Sonic Expressions of Violence and Technological Transformations in European Cinema from the 1970s to the Digital Transition
Expressions sonores de la violence et transformations technologiques dans le cinéma européen, des années 1970 à la transition numérique
Abstract
This international conference is the final scholarly event of the French-funded ANR MuViScreen project, "Musical and Sonic Representations of Violence on Screen: Resonances Between Hollywood and Europe (1970–2000)." The call for papers focuses more specifically on the intrinsic relationship between violence, music, and sound in the context of technological developments from the 1970s to the early 2000s, particularly the blurring of boundaries between sound effects, sound design, and music, within a European corpus.
Announcement
Argument
This conference is the third and final scholarly event of the ANR Muviscreen project entitled “Musical and Sonic Representations of Violence on Screen: Resonances Between Hollywood and Europe (1970–2000).” It builds upon the themes addressed during the first two conferences: an initial typology was proposed through an aesthetic-historical and transversal approach to tropes, styles, and auteurist practices (the way a director approaches violence musically); the musical and sonic representation of violence was then examined through the lens of specific film genres such as the thriller, the crime film, the war film, and the art-horror film. This call for papers focuses more specifically on the intrinsic relationship between violence, music, and sound in light of technological developments from the 1970s to the early 2000s (through a blurring between sound effects, sound design, and music). In any case, this project investigates three major axes conceived as the central framework of the project: exacerbation (intensification of the musical and sonic representation of violence), distancing (counterpoint, incongruity, or irony), and internalization (subjective focus, whether from the perspective of the victim or the perpetrator)—without excluding their porosity or interweaving.
Sound technology plays a crucial role in intensifying the impact of cinematic violence—a topic that this conference seeks to examine and explore further whilst focusing on a European corpus. The period between the late 1960s and the turn of the 2000s is particularly pertinent in order to grasp the aesthetic consequences of widespread use of multitrack sound (the introduction of stereo, followed by 5.1 surround sound in the 1990s) in European cinema. Stereophony, followed by the radical transformation of sound in movie theaters through use of powerful loudspeakers, renewed the impact of scenes of violence by amplifying gunfire, screams, explosion sounds, metallic vibrations, percussion instruments, and so on. By the late 1960s, spectacular films released in 70mm enabled the reproduction of stereophonic sound on magnetic tracks and analog multitrack mixing. These new methods of sound mixing led to research and experimentation in cinematic sound spatialization, featuring increasingly sophisticated sound effects (The Wicker Man, R. Hardy, 1973, UK; Profondo Rosso, D. Argento, 1975, Italy). The sound of weapons acquired more pronounced textures c(Once Upon a Time in America, S. Leone, 1984, Italy/U.S.A.; Funny Games, M. Haneke, 1997, Austria; Stalingrad, J.-J. Annaud, 2001, Europe/U.S.A.).
Numerous films thus provide an ideal framework for exploring the sonic interactions between noise, sound, voice, and music: thunderstorms, creaking doors, or screams can replace music, or respond to stingers composed of clusters (L'assassino ha riservato nove poltrone, G. Bennati, 1974, Italy); certain sound effects are integrated into the musical score itself (the bells in Le Boucher, C. Chabrol, 1970, France; the car accident in Bleu, K. Kieslowski, 1993, Poland/France), while others belong to an aesthetic of musique concrète (Le Serpent, H. Verneuil, Germany/France/Italy, 1973).
From 1977, the stereophonic sound market was largely dominated by the Dolby Stereo system, popularized by the Star Wars saga (G. Lucas, USA). A film such as The Witch’s Cry (J. Skolimowski, 1977, UK) makes violence physically palpable through stereo sound. By the end of the period covered by the Muviscreen programme, between 1990 and 2003, new digital technologies were intensifying this phenomenon further with the introduction of 5.1 surround sound, which offered a more immersive experience, while the subwoofer (the “.1”) amplified low frequencies and gave a physical dimension to perception of violence, felt in body of the spectator. The violence of an explosion, for example, is directly felt in the viewer’s skeletal structure. Certain high-impact sounds concentrate violence (Punishment Park, P. Watkins, 1971, UK/USA) and characters’ anger (the moped in Diva, J.-J. Beineix, 1981, France, or Rosetta, J.-P. and L. Dardenne, 1999, France). Synthesizer pads, drones, and saturated textures became increasingly common in soundtracks, sometimes to the point of inducing nausea (Angst, G. Kargl, 1983, Austria; Tesis, A. Amenabar, 1996, Spain; Sombre, P. Grandrieux, 1998, Fr.; Irréversible, G. Noé, 2002, Fr.). Films produced entirely in digital format (images, sound, editing, projection) are shown in theaters using technologies such as Texas Instruments’ DLP Cinema and the LC Concept, a French digital sound format combined with 35mm film, invented by Pascal Chédeville and Elisabeth Löchen and presented in Paris on June 26, 1991. Bertrand Tavernier’s crime thriller L.627 (1992), for example, used the LC Concept for its theatrical release.
From 1991, digital multitrack recording became standard in mixing and in movie theaters (5.1, then 7.1, Atmos, etc.), allowing for the creation of multiple layers of sound. As a result, the sounds of weapons, screams, explosions, and impacts of all kinds further heighten the level of violence (particularly through the subwoofer, which produces low-frequency sounds). Music interwoven with sound effects (drones, various vibrations, high-volume bass, percussion, sustained chords) intensifies auditory tension. The technological shift that took place between the late 1960s and the early 2000s partly explains the radical change in the ways that violence affects audiences. These developments are corroborated by aesthetic transformations in music and sound during the same period.
Possible research topics include but are not limited to:
- The evolution of violent sounds in relation to technological changes over the proposed period
- Classification and comparison of violent sound effects: weapons, blades, explosions, blows, impacts...
- Techniques for creating and amplifying the sound of violence: sound effects, sound loops, post-production processing...
- Roles and uses of the voice in scenes of violence
- Blurred boundaries between music and noise: synthesizer pads, drones, tension effects...
- Integration of noise into the musical score
Submissions guidelines
Proposals between 150 and 300 words, accompanied by a short biography, should be sent to: chloe.huvet@univ-evry.fr, jerome.rossi@univ-lyon2.fr and martin.barnier@lyon2.fr
by September 30, 2026.
Notification of the committee’s decision will be sent by October 15, 2026.
Further information
Two concerts are scheduled during the conference: a film concert on April 7, 2027, performed by students from Gilles Alonzo’s film music composition class at the CNSMDL (ENS Lyon, Théâtre Kantor), and a concert on April 8, 2027, performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Lumière Lyon 2 University.
Scientific Committee
- Martin Barnier (Université Lumière Lyon 2)
- Cécile Carayol (Université de Rouen Normandie)
- Lisa Coulthard (The University of British Columbia)
- James Deaville (Carleton University)
- Laurent Guido (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)
- Chloé Huvet (Université Évry Paris-Saclay/IUF)
- Jason Julliot (Université de Rouen Normandie)
- Jérôme Rossi (Université Lumière Lyon 2)
Organizing Committee
- Martin Barnier (Université Lumière Lyon 2)
- Chloé Huvet (Université Évry Paris-Saclay/IUF)
- Emmanuel Reibel (École Normale Supérieure de Lyon)
- Jérôme Rossi (Université Lumière Lyon 2)
References
Barnier, Martin, « L’espace de la peur dans le son de quelques films espagnols récents », dans Jean-Claude Séguin (dir.), Les séminaires du GRIMIA: Coprésences, Lyon, GRIHM/GRIMIA/Université Lumière Lyon 2, 2001, p. 21-38.
Baumgartner, Michael et Boczkowska, Ewelina (dir.), Music, Collective Memory, Trauma, and Nostalgia in European Cinema after the Second World War, New York, Routledge, 2020.
Beugnet, Martine, Cinema and Sensation: French Film and the Art of Transgression, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
Coulthard, Lisa, « Horrible Sex: The Sexual Relationship in New Extremism », dans Lindsay Coleman (dir.), Sex and Storytelling in Modern Cinema, Londres, I.B. Tauris, 2015, p. 461-476.
Coulthard, Lisa, « Dirty Sound: Noise in New Extremism », dans Amy Herzog, John Richardson et Carol Vernallis (dir.), Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media, New York, Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 115-126.
––, « Listening to Silence: The Films of Michael Haneke », Cinephile, vol. 6, n° 1, 2010, p. 18-24.
––, « The Scream of Rape: Bruno Dumont’s Twenty-Nine Palms », dans Dominique Russell (dir.), Rape in Art Cinema, Londres, Continuum, 2010, p. 171-185.
––, « Violent Aurality: Listening to New French Extremism », dans Tanya Horeck et Tina Kendall (dir.), The New Extremism in Cinema: From France to Europe, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2010, p. 180-191.
Donnelly, Kevin J. et Mollaghan, Amy (dir.), Haunted Soundtracks: Audiovisual Cultures of Memory, Landscape, and Sound, Londres, Bloomsbury, 2024.
Donnelly, Kevin J., Folk Horror on Film: Return of the British Repressed, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2023.
Hayward, Philip (dir.), Terror Tracks: Music, Sound and Horror Cinema, Oakville, Equinox Publishing, 2009.
Horeck, Tanya et Kendall, Tina (dir.), The New Extremism in Cinema: From France to Europe, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2011.
Kerner, Aaron et Knapp, Jonathan L. (dir.), Extreme Cinema: Affective Strategies in Transnational Media, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2016.
Kulezic-Wilson, Danijela et Greene, Liz (dir.), The Palgrave Handbook of Sound Design and Music in Screen Media, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
La Guardia, Alice, L’ultima maniera. Le giallo, un cinéma des passions, Aix-en-Provence, Rouge Profond, 2021.
Rodriguez, Marie-Soledad (dir.), Le fantastique dans le cinéma espagnol contemporain, Paris, Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2011.
Vincze, Teréz, « The Phenomenology of Trauma. Sound and Haptic Sensuality in Son of Saul », Acta Universitatis Sapientiae. Film and Media Studies, n° 13, 2016, p. 107-126. DOI : 10.1515/ausfm-2016-0017.
Walsh, Caitríona, « Obscene Sounds: Sex, Death, and the Body On-Screen », Music and the Moving Image, vol. 10, n° 3, 2017, p. 36-54.
Winters, Ben, « Corporeality, Musical Heartbeats, and Cinematic Emotion », Music, Sound and the Moving Image, vol. 2, n° 1, 2008, p. 3-25.
Places
- Université Lumière Lyon 2/École Normale Supérieure de Lyon
Lyon, France (69)
Event attendance modalities
Full on-site event
Attached files
Keywords
- technologie sonore, immersion auditive, cinéma européen (1970-2000)
Contact(s)
- Chloé Huvet
courriel : chloe [dot] huvet [at] univ-evry [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Sonic Expressions of Violence and Technological Transformations in European Cinema from the 1970s to the Digital Transition », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Thursday, June 18, 2026, https://doi.org/10.58079/16fiw
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