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From the Heart: Sound Image
Relationships in ‘Interview with the Vampire’ In this section of Interview with the Vampire,
we are presented with sound image relations that build an understanding of the
characters, while reflecting the film’s themes. The film deals with fantastical
creatures, yet a sense of realism is quite clearly developed through the sound
and image interplay. The vampires are more ‘human’ than any previously filmed,
heavy emphasis being placed on emotions and character psychology, departing
somewhat from the old ways of vampire cinema. At times, however, it does
actually rely on the old genre for sound effects. The dance of sound and image
in this scene comes together quite nicely to fuse these elements into highly
emotive cinema. In carrying over to this scene
from the previous a musical bridge occurs. The music is a reprise of that
played earlier in the film when Lestat first attacks Louis. As we, the
audience, were exposed to this earlier in the film, and because we know that
Louis is meeting Lestat in this scene,
we are ready to see him appear shortly. Time has been manipulated subtly
to make us ready for the coming action. Music throughout the rest of this scene
consists mainly of high-pitched violins, volume rising and falling with the
action, creating feelings of unease and tension. When Louis is finally writhing
in agony from drinking Lestat’s blood, the music is suddenly much louder and
ominous low-pitched brass and percussion section seem to have taken over. The
music plays on audience emotions by reflecting those on screen. Atmos sounds must be present, for
we know without them a soundtrack is incomplete, and they are added to with
sound effects of crickets and the disconcerting cry of a loon. These elements
establish where we are: a cemetery at night. The crickets and reverberating
bird cry imply a lonely, open space. A high level of fidelity has been
maintained when adding Foley effects to this scene. The footsteps, rustled
clothing, and general struggling sounds are a quite true to their sources. This
all works to create a sense of realism. The timbre of these sounds changes
depending on the action portrayed—Louis’ gentle footsteps when he is walking
calmly as opposed to leaping up loudly when he startled, for instance—adding
further to this realism. Contributing further again, sound effects in this
film, generally speaking, are all simultaneous with their corresponding images.
With this constructed reality established, the audience is primed to accept any
further actions and sounds to be just as real, no matter how unrealistic they
may seem upon analysis. Lestat’s actions and corresponding sounds work to
establish him as predator. The most obvious of these is the abrupt airy hiss we
hear as he attacks Louis. This sound effect comes from the left speaker just
before Lestat leaps in from off-screen left. As the volume of this particular
effect is loud, and high pitched it startles the viewer rather effectively.
Furthermore, as Louis is actually looking to the right, where we know from the
previous shot Lestat was seated, it implies supernatural speed. This
effect, comparable with the Christopher Lee fang-baring hiss, is unrealistic
and unsettling, but the audience accepts the apparent lack of fidelity. It has
been made familiar already through the genre of vampire films, but also
because, as Murch discusses, we are accustomed to reassociating sounds attached
to a source from which they have not originated. (Murch, 247) Also, the timbre
of Lestat’s voice when he speaks, or even sighs, carries with it that tone of
arrogance often seen in his actions. Logically then, if Lestat is the predator,
Louis must be the innocent victim, and his character is established as such
through his struggling, gasping, and general flailing. All this action is
complemented by Foley sounds and dialogue that are quite believably coming from
him, thus exhibiting high fidelity. It is these sounds that we consider true to
their characters, either through fidelity or flexible imagination, that
establish them as predator and prey. This is a theme that carries through the
film as a whole. Throughout the film Louis feels trapped and
suffocated by Lestat, yet they seem to show an inexplicable intimacy. When
Lestat has drained Louis’ blood, signified aptly by a lovely loud swallow, we
are presented with a tight shot of Lestat leaning over his hapless prey.
Lestat’s monologue is only a touch quieter in relation to earlier speech, and
he is whispering softly into Louis’ ear. Volume, timbre, and space, have been
manipulated to produce a sense of suffocation and confinement. It draws the
audience into the tense moment, makes us hold our breath. As Lestat is
essentially holding Louis down on the ground with the weight of his own body
this is shot reflects the film’s themes beautifully. The most striking use of sound, however, occurs as
Lestat is feeding Louis his own blood. We first hear a low-pitched drum beat
within the music, eventually noticing that the rhythm replicates a heartbeat. A
sound effect of a heartbeat is then added to the mix, out of sync. The rhythm
of the heartbeats speed up and come together until they are in fact in sync.
This speaks volumes about the relationship between the two characters. The act
they perform is by its nature intimate, so should the accompanying sounds be.
What is more intimate than a heartbeat? A nice little touch is the moment when
Lestat tells Louis that his body is dying, on that word hearing Louis’
heartbeat briefly speed up. As if to confirm this impending death a few moments
later the heartbeats cease. It is at this point, on a close up shot of Louis’
astonished face, we understand his transformation is complete; with no pulse he
is no longer human. This act of intimacy that eventually puts them at odds, and
Louis never really does forgive Lestat for taking his humanity. Through this
particular montage of sound we see how its relationship to the images begins to
build a relationship between the characters. Realistically it would not be possible to hear
these heartbeats at this volume, however, the audience will associate these
sounds with the characters on screen. The nature of what the characters are
doing, the nature of vampires, and of our own bodies, allows us to accept this
sound as being diagetic, or, more specifically, as the internal diagetic
that Bordwell speaks of[1].
(Bordwell, 333) We imagine these sounds in both characters’ heads, a psychic
connection formed by the act that they perform, and this in turn draws us into
the space of those characters’ minds. That third dimension we create upon
seeing an image and hearing a sound has been built, the juxtaposition being
resolved, that Murch talks about so passionately, is telling us of the
relationship between not only the sound and image but also the intimacy of the
characters themselves. (Paine, 356) It
is because these particular sounds are distanced somewhat from reality that
they draw attention and, by making the audience generate an answer as to why
they are present, they are more interesting and ultimately the most telling of
all those from this particular scene. Sound is often seen only as an accompaniment to
image in film, and it is true that it does perform this task well. However, as
Weiss states, sound “can speak to us emotionally and almost subconsciously put
us in touch with a screen character”, and in this film that is exactly what is
occurring. (Weis, 58) On an almost subliminal level the sound tells us about
the characters and their relationship, and combining this with image, the
audience develops that third most meaningful idea. Through sound and vision we
see inside the characters minds, and find hints of what themes lay ahead. The
complexities of the relationship between these two elements tell as much of the
story as simply the image or sound alone. It is in the most complex
relationships that the best stories will be found. Works
Consulted
Bordwell, David, Kristin Thompson. Film
Art: An Introduction. 5th ed. New York, 1996. Cook, David A. A History of Narrative
Film. 3rd Ed. W. W. Norton and Company: New York, 1996. Interview with the Vampire. Dir. Neil Jordan. Geffen, 1994. Murch, Walter. “Sound design: The
Dancing Shadow” Ed. John Boorman et al. Projections 4. London: Faber
& Faber, 1995: 237-251 Paine, Frank. “Sound Mixing and
Apocalypse Now: An Interview with Walter Murch” Ed. E. Weis et al. Film
Sound: Theory and Practice. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985:
356-360 Weis, Elizabeth. “Sync Tanks: The Art and Technique of Postproduction Sound” Cineaste Vol. 21, 1995: 56-61 [1] This is even more interesting when we consider the heartbeat created by the drum is technically nondiagetic, and the simulated heartbeat is technically diagetic |