The Voice in Cinema by Michel Chion


The Voice in Cinema
Title : The Voice in Cinema
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0231108230
ISBN-10 : 9780231108232
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 208
Publication : First published January 20, 1999

How can a voice whose source is never seen—such as Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey or the mother of Norman Bates in Psycho —have such a powerful hold on an audience? When does "synchronized sound" fail to link bodies to their voices, and how do such great stylists of sound film as Jacques Tati, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Marguerite Duras deploy the power of the voice? In this brilliant essay, Michel Chion, internationally cited authority on the history and poetics of film sound, examines the human voice in cinema. The Voice in Cinema begins with the phenomenon of film's hidden, faceless voices and their magical powers, particularly in the context of Lang's Testament of Dr. Mabuse . Chion then explores subjective voices, bonding and entrapment by telephone, voice-thieves, screams (male and female), siren calls, and the silence of mute characters-all uniquely cinematic deployments. In conclusion, Chion considers "the monstrous marriage of the filmed voice and body" as embodied in Norman Bates. Claudia Gorbman's fluent translation retains Chion's sophisticated and accessible style, introducing readers to a distinct and paradigm-changing voice on film.

The Voice in Cinema Reviews

  • Matt Micucci

    My enthusiasm for cinama and original cinematic prose and theory was partially let down by the uninteresting style of writing of Michel Chion, whose theories of the voice in cinema are quite original, but his style of writing is not really. I will give him the benefit of the doubt, thinking that some of the book's charm may have been lost as a result of the english translation from French.

  • Alex

    Este libro es una excelente descripción general de teorías, ejemplos y análisis de sonidos y voces en el cine. Es un poco denso y teórico, pero el tema es rico y complejo. No se lee como un libro de texto, pero tampoco es exactamente fácil de leer. Es en parte estudio de cine, en parte teoría musical, en parte psicoanálisis.

    Hasta cierto punto la teoría que expone es revolucionaria y por ello tiene el mérito de sensibilizar al lector con una dimensión del cine que muchas veces no es pensada a profundidad, En general es fácil de seguir, pero no es exactamente una lectura fácil.

    Se lo recomendaría a cualquier persona interesada en el sonido de las películas o el cine en general. Pero definitivamente no es una lectura para todos o para cualquier momento.

    A mi lo que más me gustó son las películas que pone de ejemplo. Bajé algunas y la verdad resultaron ser una chingonería.

  • Abraham Klein

    Muy útil

  • Susan

    At times I felt that Chion was making words up especially when he said "it's tempting to call this...." But I also thought that there so many huge words that were all pomp and not really essential, he could have made this book a lot easier to read by putting some of the terms he used in layman's terms...

    Overall though there is A LOT of material in this book and the fact that I haven't actually seen any other books covering this subject I think this is probably quite an important book.

    There were times when he prattled on about what happened in a movie as opposed to getting to the point, but mostly everything in this book was focused on the task at hand.

  • Yuri Cunha

    Many nice insights into the voice and sound in cinema. I have read other books which focused more on the words (either in script or in dialogue), but less on the voice. In this aspect, this is the first time I'm reading about sound through this scope.

  • Myhte

    This, then, is what happens when you take a voice for an umbilical cord.