Nor the Eye Filled with Seeing:
The Sound of Vision in Film
By Stan Link
The increasingly sophisticated use of sound and music in film has not
yet dispelled the notion that cinema is an essentially visual medium.
But whether or not films primary address is to the eye, its visuality
has two faces. On the one hand, there is the sense in which film presents
images to be seen: it captures objects for display. But on the other,
we may also encounter cinemas visuality in its presentation of seeing
for display: there are clearly ways in which cinemas techniques,
signs, and images become place-holders for vision itself. In other
words, along with objects, film presents modes of visual attention for
display. The point-of-view shot is perhaps the most obvious. Regardless
of the object observed, the characters vision itself becomes visible.
The visuality of film resides in its own looking, as well as in its
being looked at.
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