Theoretical Review: Michel Chion’s Audio-Vision

Audio-Vision – Sound and Image in Cinema

Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen was published in Italy by Lindau in 2001 (originally published by Editions Nathan, 1990). It remains the definitive volume on the theory and history of the relationship between sound and image in cinema and multimedia. Chion presents his arguments with logical and expressive rigor, finally addressing the subject from a technical-linguistic perspective. Previously, various contributions had treated film sound in unscientific, overly lyrical terms, as if sound did not merit a formal analytical framework (Ref. 1).

The book by Michel Chion—a composer of musique concrète and electroacoustic music as well as a critic and theorist—establishes a precise technical vocabulary. Central to this is the concept of "audio-vision," a term referring to the technological medium and the device through which different languages and systems interact. Chion examines the dialectical relationship between the sonorous and the visual.

From the opening pages, the text is intertwined with a "cultural sensitization toward sound and sonorous representation" (Ref. 2). Chion notes that the role of sound in film theory mirrors its role in film history: in both cases, the technical-linguistic aspect has been subordinated to the stale debate regarding the "fracture" sound supposedly produced within the cinematic continuum upon its arrival in 1928 (Ref. 3).

Chion localizes the entire problem historically and linguistically. He demonstrates that sound and image are two distinct media and systems that establish a dialectical relationship. While "mainstream" or "mannered" cinema—rooted in Hollywood classicism and the "cinema of transparency"—seeks simple consonance, "auteur" cinema (the cinema of non-transparency) utilizes shifts, differences, and reversals. These elements act with varying degrees of technical-aesthetic determination to define the final rendering of a film or multimedia work.

This is an indispensable text for anyone interested in the theory and history of cinema, multimedia, and the relationship between audio and technologically produced sound. It is a work that demands detailed study. [R. Daniele]

English References (Citations)

1. G. Rondolino, Cinema and Music: A Brief History of Cinematographic Music, UTET Libreria, Turin, 1991. (A systematic historical-theoretical starting point).

2. R. Daniele, Ascenseur pour l'échafaud: The Place of Music in Audio-Vision, RDM, Milan, 2011.

3. M. Chion, Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen, Editions Nathan (Paris); It. Trans. Lindau (Turin), 2001.