lang, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Altman, and David Lynch. Required screenings.