Locating the Voice in Film

Where is the place of the voice in film? Where others have focused on Hollywood film, this volume aims to extend the field to other cinemas from around the world, encompassing Latin America, Asia and Africa amongst others. Traditional theoretical accounts, based on classical narrative cinema, examine the importance of the voice in terms of a desired perfect match between visuals and sonic effects. But, as the chapters of this volume illustrate, what is normative in one film industry may not apply in another. The widespread practices of dubbing, postsynch sound and "playback singing" in some countries, for instance, provide an alternative means of understanding the location of the voice in the soundtrack. Through seventeen original chapters, this volume situates the voice in film across a range of diverse national, transnational and cultural contexts, presenting readings which challenge traditional readings of the voice in film in exciting new ways. By taking a comparative view, this volume posits that the voice may be best understood as a mobile object, one whose trajectory follows a broader network of global flows. The various chapters explore the cultural transformations the voice undergoes as it moves from one industry to another. In doing so, the volume addresses sound practices which have been long been neglected, such as dubbing and non-synch sound, as well the ways in which sound technologies have shaped nationally specific styles of vocal performance. In addressing the place of the voice in film, the book intends to nuance existing theoretical writing on the voice while applying these critical insights in a global context.

Autorentext

Tom Whittaker is Senior Lecturer in Film and Spanish Cultural Studies at the University of Liverpool. He is the author of The Films of El?as Querejeta: A Producer of Landscapes and co-editor of Performance and Spanish Film. Sarah Wright is Reader in Hispanic Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is the author of The Trickster-Function in the Theatre of Garc?a Lorca, Tales of Seduction: The Figure of Don Juan in Spanish Culture, and The Child in Spanish Cinema.

Inhalt

Introduction: Tom Whittaker and Sarah Wright 1. Rey Chow, The Writing Voice in Cinema: A Preliminary Discussion, Rey Chow 2. Jennifer Fleeger, Tito Schipa, Italian Film Sound, and Opera's Legacy on Screen 3. Christine Ehrick, The Voice of Argentina: Gender, Humour and the National Soundscape in the Film Comedy of Nin? Marshall 4. Pavitra Sundar, Gender, Bawdiness, and Bodily Voices: Bombay Cinema's Audiovisual Contract and the 'Ethnic' Woman 5. Colleen Montgomery, Double Doublage: Vocal Performance in the French Dubbed Versions of Pixar's Toy Story and Cars 6. Rayna Denison ,Anime's Star Voices: Voice Actor (Seiyu) Performance and Stardom in Japan 7. Tom Whittaker, Woody's Spanish "Double": Vocal Performance, Ventriloquism and the Sound of Dubbing 8. Tessa Dwyer, Mad Max, Accented English and Same-Language Dubbing 9. Catherine O'Rawe, Anna Magnani: Voice, Body, Accent 10. Lisa Shaw. Carmen Miranda's Voice in Hollywood 11. Nessa Johnston. "Feeling the Voice: Embodied Aural Encounters in Under the Bombs (Philippe Aractangi, 2007) 12. Alexander Fisher. Vocal Spaces and Oral Traces: Voice, Orality, and Ousmane Sembene's Early Postcolonial Critique 13. Negar Mottadeheh. Crude Extractions: The Voice in Iranian Cinema 14. Sarah Wright, "Spectral Voices and Resonant Bodies in Fernando Guzzoni's Dogflesh (Carne de perro, 2012) 15. Nikki J. Y. Lee and Julian Stringer, Snowpiercer: Sound Designable Voices and the South Korean Global Film 16. Albertine Fox, Performing Through Space: overflow, displacement, and the voice in Keep Your Right Up: A Place on Earth (Jean-Luc Godard, 1987) 17. Davina Quinlivan. A Dark and Shiny Place': the Disembodied Female Voice, Irigarayan Subjectivity and the 'Political Erotics' of Hearing Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)