CINEMASCOPE: THE SOUND OF SILENCE.

'Films are 50 percent visual and 50 percent sound,' filmmaker David Lynch had once said. 'Sometimes, sound even overplays the visual.'

This is certainly true for the Riz Ahmed-starrer Sound of Metal, which tells the story of how a drummer's life unravels after he starts losing his hearing. Sound, and lack of sound, make this film a truly immersive experience. At a time when filmmakers and storytellers are experimenting with technologies like virtual reality (VR) in their filmmaking, debut director Darius Marder manages to transport his audience with some seemingly simple editing decisions.

We spend a lot of time experiencing the world as the drummer, Ruben (Ahmed), is experiencing it. When he is starting to lose his hearing, the audience also sits through moments of silence. We see the clear sense of frustration on Ruben's face and feel the noise inside his head, while hearing very little.

When Ruben struggles to take a listening test, we hear the muffled words he is hearing and attempting to repeat. The perspective then shifts, and we see the doctor taking notes as Ruben misidentifies most words, before being unable to decipher them at all.

Riz Ahmed's quietly powerful Sound of Metal was one of the few cinematic highlights in an otherwise bleak year at the movies

Marder uses editing techniques that we have seen before. In John Krasinski's A Quiet Place (2018), silence plays a big role in creating a world where a family is struggling to survive from blind, noise-sensitive creatures. Instead of dramatic music, it is often the lack of sound that brings us to the edge of our seats.

In Edgar Wright's Baby Driver (2017), Baby, a getaway driver, listens to music on his earphones to tune out his surroundings, while driving away from crime scenes. Baby has a milder form of tinnitus, the same ailment that Ruben suffers from in Sound of Metal.

And in countless action films, after loud blasts temporarily knock out the hero, we hear a ringing sound for a few moments as they attempt to re-orient themselves. But for Ruben, instead of a temporary ringing sound, it is a constant mechanical sound; something like a hybrid between a drill and a vacuum cleaner.

With his hearing, Ruben is not only losing one of his senses; he is losing his way of making a livelihood, he is losing the chance to play with his bandmate and girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke), who he is deeply in love...

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