Kontroll, Montage, Audio, and Otherness

Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, and Grigori Alexandrov outlined their views on the proper usage of the new film technology of sound in their essay, Statement on Sound, as such: “Only the contrapuntal use of sound vis-à-vis the visual fragment of montage will open up new possibilities for the development and perfection of montage. The first experiments in sound must aim at a sharp discord with the visual images.” Nimród Antal's directorial debut Kontroll provides an excellent example of how powerful this technique can be when put into practice. The juxtaposition of the layered sounds, and the further juxtaposition with the mise-en-scène, especially in a particular six shot montage from 1:37:37 to 1:37:59, combine to create an extremely disconcerting feeling of otherness. In a very brief period of screen time, Antal manages to artfully utilize both ordinary diagetic sound and setting against otherworldly non-diagetic sound to convey a powerful and complex feeling that highlights the difference between the hooded character and every other aspect of the film.

In order to properly explain how jarring the occurrence of the non-diagetic sound is to the audience, it is first necessary to establish the ordinariness of the setting. The entire film is set in the Budapest Metro system, a form of mass transportation, used for the daily commute. Over a million people are estimated to ride the Metro per day. It is the very definition of an ordinary, everyday setting. Beyond the explicit ordinariness of the setting, there is an implied subtext of regularity behind choosing the Metro. A traveler can rely on the Metro trains to arrive punctually and with regularity. They have to, people base their schedules around the idea that the Metro will arrive on time. Unlike buses, there isn't any traffic or other possible delays. Furthering this idea is the fact that standard time was created in both Great Britain and in the United States as a response to the needs of the new railroad systems. The Metro is a symbol for regularity and standardization.

Despite this backdrop of regularity, something decidedly strange is occurring in the Metro of Kontroll. Much of the film is spent giving viewers insight into the fictionalized day to day life of the Kontroll, the Metro workers responsible for randomly checking passengers' tickets to ensure that they have paid for their rides, and assigning fines if they haven't. The main focus of the camera is on Bolscú, the protagonist who, despite having once been very skilled in an unknown field, now not only works as Kontroll, but also bizarrely lives full time in the Metro system. While Bolscú's behavior is certainly abnormal, the true mystery in the Metro system is a hooded figure has been pushing people in front of speeding Metro trains, making the murders look like suicides. It is the foreignness of this hooded figure to the clockwork-like system of the Metro that becomes emphasized through the clever usage of sound.

To set the stage for shot 1, Bolscú was at a disco party taking place in the Metro system, when he saw the hooded figure. Bolscú had seen him push someone in front of a train earlier in the film, and therefore knew that he was responsible for the murders, so he began to follow him. The hooded figure disappears, but Bolscú correctly guesses that he ducked into a shadowy doorway. Bolscú is ambushed upon trying to leave the room, which leads a brief fight, resulting in a shelf full of various objects falling on them. Bolscú recovers, leaves the room, and looks back at the doorway. Shot 1 is a point of view shot from Bolscú's perspective of the doorway. The entire room on the other side is cloaked in shadow. The only sound present is ambient noise, with very quiet tones of mood building music. At this point, it is uncertain as to whether the hooded figure survived the tussle. Then, as the figure's hands suddenly appear clutching the sides of the doorway, an eerie, high-pitched, almost screeching sound occurs. It is extremely reminiscent of the sound used in Hitchcock's Psycho's infamous shower scene. Whether or not this similarity is intended as an homage is unclear (though the sound bears such a striking resemblance it seems likely), but it is definitely an attempt to convey the same emotions. The shrill sound carries a connotation of fear. As it is not a sound one is likely to encounter during their day to day life, it also implies the unknown. And due to the similarity to the shower scene sound, it carries an association with murder. Interestingly enough, the high-pitched Psycho-esque sound fades into a sonic match with the the squeals of the Metro train accelerating away from the platform. This brings the setting back to the forefront, and emphasizes the contrast between the sound associated with the hooded figure, and the more natural sounds associated with the setting. While both sounds are shrill and piercing, the sound the Metro train makes as it leaves is a normal, everyday sound, whereas the shower scene style sound is distinctly abnormal and foreboding.

Shot 2 is a close up on Bolscú with the train moving past in the background. The diagetic sound of the accelerating train continues, but it is very quickly joined by a non-diagetic, high energy background music that sounds like it was created using an unusual stringed instrument. It is important to note that this is not the first time the audience was introduced to this background track. It was initially used when the hooded figure was first seen in the film, and played up until he was about to commit a murder. The song is completely different from any other song featured in the soundtrack. The band that provided the soundtrack to Kontroll, a Hungarian band called Neo, plays a very European sounding blend of electronic and rock music throughout. This song, however, has a distinctly foreign, Eastern sound to it. It is not a sound that one would ever hear in the Metro system of Budapest. This bizarre choice of music compounds the feeling of otherness that permeates this entire encounter. It also carries connotations of murder due to its previous associations. Shot 3 is an over the shoulder shot from the room behind the hooded figure. It shows Bolscú slowly backing up towards the tracks, as the train finally moves out off the shot. As he does this, the overlap of the diagetic and non-diagetic sound continues. In this case, unlike before, the two sounds do not have any remote tonal similarities. The two sounds are completely at odds with each other. There is definitely a conflict between them, the train sound is very mechanical and industrial, whereas the string music sounds almost third world. Shot 4 switches back to a point of view shot of the hooded figure leaving the doorway and approaching Bolscú. The overlayed sounds remain constant. Shot 5 is over Bolscú's shoulder, while he turns around and looks towards the tracks. As this shot progresses, the noise of the train has finally disappeared, leaving only the song played by the stringed instrument. At this point, all audio links to the setting have been severed. All that remains is the strangeness of the stringed instruments. There is nothing left in the audio to ground the situation to the everyday, which emphasizes the entire encounter as surreal.

Shot 6 is a fixed camera shot from the tracks. First Bolscú, and then the hooded figure jump down onto the tracks and begin running. The angle of the shot only shows them from about their waists down. The foreign sounding string music continues to play. As Bolscú jumps down, however, a slight burst of percussion begins as soon he makes impact with the tracks. This takes place instead of the diagetic sound one would expect. The replacement of the natural diagetic sound by the similar non-diagetic sound, which is part of the stringed background music, continues to remind the audience how far removed everything about this occurrence is from the normal. The placement of the camera is very close to where both characters make impact, and the shot is framed in such a way to emphasize the feet, yet this impact and the footsteps that follow as they run down the tracks are not represented diagetically in the audio track. The idea that there should definitely be audible footsteps and impact sounds is supported by the fact that they are in a silent, hollow chamber. Footsteps in this scenario should be explosive and echoing. Instead they are non-existent, leaving the viewer with only the foreign string sound. This last disconcerting aspect of the audio leaves the audience with a very strong feeling that the events that are taking place happen outside the realm of the everyday.

Eisenstein, Pudovkin, and Alexandrov's essay focused on the importance of utilizing the new film technology of sound correctly. To their minds, this meant using sound that, rather than emphasizing the images in a montage, acted contrary to them. They believed that this would add new dimensions of complexity to the montage. These six shots from Kontroll are a beautiful example of how well this idea can be implemented. These shots could work perfectly well with only diagetic sounds. The hooded figure would come to the doorway, the train would begin to leave, and then Bolscú would back up and jump down on to the tracks with the hooded figure following shortly after, with the relevant sound effects accompanying each action. This would be a perfectly fine scene. But in an attempt to portray the hooded figure, and any encounter that includes him, as abnormal, as not fitting in with every other aspect of the setting, as having a deep sense of otherness, the choice was made to add two distinctly foreign non-diagetic sounds with loaded meanings. The end result is a strong feeling elicited in the audience that the encounter Bolscú has is far beyond the ordinary. The effect that Eisenstein, Pudovkin, and Alexandrov wrote of, the added complexity sound can give to a montage, is realized in this sequence of Kontroll.

Noir: Genre, Something More, or Something Entirely Different?

Quick, think about the Noir. What do you see? Come up with a mental snapshot of the most Noir scene you possibly can. If you are anything like me, and I sincerely hope for your sake that you are not, you have an image similar to this: There's a trench coat and hat clad man. He's a back alley of some large, but grimy city, stumbling away from the camera into mist. Streetlights cut bright vertical lines into the mist. And that's it. My quintessential image of pretty much any other genre includes so much more action, or blatant meaning. My Western image is the moment the flawed-but-deep-down-inside-a-good-man hero, who looks like Clint Eastwood no matter how hard I try to imagine someone else, grasps his gun, about to draw in the final showdown. Science Fiction involves an epic space battle taking place with a planet in the background. Romance is, naturally, a passionate kiss involving one of those actors that girls adore but guys never really understand why, and the scorching hot female lead, next to a picturesque lake. So on and so forth. What these have in common is that they are all, in my opinion, the iconic, and somewhat cliched, moments of each of these genres. Can the same be said about my image of the Noir? I think that actually might be the case.

What makes the Noir so unique is that unlike other genres, the common ground between different Noir films isn't similar themes and narratives. Many Noir films do share common themes and narratives, but the Noir is a diverse enough group of films that those aspects can't be the what connects it. Because of this, I'm not entirely sure the Noir can be considered a genre. I see it as more of a style of film making. What makes a Noir film “Noir” is instead a combination of the style of the film, and the mood it evokes.

Perhaps the best evidence of the power of the style and mood of the Noir is that people often talk about its realism. The Noir can really only be viewed as a fantasy world. Yes, it takes place in cities, with real humans, but the real world is nothing like the Noir. The seedy underbelly of the city, the dame chasing detective, these are fantastical caricatures, complete exaggerations, which when put together form a cohesive, but unrealistic universe. Why then, do people always talk about the realism of the Noir? It's not the fictitious universe that the films are set in, and it's certainly not their narratives. Instead, the unique style and tone of the Noir, admittedly in conjunction with certain themes, holistically give an amazing impression of immersion to this gritty fantasy world.

The aesthetic style plays a huge role in this. Black and white film,while the only option at the time, made great strides in making the Noir feel the way it does. The stylistic decisions Noir filmmakers made were also huge factors. The Noir takes place almost exclusively at night, with low key lighting, allowing for the cinematographers to play with light and shadow. Light often comes down in vertical swatches, such as a search light, or my aforementioned streetlight, rather than a typical unfocused billowy lighting. These factors combine to give the Noir a feeling of darkness, grime, and loneliness.

Isolation can also be seen in other aspects of the Noir. For example, Noir films are often narrated in first person by the protagonist. This limited view point, coupled with the traditional “me against the world” situations that these characters are often put into leads to a further sense of alienation of the viewer.

What is interesting is that the aspects of the Noir that make it so unique are completely a function of the time period the films were being produced. Black and white film was the medium of the time, and black and white film just happens to be fantastic at conveying the contrasts of light and dark shadows that makes the Noir so visually appealing. It is entirely conceivable that, had color film developed earlier, the Noir would never have existed. The mood of the Noir is also a reflection of the overall mood of the country at the time. The Noir was at its peak when the country was recovering from the bloodiest war in mankind's history, which in turn sparked an economic recovery from the Great Depression. The people of the United States were, to paraphrase Paul Shrader, sick of the forced optimism during the depression, disillusioned with the war, and ready to accept a darker brand of films. In other words, it was the perfect time for the Noir to come into existence.

This lucky timing led to seemingly random factors occurring all at the same time, and resulted in the Noir, which is, in my opinion, the most cohesive and immersive group of films. They may not be the greatest films ever made (all though some are), but they do evoke their intended feeling on the audience better than any genre does. Every single aspect of them, from the narratives to the style, serves to create the lonely, gritty, and dark mood. Call the Noir what you will, a genre, a style, a reflection of the zeitgeist, but it is undeniable that it succeed at its intended purpose, to make the audience feel a particular way.

Bloggers note: I initially intended this to be defining whether or not the Noir was a genre, if not what it was, and then applying that do Chinatown. The blog took a different direction as I was writing it. I do want to answer those questions and I believe they help clarify my argument, I just couldn't find a way to integrate them into my blog. Basically, I see the Noir as a style of films. It is a style heavily influenced by the time period they were being created in, but at its core a style. I wouldn't discount neo-Noir as not being Noir because they were made outside of that particular time period, as they still contain the style that made the Noir the Noir. For example, I definitely consider Sin City a Noir film. I don't, however, see Chinatown as a Noir. Chinatown is similar to Noir films through its narrative, theme, characters, and setting. If the Noir were a genre, then Chinatown would definitely be a part of it. However, Chinatown did not stylistically elicit the same dark feeling in me that I find essential for classification as Noir. A large part of this is the use of color, and the large number of scenes during the day time. To further clarify, if there were a black and white film that was stylistically similar to the Noir, and had the same mood about it, but had an entirely different narrative, theme, and setting from the typical Noir film, I would consider it more “Noir” than Chinatown.