The Interplay of Silence, Diegetic Sound and Music in Contemporary German Cinema

Scholarly works on film sound are vastly outnumbered by works on film visual aspects. One reason for this discrepancy lies in the “hegemony of the visual”. Another may be the dominance of the visual in the cinema viewing experience, which results in our being naturally less attuned to how we are affected by the aural aspect. Nonetheless, the interaction of music, diegetic sound, and silence plays a vital role in achieving the director’s intention in creating a film and is crucial to establishing the bond between the film and its viewer. In his paper, the author shows, on the example of German contemporary film and TV series, that any analysis of film must examine the interaction of film music, dialogue, silence and diegetic sounds. The paper explores a specific approach to the sonic landscape in German film and TV series and raises questions to be pursued in further research on this topic.