Heavy weather: Michelangelo Antonioni, Tsai Ming-liang, and the poetics of environmental sound
Journal article
Birtwistle, A. 2014. Heavy weather: Michelangelo Antonioni, Tsai Ming-liang, and the poetics of environmental sound. Quarterly Review of Film and Video. 32 (1), pp. 72-90. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509208.2012.757529
Authors | Birtwistle, A. |
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Abstract | While recent scholarship has done much to address the long-standing visual bias of film studies, there is perhaps one aspect of the film soundtrack that has remained relatively neglected by critical enquiry: namely, the use of sound effects, and in particular ambient or “atmos” sound. My aim in this article is to explore the cinesonic deployment of envi- ronmental sound through a comparative study of the work of Michelangelo Antonioni and Tsai Ming-liang—two directors who, I will argue, make significant use of this particular resource in articulating a shared concern with the conditions of modernity. In considering the ways in which environmental sound plays through the films of these particular direc- tors, my concern is not only to situate this aspect of the soundtrack in relation to matters of authorship, but also to frame the cinesonic use of environmental sound within a discussion of the poetics of noise. Thus I argue that, when auditioned within the context offered by politico-aesthetic formulations of noise, the environmental sounds of Antonioni and Tsai’s films communicate significant differences in the world-views of two directors whose work is often thought to share many similarities. |
Keywords | Michelangelo Antonioni; Tsai Ming-liang; film sound; environmental sound; sound effects; soundtrack; modernity; wind; rain |
Year | 2014 |
Journal | Quarterly Review of Film and Video |
Journal citation | 32 (1), pp. 72-90 |
Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
ISSN | 1050-9208 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/10509208.2012.757529 |
Publication dates | |
28 Oct 2014 | |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 11 Sep 2015 |
Accepted | 12 Sep 2012 |
Output status | Published |
https://repository.canterbury.ac.uk/item/876z6/heavy-weather-michelangelo-antonioni-tsai-ming-liang-and-the-poetics-of-environmental-sound
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