The use of sound in Kiss Me Deadly
I was wrong in assuming, after Pascal Bonitzer, that the voice of Dr. Soberin is a disembodied voice. It is in fact anchored to a body; to be more specific, to a pair of shoes, and to a lesser extent, to a pair of tweed pants. The term “shoe fetishism” almost cries out loud in those scenes where the face of this prophetic figure is withheld from us. But this withholding is only justified in the killing of Nick, whereas in other instances is rather unmotivated. The revealing shoes and pants also appear in Kurosawa’s Stray Dog, where our protagonist detective is able to identify the murderer, Yusa, only by his muddy pants and shoes; his face, on the other hand, is perfectly insignificant. Similarly, the face of Dr. Soberin is entirely unsuited to exemplify an oracle.
So I was angry with Bonitzer for his making a big fuss out of a small deal — which proves his superior writing skill. What makes me first notice the peculiar quality of sound in this film is a scene where our protagonist-investigator is talking to Lily/Gabrielle in her apartment whose windows open to the street. During the course of the conversation we hear constantly the street noise which constitutes a minor interference to the dialogue. When she stands up and moves closer to the window — we see it is open because the curtain flies — the background sound, especially that of the street car, becomes even stronger and…
