Printmaster Landmark · 2019
Sound of Metal
Directed by Darius Marder
Hearing loss is approached through changing filters, vibration, silence and technological mediation, making listening a question of identity rather than a single simulation effect.
Printmaster editorial
Why it matters
The film moves among Ruben's perception, external acoustic reality and forms of assisted hearing without treating any one state as neutral. Its sound design makes bodily change immediate while resisting the idea that technical restoration can simply return a person to an unchanged world.
Listen for
- Transitions between external space and Ruben's narrowed or disrupted perception
- Vibration, touch and visual attention taking over information previously carried by sound
Research & close listening
The body as recorded material
Nicolas Becker describes recording Riz Ahmed with a stethoscopic microphone, sensitive contact microphones and a microphone used inside the mouth to gather bodily sound. He and Darius Marder also worked on the narrative arc of the changing perspective, avoiding a mechanical rule that every close-up must switch to Ruben’s internal experience. These accounts describe the film’s constructed point of audition. They should not be read as a universal account of deafness or of how every cochlear-implant user hears.
Read the source JumpCut · Interview with Nicolas Becker ↗
A listening exercise
Printmaster editorial · A prompt for your own analysis
Track one transition between Ruben’s perspective and a more external sound field. Note the timing relative to the picture cut and what happens to speech intelligibility, bodily texture and distance. Then find a close-up that does not trigger the transition you expected.
Seminar question: How does changing the rules of perspective over the film alter your relationship to Ruben?
Recognition sources
Recognised sound contributors
Provenance note. Editorial interpretation is written by Printmaster. Quotations are attributed and linked. Recognition records provide a checkable research trail but may not be complete screen credits.