Film sound film list

Films with an explicit focus on sound or with sound as the main protagonist

1. Berberian Sound Studio (2012, Peter Strickland)
2. Blow Out (1981, Brian de Palma)
3. The Conversation (1974, Francis Coppola)
4. Singin’ in the Rain (1952, Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly)
5. Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933, Fritz Lang)
6. No Country for Old Men (2007, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen)

Notes

re 6. An article in the New York Times (Exploiting Sound, Exploring Silence, by Dennis Limjan. 6, 2008)

Berberian Sound Studio

This is the second film by Peter Strickland. In his first film Katalin Varga, Strickland used subtle sound design combining electroacoustic music, voices and augmented environmental sounds to create a haunting soundtrack for this moving film. In Berberian Sound Studio he went even further, making the creation of the soundtrack for a B-Horror movie the topic of the film. Whereas in Katalin Varga the electroacoustic techniques served as a means to create and enhance emotions, in Berberian Sound Studion Strickland has a tendency to overinduldge in the sounds themselves. It is a dark film, partly because electroacoustic sound worlds seem to end in dark timbres, as one can hear in many electroacoustic music pieces.

This film is a celebration of the power of sound to create emotions.

Although modern sound designers use mostly digital techniques to create their sounds Strickland shows mostly analogue effects machines and tape recorders (e.g. a Nagra) with long tape loops. This is obviously visually more interesting than showing a computer screen.