Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Sound-Image Relationships

The final scene of Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects acts as the resolution of the question “Who is Keyser Söze?”, a question asked all throughout the film, by all including the criminals accomplices and the FBI agents who have been desperately looking for him. No scene shows such intensity and closure than the twist ending, which finally answers this question. The main FBI agent on the case is sitting in his office, drinking coffee, and then all of a sudden there begins slow zoom-ins to his face and the newspaper clippings and police reports on the bulletin board. This occurs while simultaneously repeating snippets of Kevin Spacey’s character, Verbal Kint, saying everything that his character has been discussing in conversation with the FBI agent throughout the film. The audience then sees through the editing that Kint had fabricated an entire story based on topics and words he saw on the bulletin board. The edit increases the pace and creates tension with it's quick cuts back and forth, to previous scenes in the film and the FBI agents face while the agent puts the pieces together and realizes the answer for the biggest question of all: “Who is Keyser Söze?” The relationship between the sound and images is key to this scene with the monologue that can be heard on screen and the quick shots that follow each of the words said in it. The cuts are smooth and quick, which is necessary for the viewer to be able to follow the thought process of the FBI agent. Finally, Singer gives the audience a long take when it cuts to Spacey’s character in real time. We then see the character drive away and dissapear right as the FBI agent is looking for him, with a soft, playful score in the background. 



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