Music and violence in European cinema: effects, topics and intertextuality (1970-2000)
Musique et violence dans le cinéma européen : effets, topiques et intertextualité (1970-2000)
Published on Monday, February 26, 2024
Abstract
Ce premier colloque, « Musique et violence dans le cinéma européen : effets, topiques et intertextualité (1970-2000) », d’une durée de trois jours, est consacré à la contextualisation et à une réflexion critique sur les enjeux du programme ANR Muviscreen. Les études de cas présentées permettront de développer des hypothèses sur l’importance des évolutions historiques, culturelles et techniques pour les phénomènes constatés ; une première périodisation pourra être proposée en dégageant des moments charnières et en montrant l’importance de films et de séquences emblématiques.
Announcement
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, Maison de la Recherche, Thursday 7, Friday 8, Saturday 9 November 2024
Argument
While violence is a daily occurrence on our screens in the digital and Internet age, its media presence has actually become increasingly important over the last fifty years. This phenomenon resonates with audiovisual fictions, which are a privileged vector of socio-cultural representations. In this context, music and sound act as emotional catalysts, accentuating or nuancing the portrayal of violence according to a variety of codes. From the late 1960s onwards, cinematic depictions of violence underwent profound changes. In 1968, a film classification system replaced the Motion Picture Production Code in Hollywood. In the last quarter of the 20th century, the role attributed to violence on screen became more explicit – hence the recurring reference to "ultraviolence" - and became a complex matter whose understanding varied according to various perspectives. The image of physical aggression could thus be interpreted as a sign of outrageous exploitation; as a radical, provocative and transgressive gesture; as the necessary unveiling of a sordid reality; as a cathartic spectacle; or even as a simple aesthetic or symbolic motif, emblematic of a fashionable "post-modern" style. This period was also characterized by major technological evolutions, from the emergence of Dolby to increasingly immersive infrabass, via sound effects techniques, the digital turn of the 1990s and the standardization of tension-generating drones in the early 2000s.
This question is at the core of the ANR project Muviscreen (2024-2027), "Music and Sound in Cinematic Violence. Hollywood/Europe (1970-2000)", which brings together musicologists and film specialists from the universities of Rouen, Paris Sorbonne Nouvelle and Lyon 2. Its aim is to identify topoi of violence in the cinematic use of music, noise, voice and sound design, through three major axes : exacerbation, distancing and internalization. This unprecedented typological contribution will help to conceptualize elements that have not yet been studied. The dimensions of sound and music have been largely neglected in academic approaches of this field. Work on film sound techniques and in-depth analysis of sound and music will ideally lead to new theorical insight for understanding how violence operates in films.
By mobilizing historical, aesthetic, analytical and technical approaches, we wish to test these three axes, whose porosity and intertwining of different registers evolve in various proportions throughout the period studied, according to numerous parameters: the sociopolitical context, technology, dominant currents, film genres, generations of directors and composers, or the emergence of new musical styles. In a comparative approach, we will examine a corpus that is part of a Hollywood/Europe circulation and includes emblematic films as well as less-analyzed productions.
This first three-day conference, "Music and violence in European cinema : effects, topics and intertextuality (1970-2000)", is devoted to contextualizing and critically reflecting on the issues at stake in the program. The case studies presented will help develop hypotheses on the importance of historical, cultural and technical developments, by identifying pivotal moments and showing the importance of emblematic films and sequences.
The aim is to contribute to the establishment of a typology of musical/cinematic figures of violence in cinema, based on the identification of specific languages and compositional strategies. The conference will also focus on questions related to the cultural history of the relationship between music and film. It will focus on the way in which violence can result in cinema from the presence of pre-existing music. Whether or not the cover versions of songs or famous musical works are diegetic, their relation to the brutality of the situations depicted on screen produces effects that oscillate between the three main modalities studied in the project. Many of the sequences, which have remained emblematic for their disturbing and aggressive nature, give a crucial role to works from the repertoire (classical, pop, rock...). The representation of how listening has been transformed by its technical reproduction (radio, recordings) highlights the importance of technology in the contemporary imaginary of violence.
Proposals for papers should focus on objects from the targeted period (1970-2000), with priority given to European productions. American films may constitute a privileged comparative corpus of study, as they are strongly involved in a dynamic of interaction with European works. Through analysis of original music as well as revivals of pre-existing pieces, the three main themes of exacerbation, distancing and interiorization will be the focus of attention.
Firstly, exacerbation consists in accentuating, to varying degrees, the violence shown on screen with brutal musical and sound figures, in a spectacular gesture of amplification. In this case, music can also play the role of announcement effect, or relay what the image does not show. Atonality, electro-acoustic and electronic music, progressive rock have all favored the emergence of new soundtrack styles, such as La Horse (P. Granier-Deferre, 1970), Le Serpent (H. Verneuil, 1972), Les Noces rouges (C. Chabrol, 1973), Texas Chainsaw Massacre (T. Hooper, 1974), Peur sur la ville (H. Verneuil, 1975), Suspiria (D. Argento, 1977), Halloween (J. Carpenter, 1978), Tesis (Amenabar, 1996) and Funny Games (M. Haneke, 1997).
Music can then be used in cinema to create a phenomenon of distancing, suggesting a reflective posture on the part of the spectator. From irony to counterpoint, numerous sequences – which can include intertextuality as a referential or parodic mise en abyme – are based on this mechanism : the merciless stalking of a hitman in City of Violence (S. Sollima, 1970), the cold room lined with corpses in Cinque bambole per la luna d'agosto (M. Bava, 1970), the rape scene in A Clockwork Orange (S. Kubrick, 1971), the helicopter attack in Apocalypse Now (F. F. Coppola, 1979), the torture scene in Reservoir Dogs (Q. Tarantino, 1992), the masked murderer at the start of Scream (W. Craven, 1996), the effects of drugs at the end of Requiem for a dream (D. Aronofsky, 2000) and the “antechronological” start of Irréversible (Noé, 2002).
By focusing on a character during a violent scene, music and/or sound design finally produce an internalizing effect that tips the film into a subjective, psychological dimension. Our perception is then directed towards an alternative reality, linking violence – whether frontal or attenuated – to the intimate sphere (whether from the point of view of the executioner or the victim). This principle is expressed in several scenes from Marathon Man (J. Schlesinger, 1976), Scarface (B. De Palma, 1983), Léon (L. Besson, 1994), La Ligne Rouge (T. Malick, 1998), Fight Club (D. Fincher, 1999), Dancer in the Dark (Lars Von Trier, 2000), Trouble Every Day (C. Denis, 2001) and Darkness (J. Balagueró, 2002).
Within the framework of the ANR, two other conferences will be dedicated to two more questions, film genres and technical issues:
- Music and Violence in European Cinematic Genres - Cerisy-URN (Martin Barnier, Cécile Carayol, Laurent Guido and Jérôme Rossi), in July 2025.
- Sound and violence in Cinema : Technological Articulations - Lyon 2, Passages XXXXI, (Martin Barnier, Chloé Huvet and Jérôme Rossi), in March 2026.
Submission guidelines
For this first conference, proposals for papers of around 300 words, accompanied by a short bibliographical note, should be sent to Cécile Carayol (cecile.carayol@univ-rouen.fr) and Laurent Guido (laurent.guido@sorbonne-nouvelle.fr)
by April 20, 2024.
Language: French, English
Organization
Conference organized by Cécile Carayol (Université Rouen Normandie, CEREdI/IRCAV) et Laurent Guido (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, IRCAV).
Scientific Committee
- Martin Barnier (Université Lyon 2)
- Richard Bégin (Université de Montréal)
- Cécile Carayol (Université de Rouen)
- Riccardo Fassone (Università di Torino)
- Gérôme Guibert (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)
- Laurent Guido (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)
- Steve K. Halfyard (The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland)
- Chloé Huvet (Université Paris Saclay)
- Angel Quintana (Universitat de Girona)
- Jérôme Rossi (Université Lyon 2)
- Catherine Rudent (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)
Subjects
- Europe (Main category)
Places
- Maison de la recherche, Sorbonne Nouvelle
Paris, France (75)
Date(s)
- Saturday, April 20, 2024
Attached files
Keywords
- musicologie, cinéma, musique de film, musico-filmique, violence, effet, topique, intertextualité, Europe
Contact(s)
- Laurent Guido
courriel : laurent [dot] guido [at] sorbonne-nouvelle [dot] fr
Information source
- Cécile Carayol
courriel : cecile [dot] carayol [at] univ-rouen [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Music and violence in European cinema: effects, topics and intertextuality (1970-2000) », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Monday, February 26, 2024, https://doi.org/10.58079/vwu2
