Ruben is a heavy metal drummer in recovery from addiction, and he suddenly loses most of his hearing. He has to choose between expensive cochlear implant surgery and joining a Deaf community that asks him to let go of the life he knew. Darius Marder's film is about the difference between fixing something and losing something.
Sound of Metal is a 2019 drama film directed by Darius Marder. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (2 sound and 2 narrative), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Lost in Translation uses several of the same techniques.
Using sounds the characters themselves can hear, like footsteps, radios or traffic, to build tension or show how someone feels. The sound does more than make the scene realistic.
How this film uses it
Nicolas Becker's sound design puts you inside Ruben's hearing loss. The sound switches between the muffled, distorted audio of his damaged hearing and the occasional brutal clarity of high-pitched frequencies. That is, you experience the disability with your own senses.
Where to see it
Early in the film, the sound suddenly muffles as Ruben's hearing drops. The sound marks the exact moment his life splits in 2.
Writing a disabled character as a full person with humor, anger, desire and choices of their own. The disability is one part of their life, and the film never plays it for tragedy or inspiration.
How this film uses it
The Deaf community Ruben enters is shown as a complete, working world. The film gives Deaf culture the same fullness it gives the hearing world Ruben is mourning. It never uses the community as a lesson or a consolation.
Where to see it
Ruben learning ASL and sitting in silence in Joe's study. The film shows that stillness has value in itself.
Taking a character to the opposite of where they started, such as from weak to strong or from decent to compromised. That reversal is what the film is about.
How this film uses it
The film sets up the cochlear implants as the thing that will save Ruben. Then the final act reveals that they are a kind of denial. You expect a recovery story and the film turns it around. It argues that real acceptance means giving up the fantasy of getting back what was lost.
Where to see it
Ruben in Paris with the implants. All he hears is a distorted, mechanical imitation of sound. The triumph of fixing himself turns out to be a new kind of loss.
Removing music, background sound or dialogue from a moment where most films would fill it. The quiet forces you to sit with what is on screen.
How this film uses it
Marder's most powerful sound design choice is real silence, held for a long time with no cue to warn you. Over 2 hours, he trains you to hear silence as a presence. Then the final scene delivers it as a kind of peace.
Where to see it
Ruben on a bench in a Paris square, taking off his implant processors as church bells ring. The film goes fully silent, and you share the quiet Ruben finally chooses to live in.
Questions
Sound of Metal: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Sound of Metal use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Sound of Metal (2019): Diegetic Sound Design, Disability Without Pity, Character Arc Inversion and Strategic Silence.
Who directed Sound of Metal?
Darius Marder directed Sound of Metal, released in 2019.
What films are similar to Sound of Metal?
Films that share techniques with Sound of Metal include Lost in Translation (2003), Rain Man (1988), A Quiet Place (2018), Parasite (2019).
