The absence of sound can be used to great storytelling effect in filmmaking. A well-timed moment of silence within a scene can communicate meaning far louder than dialogue ever could.
Films like Saving Private Ryan and 2001: A Space Odyssey employ silence in a very intentional manner that builds suspense, elicits emotion, and draws attention to visual details the audience should be focusing on. More recently, Star Wars: The Last Jedi use this technique to make the sound of a huge explosion louder and heavier, thus making the scene more dramatic.
Why does silence make such a tremendous impression when used in film? Let’s break down some of the reasons why this technique is used, with notable examples from film history.
Preview
Silence For Storytelling
Focus on Character Inner Thoughts
A lack of dialogue can help to inner world of a film’s character. Through the elimination of dialogue, the directors make audiences to guess on what the character is thinking or even feeling. This can result in enhanced comprehension and identification with the character’s experience.
Enhance Realism
Our daily life has silent moments, and therefore, integrating silence in films makes it have real-life feel. As in real life, it portrays that silence and it helps to make scenes look more realistic because not all the time people are talking or there is music in the background.
Create Atmosphere and Mood
It can create feelings like calmness, suspense, reflection or loneliness. Silence may depict calmness in the countryside or suspense before an action scene and such things can set the mood of a scene or the whole film.
Highlight Visual Storytelling
It will not be wrong to say that cinema is a form of visual communication and silence stresses the visual factor. In that way, the absence of sound lets the viewer’s concentrate on the visuals, and the images become the primary conveyers of the message or feelings.
Build Tension and Suspense
Silent moments are also employed to create tension usually in films such as thriller and horror films. When there is no sound, there is always tension built up and when a sound is used, it reverberates and is quite loud.
Emotional Amplification
Silence has the ability to enhance emotions by eliminating distractions; the audience focuses on visually important aspects such as the character’s facial expressions or other objects in the scene. This increases the feeling and leaves a strong impression on the viewer.
Contrast with Sound
Sound and silence are opposite extremes, and thus, silence is a sensation which has a great effect when used in contrast to sound. If the film is silent for a period of time and then the sound suddenly comes back, it is all the more profound and important to the structuring of the story.
Notable Examples
Sound of Metal
The film, Sound of Metal directed by Darius Marder has silence as the central theme of the film. Riz Ahmed stars as a heavy metal drummer who suffers intermittent hearing loss, which causes him to question his existence. Silence then becomes a main theme of the film, along with explor. The last shot shows the kind of solitude he has chosen for himself without another soul in sight as he sits alone on a park bench. This silence reflects his previous disorderly life and brings out his inner tranquility and that he is now at peace.
A Ghost Story
Using the example of David Lowery’s A Ghost Story, we will explain how the use of silence portrays aspects of grief, as well as the passing of time. One scene for instance is when Rooney Mara’s character assumes a rather immobile position as she eats a pie all through after the demise of her husband. In this scene, there is no music and limited action, which gives a creepy and meaningful feeling of her internal fight with the loss. Lowery employs the lack of sound also not only to express the emptiness but also timelessness as the spirit silently watches her.
Whiplash
In Whiplash, Damien Chazelle, the director, employs absence of sound to make the final performance in the film very dramatic. Suddenly, the fast rhythm of the jazz music is stopped shortly before the protagonist starts drumming. The lack of sound in this scene amplifies the drama of this scene and the weight of his obsession with achieving the best result at a physical level. Despite not being loud, the scene is effective as it is silent and short and thus the explosion of sound and movement is that much more powerful.
No Country for Old Men
No Country for Old Men employs limited audio throughout the film to brilliant effect. One of the scenes which can be distinguished with no question is a shootout scene when the action is limited and the background is silence, with only occasional shots being fired. The sound level is reduced to express the tension that the characters are stalking each other like animals. This limited use of audio gives the scene a more realistic and psychological feel that makes the scene tenser.
Further reading:
https://nofilmschool.com/why-filmmakers-use-silence
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-10-best-moments-of-silence-in-cinema-history/
https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/25474/1/FinalThesis_25112019.pdf
https://soundgirls.org/silence-as-sound/
https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/importance-silence-filmmaking-projects/
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-mn-silence-movies-trend-20170921-story.html
