4.2 Subjectification

When the surroundings or parts thereof are presented from the perceptual perspective of a film character, one speaks of subjectification. A distinct increase in such acoustic subjectifications in finely differentiated increments, which underscore the emotional state of the characters, has marked film sound since the 1970s. A superordinate strategy is the dissociation between acoustic and visual representation. If the two are significantly different, the firmly established relationship of plausibility between sound and image is severely disrupted. Sounds can disappear, be significantly altered, or an antinaturalistic selection may place that changes the emphasis of the various sound objects, such as, for example, in the opening scene of Apocalypse Now (US, 1979, directed by Francis Ford Coppola), in which an urban setting is transformed into a jungle atmosphere.