Diegetic sound: ‘Any sound that originates from a source within the video or film’s world. It can be either on-screen or off-screen, depending on the source of the sound.’
Non-Diegetic sound: ‘Audio whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied in the action. This can include narrators commentary, added sound effects or mood music in the background’
In the film ‘You Were Never Really Here’ directed by Lynne Ramsay and starring Joaquin Phoenix as its protagonist. Throughout the film soundscapes are used cleverly to enhance the narrative. What fascinated me the most was the real-time interaction between the characters and diegetic/ non-diegetic sounds and music. This combination produces an abstract, yet powerful effect in the film.
The first example that comes to mind is the scene near the very beginning of the film where Joaquin Phoenix’s character is sat in a taxi. As a song is playing on the radio, originally written by Johnny Greenwood for the film, the lyrics ‘you were never really here’ silenced, while the taxi driver mouths them. I find it akin to the narrative method of ‘breaching the fourth wall’ yet in a sonic sense, raising all sorts of questions such as whether the character(s) are a aware, in some shape or form, of their presence as a character in the movie.
Furthermore the melding of diegetic and non diegetic sound and musical scores are evident. The kinetic pace of the film is aided by percussive industrial noises from its urban landscapes, integrating with string sections and dissonant chords. Paul Davies sound design and Johnny Greenwood’s score fuse to create a coherent yet overwhelming, and at times cacophonous, soundtrack that envelops the viewer, putting us in a claustrophobic headspace, similar to that of the troubled main character.
Researching further into Paul Davies sonic techniques I found out that a visit to an exhibition at the Tate Modern , informed the way in he chose to display sounds in the film. An installation by the American artist Charles Atlas consisted of several video screens, placed not all in a line, but in layers with four speakers in front of them. A different sound of New York City sounded out of each speaker. Experimenting with this idea of different sounds from the same sonic family coming from different locations, he found that the resulting feeling was that of dislocation and rupture, which certainly fits the theme of the film, whereby the protagonist feels alienated from the rest of the world due to his trauma.
Furthermore, when recording the sound of a train to use in the film, Paul Davies and Lynne Ramsay noticed strang, eerie harmonic sounds at certain points within the recording. Isolation that sound, they used it elsewhere as a basis to create unease, ( It features right at beginning, over the logos) showcasing another example of how the industrial sounds of the city were smelted into the film to create said sonic landscapes.
A final example would be the scene where we can hear the dialogue of Joaquin Phoenix’s character’s and another figure over the phone, specifically a payphone. In reality this conversation would’ve been private, yet the decision to allow us to hear what is being said on the other end of the line creates a sense of voyeurism. An invasion of privacy that only lends further to the taboo nature of the film.
This reconsidering of the border between diegetic and non diegetic sounds blurs the distinction between score and sound design, and is a technique I aim to explore in future work.
