Analyse how the use of silence in "A Quiet Place" makes the sparse *spoken dialogue more meaningful. In addition, how the use of silence heightens the tension during "monster" scenes in a new way than other similar movies in the thriller genre. Another question to ask would be the following: does the use of silence make the visuals in the movie even more powerful because *spoken dialogue is not a distraction? Or would more dialogue be helpful in the movie? *One part I overlooked and which was pointed out to me is that ASL importantly figures into the plot as dialogue. This is another aspect of analysis.
there are a lot of issues and themes to tackle in this film, and I think this is a great place to start. it should be noted, however, that despite the sparse dialogue the film still relies heavily on music to create a feeling of suspense and to intensify scare scenes with the monsters- this is by no means a silent film. such, I think specifically when investigating their use of so-called "silence," it is important to consider their inclusion/use of Deaf people and culture; the presence of a cochlear implant, for example, has a lot of political implications. while their lack of dialogue is interesting, even more so with its being replaced with sign language, i think it is important to note that their continued reliance on music disrupts their otherwise "Deaf-inclusive" endeavor. – ees7 years ago
additionally, something else that could be investigated is the question of why ASL/sign language is not considered "dialogue" itself. what sort of normalizations are occurring when one draws a distinction between spoken language as "dialogue" and signed languages of not meeting the standards to be considered "dialogue"? – ees7 years ago
As 'ees' has already noted, regarding the topic of ASL, it might be valuable to address the visual nature of sign language in relation to the emotional impact and uniqueness of the film. When signing, facial expressions and movements convey tone, context, and variance of the sign/word so much of the communication is still based on visual cues, which may be a way to address the use of ASL within the plot. – Jennifer7 years ago
I think the music is working hard in the places where dialogue and ASL are not used, and it would be interesting to analyse how silence is used in other horror films - with silence coming just before something happens (e.g. monster jumps out). – Emily Cecchetto7 years ago
