A penetrating look at the sound of silence
Daniel Nelson
In Pursuit of Silence
Image by In Pursuit of Silence
It’s “a meditative exploration of our relationship with silence, sound and the impact of noise on our lives”.
Mumbai is cited as The Loudest City in the World (capital letters are the written equivalent of shouting). At the other end of the scale, the film enters Minneapolis’ anechoic chamber.
We are also taken to Trappist and Zen monasteries, a Kyoto tea house, an Alaskan national park, a New York school where it’s impossible to hear the teachers when the elevated train passes, and some wonderfully disconcerting TV babble. We meet a number of talking heads and the “silent walker” traversing the US.
Yes, there’s a film score. That might have been filled by John Cage’s once infamous composition 4’33”, but that performance of silence is reflected in the film’s opening and Cage himself pops up on a number of occasions.
The filmmakers say they spent a minute of silence with every interviewee before beginning an interview.
The aim is to remind us of the spiritual and health importance of silence. Director Patrick Shen describes it meditative and devotional, a “homage to the ineffable qualities of silence”, and says the film was shot in a way that mimics our experience of the world when we are still: he camera is static, and just stares – no sweeping drone shots or pans.
“Ultimately, I hope that the film challenges audiences to slow down and on some level make the world new again for them.”
I can go as crazy as the next person when subjected to intrusive noise, such as Hong Kong piledrivers or Philippines long-distance bus videos, but initially, I found myself resisting the emphasis on spirituality: is the oneness of the universe really linked to silence? I would find it as useful to think about practical issues, such as whether electric cars need to be made louder so they can be heard by pedestrians. However, Shen’s perseverance pays. The film is enticingly seductive to look at, and takes us to interesting places. It’s a subject rarely tackled. It must be rated a quiet victory.
* In Pursuit of Silence goes on release in London on 21 October
