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Research Report by Chloe Babauta

Page history last edited by Chloe Babauta 10 years, 4 months ago

Research Report: “The Edge of Perception: Sound in Tarkovsky’s Stalker”

 

By Chloe Babauta, Into The Zone: A Study of Adaptations  

 

Abstract:

In this article, Smith discusses how Andrei Tarkovsky's film Stalker uses the combined elements of sound to create a "complex multidimensional experience, creating in each viewer a unique response to sound” (41).  Smith primarily discusses how sound in this film creates a different experience for each different person who views it, and creates a personal meaning and connection based on the associations they have with the different types of sound. The article provides a unique perspective on the film and gives a better understanding of the film as a whole, when looking at multiple aspects of its style.

 

Commentary:

In this article, Smith discusses how through using different techniques in sound in film, this can affect the spectator’s subconscious thoughts and sensitivity, which enables the spectator to have an active role in denoting meaning and making a personal connection to the film. Smith analyzes and writes about the combined elements of sound that Tarkovsky uses in Stalker, which include "music, dialogue, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, as well as the intervals of silence” (41). He argues that Tarkovsky’s use of sound defines the space we know as the Zone, in different ways, “whether that be literal, psychological or existing as some kind of parallel reality” (Smith 43). Tarkovsky uses sound to create and develop the space, usually before the spectator knows what is going on visually. Smith writes that in the long scenes with absences of music and dialogue, this gives the spectator “the possibility of experiencing the feeling of space that exists around the immediate story” (43). While watching the film, I felt this ability to experience the space and I noticed that there was no non-diegetic sound for large portions of the film, but I did not think about it in the complexity or in terms of feeling the space of the story, in the way that Smith defines the use of sound.

Smith goes on to dissect different elements and scenes in the film and how sound affects our perception of the Zone and of the overall themes of Stalker. When I watched the film, I took in the sounds and visuals without thinking as critically about its stylistic choices as much as I did after reading Smith’s article about the intricacies of the use of sound in Stalker. For example, Smith describes the scene in Stalker when the characters enter the Zone on a trolley train and discusses the use of sound in this scene. While initially watching the film, I did not realize how much sound affected the way I saw this scene. Smith writes about how we do not see the train itself for the entire, long scene when they journey into the Zone. We only see the characters and are not distracted by their surroundings, and Smith argues that “as a result the physical journey becomes transformed into an inner journey” (45). Smith also argues that as the journey goes on, the sound of the train changes subtly in a “less naturalistic way, echoing and morphing and leading us simultaneously inside the characters and into the Zone (45). He writes that this use of sonic invention shows how Tarkovsky skillfully utilizes the possibilities and importance of sound, and how the shift in sound causes the spectator to empathize with the characters enough to cause us to “pull back and become merely an observer dictated to by an overtly manipulative sound or prescriptive music” (Smith 46). This analysis made me realize how much the sound in Stalker shaped how I thought about the film and how I related to the characters.

 

Relevance:

Sound is one of the most important stylistic elements, if not the most important stylistic element, of the film Stalker, which is one of the adaptations we studied in our group research project. Many long scenes of the film have no dialogue and very little action, or a monotonous action like following a character as he walks cautiously through a meadow. This leaves us as spectators to make observations about what goes on onscreen, by relying on our sense of hearing and active listening, rather than just focusing on the visuals or aesthetics, and hearing without consciously listening or being aware of audio cues. Although scenes of the film may be close to silent, the quiet background noises, or even the silence, help us to draw conclusions about the film and assign meaning as we see fit. This article helped me to better understand the stylistic elements of the film and to better appreciate it as a work. Analyzing the film by thinking about its sound helped me think about the film’s underlying themes and meaning, which helped me form my answers for our group’s analytical questions, in order to find similar threads and themes throughout the three different types of media and adaptations of the novel Roadside Picnic, by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. Although this article was helpful in dissecting elements of the film and assigning meaning to it, its usefulness to the project as a whole is limited in that it focuses solely on sound as used specifically in film, so we cannot apply its techniques to analyze one of the other works in our project, particularly the novel Roadside Picnic. Despite that limitation in using this article to analyze or better understand the novel, the article is effective in helping me to think about sound as a stylistic element in the video game we studied for the project, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Using this article to think about stylistic elements of the work I studied, combined with the limitations of using this article to analyze the other works in the project, is relevant to our study of adaptations. It shows that there are many stylistic elements and capabilities of each form of media that can convey the meaning and themes of the work, which do not translate into other forms of media, like the novel. Looking at how sound contributes to the film as a whole proved useful in thinking about the limitations and capacity of each type of media, and seeing what themes stay or get lost in translation when looking at the original novel and the other adaptation, the video game. The article made me think about how much my perception of the film, the Zone, its characters and themes was shaped by sound, which is specific to this type of media. The way I learned about the Zone and experienced it through sound is different from how my other group members experienced the Zone and its related story by reading the novel, or with the difference in sound between the silence of the film and the violent noises of the video game.

 

Resources:

Bordwell, David. Narration in the Fiction Film. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 1985. Print.

Pridham, Matthew. "In the Zone: An Excursion into Andrei Tarkovsky’s Film “Stalker”."Weird Fiction Review. N.p., 24 July 2013. Web. 05 Nov. 2013. <http://weirdfictionreview.com/2013/07/in-the-zone-an-excursion-into-andrei-tarkovskys-film-stalker/>

Smith, Stefan. “The Edge of Perception: Sound in Tarkovsky’s Stalker.” Soundtrack 1.1 (2008): 41-52. Academic Source Complete. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. <http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5f42c721-c9da-4213-8db3-3303820b823d%40sessionmgr11&vid=7&hid=120>

 

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