ReMeMbEr HiGh FiDeLiTy?

Within the reading for this week (Buhler, Kassabian, Neumeyer and Stilwell) was a point in the debate where diegetic and nondiegetic sound within film was touched upon and the ‘pro’s and con’s’ involved in separating that sound into distinctive camps. While traditionally the categories have been strongly defined with orchestral soundtracks being separate from the sounds within the characters environment, this has been challenged over recent years. Examples of Magnolia and Moulin Rouge are given within the reading and their success in playing with this boundary. Yet, for me it is High Fidelity which epitomizes the idea, being a film in which music plays such a prominent role in the narrative, the setting, the soundtrack and the characters lives and personalities. In the opening scene where the camera’s focus is on a stereo, the nondiegetic soundtrack accompanying the shot is then twisted through clever sound mixing into becoming the diegetic music played through the headphones worn by the main character. This scene is like a reflection, illustrating that what we as viewers are listening to is likewise being critiqued by the character we are watching, who again is visually watching us. This concept of music being not only the soundtrack accompanying what we as viewers are watching but also the soundtrack of the characters lives, their experiences and emotions, is repeated at other points throughout the film where this diegetic/nondiegetic boundary is casually yet effectively crossed. Music is such a big part of our individual lives, many of us being able to think of a particular piece of music which in a sense feels like the soundtrack to our own life. As some of the writers of this reading argue, the boundary between what characters can and cannot hear is not set in concrete and need not be so, as it is a technique that may be used or broken despite its long history born within films of the silent era.