Comments on: Sonic/Temporal Ambiguity as Evidence of Psychosis in Martha Marcy May Marlene https://designingsound.org/2013/05/06/sonic-temporal-ambiguity-as-evidence-of-psychosis-in-martha-marcy-may-marlene/ Art and technique of sound design Sun, 09 Aug 2015 16:52:27 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.8 By: dizzyies https://designingsound.org/2013/05/06/sonic-temporal-ambiguity-as-evidence-of-psychosis-in-martha-marcy-may-marlene/#comment-34236 Sat, 11 May 2013 13:44:50 +0000 https://designingsound.org/?p=23245#comment-34236 Hi Shaun,
having found very interesting the plot you described… and so challenging your investigations… at last I managed to borrow a copy of the movie!

Really, as you said, the film provides plenty of “clever uses of sound and dialog”!
As you urged to inspect more, I particularly appreciated two different points, that I found very noticeable of the special use of sound that you highlighted in your rundown.

(Please DS readers, as Shaun advices, skip this if you still plan to watch the movie!)

The first “piece” happens when Martha is having a motorboat ride with Ted. At some point she wants to have a bath… she stands up at the stem, then she plunges into the lake. The scene suddenly cuts to past, and the plunge becomes a long jump through a gorge between the rocks until she dives into a deep pool of water in the woods.
As she dives in, we hear a special rumble, an underwater-type of sound that works great both as a subjective sound (what Martha is hearing) and as a murky ambience tone that wraps the scene with a “suspence”, a disturbing presence. It fills in our head, at the background and foreground levels. Its “suspence” character unfolds as the sound extends over the next unexpected cut-in, where the camera shoots Martha while she is sneaking into Patrick’s bedroom.

The second “piece” is the party sequence, where Martha reveals a nervous breakdown. Over the notes of “Sophisticated Lady” playing in the background, a harsh tone gradually creeps in to emphasize the quickly growing tension with Martha giving vent to her paranoia. The near-metallic sound spreads in intensity, timbre and dissonance as Martha sobs and cries, and rugged stokes and rubs of string bows build up in turn.
Again, the sound result is twofold: on one side, it supports the progressive drama, on the other side it reflects the state of dread confusion that makes its way in the head of Martha. It is probably the same noise that Martha hears in her haunted head. The sound abruptly cuts off only when Martha finally manages to accomplish the physical act of ingesting a glass of water. There I found that the subjective character of the ipnotic sound was so terribly clear and effective!

To the end of this discussion, I wish to thank you again for your article.
You unveiled a nice and thrilling movie, some really creative and skilled sound ideas, and a great case study for inspiration too!

Greetings,
diz.

]]>