Sound as a guarantor of narrative sobriety in contemporary cinematographic plots

Abstract

The search for a minimalist narrative (baptized by some critics and analysts as "essentialist") has become a characteristic feature in works of many authors of contemporary film. This is probably a reaction to accused mannerisms of the audiovisual speech in recent decades due to the excessive influence of television narrative and the generalization of digital tools in production processes.

In this return to the essence of filming, audio plays a decisive role. The versatility of the soundtrack, made possible by the progressive emancipation of sound in the audiovisual speech, becomes a main resource to simplify the visual part of the story. In this emancipation, not only technical issues (especially, major advances in multichannel sound) come into play, but also aesthetical issues (directors and sound designers look for a global sound concept for the film). The combination of these factors leads to a diffuse and ambiguous concept that creates a much more evocative sound and a multiplicity of meanings in the story which is quite frequent among cinematic contemporary authors.