๐ฆ๐ผ๐๐ป๐ฑ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ ๐ฒ๐๐ฎ๐น ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐: ๐๐ป ๐๐ป๐๐๐๐ฎ๐น ๐ฑ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐บ๐ฎ ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ป๐ผ๐ถ๐๐ ๐๐ถ๐น๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐น๐ถ๐ณ๐ฒ.
Darius Marderโs โSound of Metalโ is an unusual and authentic film about the usual life with a profoundly intricate sound design. The usual films about specially able persons depict their stories in a typical way by showing the triumph of spirit over body. But Marder has broken this conventional style of storytelling with an exceptionally immersive screenplay.
The story begins with an adrenaline-fueled performance of an itinerant heavy-metal drummer Ruben (Riz Ahmed) along with his bandmate, singer and girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke). Just after a few minutes of getting introduced to the two central characters of the film, Ruben and Lou, we experience the drastically intermittent hearing loss of Ruben, a former drug addict. He gets words after words wrong at his first time visit to the doctor. The doctor confirms that his condition will rapidly worsen but he can go for a surgery. Hearing everything, Lou worries that he may go back to the self-destructive ways as trauma often leaves to relapse. She decides to leave him in a secluded sober house for the deaf community run by Joe (Paul Raci), an atheist serene Vietnam veteran so that Ruben can get some help to learn to cope up with his current situation. Ruben panics but enrolls in that remote commune to preserve his sobriety and for his girlfriend. At first, he struggles and continues to become quite reluctant to join in the group sessions. But all of his complexities find sheer simplicity when he feels the vibration of the tapping on a metal slide by a deaf kid in a beautifully constructed and acted playground scene. In this scene, Ruben finds hope and we, the audience get compelled to feel him in his story. And the journey of โSound of Metalโ takes off with the outstanding performance of the two main leads.
The star of โThe Night Ofโ, Riaz plays the character of a punk-metal drummer who is forced to look at his life differently as he goes deaf. And thatโs the only thing Riaz does too. He observes both the suffocating and surreal silences. His expressive eyes, confused body language paint the arch of his character and offer glimpses into his complex inner world. It conveys his pain and despair as the world around him moves on. He doesnโt only react but respond to each and every beat of his sequences. Ahmed plays it subtle, conveying the quietness that often comes with fear and denial. Itโs totally visible why he has learned the drums and studied deafness for six months before the shooting. One may consider the film as Riazโs but Olivia Cooke in her role of Lou, a girlfriend rather a practical woman in the life of a delusive man hits the ball out of the stadium. She doesnโt play the character of Lou, she becomes Lou. All the other cast specially people in that house enact their roles in an extremely proficient way. Paul Raci blends into the character of Joe like magic. Derek Ciafrance and Darius Marder who have previously worked together on โThe Place Beyond the Pinesโ, have also shared the credit for the writing of the story in this film. The story just doesnโt narrate silence but thrives in it. And Marder brothersโ screenplay has woven a singular tension between noise and silence. It comes to its focal point as soon as it is supposed to and doesnโt make the audience bore with unnecessary montages. My favorite montage of the film is of the windscreen of the bus where the droplets of rain fall and the wiper tries to clean it but it remains obscure just like the destiny of life.
Daniel Bouquetโs lenses perfectly use the close-up shots to delineate the suffering of the protagonist. Mikkel E.G Nielsonโs editing keeps the steady pace of the film. Jeremy Woodwardโs production design helps the whole film to get a direct approach of realism which finds its compact rhythm with Megan Stark Evanesโs brilliant costumes. Now, I want shift your attention towards the real magician of the film, Nicolas Becker. Nicolas who has already created immersive, personalized sound experiences about the internal feeling of a character on many projects like โGravityโ and โThe Commandโ has done an extraordinary work with the sound designing of this film. He has related sound to the body memory. Director Marder and sound designer Nicolas have made a real experimentation of muffledness. From the very first scene of the film, when it all starts with the honk of a distorted microphone, the director shows up the journey of the distorted paths. The director Darius Marder and the sound designer Nicolas Becker went to great lengths to plunge the audience into a simulation of a deaf musicianโs auditory perception. Film has always been an audio-visual medium. Even the absence of sound can command the viewersโ attention. The explosion scene at the Omaha Beach in โSaving Private Ryanโ or the oil well blow out scene in โThere Will Be Bloodโ has used the effective strategic silence which simulates the ringing in the ears to heighten the intensity of the explosion. Sound always alters perception and informs the narrative or evokes the mood before the visuals can. Marder has used this tool to show the anguish, sense of loss, stillness, despair, the miscommunication between the outer and the inner world. Marder doesnโt use a manipulative score and leaves the noisy silence to dominate.
Writer-Director Darius Marder has meticulously constructed Rubenโs journey by making it uncomfortable not unbearable. He has compassionately captured the fragility of daily existence by reflecting the ideas of loss and acceptance through the whole film. The film doesnโt jump vigorously into the ideological separation between the consideration of deafness as an identity and the assumption of deeming it as a correctable disability. Rather it leaves a white canvas for questions about the acceptance of reality. Watching a film like this on an OTT platform may take away the serene experience of a silent theatre but donโt miss those tacit noises of confused and impatient souls who are compelled to accept the reality with open arms.
Copyright ยฉ2020 AlternateTake. This article should not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL instead, would be appreciated.
