Intertwining music and sound in film

Abstract

With Atonement (Joe Wright, 2007) and Last Days (Gus Van Sant, 2005) as case studies, Huvenne questions how the same recorded sound can be heard as pure music and/or as a sound effect. Huvenne asks how is it possible to understand the intertwining of these two appearances of the same sound? Huvenne states that from a phenomenological perspective of perception the recorded sound does not exist in its own right but in listening to it. Focusing on Edmund Husserl’s insights into the motivation of the intentional act, the correlation between the embodied resonating listening and the felt sound can be added to the listening strategies in film perception, Huvenne argues, thus enabling an exceptional intertwining of music and sound in film.