The first scene I would like to examine comes at, 10:30-12:08, right after the murder of Elsie, a man reads-aloud a newspaper article about the serial murders.
In the scene, we are first shown spectators trying to read a billboard with the news on display, but just as we think this conversation is happening in the current scene, we are transported to the next. To realize this was a separate conversation happening between men in a small room, not a crowd outside. What is interesting about this sequence is how sound works as a transition point.
In this moment, it seems that sound is put over the image. Mary Ann Doane’s article, “The Voice in the Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space” talks explicitly about the relation between sound, image, and the space they both occupy in film. In her section about ‘voice-off’ she defines the term as: “the voice of a character who is not visible within the frame”, and that in order to promote the homogeneity and unity of the space, the voice is shown “by means of previous shots or other contextual determinants” (321) to be in the space. Showing the reliance on the visual image to provide information to the scene.
In this scene for M, there is a compelling displacement of this theory. Instead of the visible image transitioning the scene, we are first cued by the sound or dialogue we are hearing. At first, it appears the dialogue is coming from the present scene, but with a quick transition we, as the audience, are allowed to know that this (table with the men) is the proper time and place the audio is taking place. Throughout M, I find that sound encourages the stream of narrative being given to the audience verses the use of the image.
Question: Are there other instances in the movie that you find sound taking precedent over image?
The second scene comes from: 1:35:00-1:36:35, where the child murderer has been caught and brought to the council of citizens.
What is profound about this scene is the exclusion of sound (which is an occurrence that happens multiple times in the film), that is suddenly broken with the scream of Peter Lorre. Just like how the previous example establishes space using sound, so does this scene. Using Lorre’s voice, you can hear how it is vibrating through the huge room, even before you get to see the space through the camera.
But why was silence needed? As seen in Jean-Pierre Geuens’s piece in the book, Film Production Theory, without music “one pays much more attention to what we see on the screen, to the sounds we hear, and to the relation between the two tracks. One is also more aware of the shots, of the cuts, of the actors” (210). When there is no background noise in M, we are more intent at looking at the screen in anticipation of what is next. Using the ambient noise to gain the audience’s attention to the image he wants to show. As an example from the scene, witnessing the eerie silence of the council as they all stare the murderer down.
Question: Are there instances in M or other movies (or Deadwood) we have seen that the absence of sound (dialogue, sound effects, or music) is present? What impact does it have on the storytelling or images beings shown?
References:
Mary Ann Doane, “The Voice in the Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space”
Jean-Pierre Geuens, from Film Production Theory