the edge of the “horizon,” mounts a surreal stair-
case, pauses for a moment to talk with the show’s
producer, and finally walks through an exit door
to the first free day of his life. The unique sound of
the boom piercing the metal dome—underscored
by the chord progressions of Burkhard Dallwitz’s
score—is nothing like the ordinary sound of a boat
bumping against a dock. And although it is a real
sound, it is not a natural one. This is a symbolic
sound that both emphasizes Truman’s captivity
and heralds his liberation from a world of illusion.
In Adrian Lyne’s version of Lolita(1997; sound:
Michael O’Farrell), the sexual ambiguity of a con-
frontation between Humbert Humbert (Jeremy
Irons) and his nemesis, Clare Quilty (Frank Lan-
gella), is punctuated by the insistent sound of an
electric bug zapper. In action movies, such as Sin422 CHAPTER 9SOUND
13245Overlapping musicA fifteen-shot sequence in Joel
Coen’s The Man Who Wasn’t There(2001; sound designer:
Eugene Gearty) documents a futile attempt by Ed Crane
(Billy Bob Thornton) to find a man who has swindled him out
of $10,000. The sequence is one of many in the movie that
show the decent but ineffectual Crane coming to grips with
his life as an ordinary barber while his wife and everyone
else around him set higher goals. The sequence is
underscored with the nondiegetic and diegetic sounds of
Beethoven’s Pathétiquepiano sonata. Here are five shots
from the middle of the sequence: Crane [1] tries to locate
Creighton Tolliver, the swindler (played by Jon Polito), by
phone; [2] checks the man’s business card; and [3] listens to
Rachael “Birdy” Abundas (Scarlett Johansson), a teenage
neighbor, playing a Beethoven piano sonata. [4] Rachael’s
father, Walter (Richard Jenkins), also listens. [5] Crane is
back at his job in the barber shop. When he says, “How could
I have been so stupid,” we understand the appropriateness
of the filmmakers’ choice of this Beethoven sonata to
underscore his self-insight.