Drowning by Numbers is British film of 1988 directed by Peter Greenaway. The film's plot centres on three married women: a grandmother, her daughter, and her niece ( each of which are named Cissie Colpitts ). As the story progresses, each woman drowns her husband. The trailer of the film highlights the importance of sound in conveying the plot, theme and genre.
Throughout the trailer there is a repetitive non diegetic music sequence played. The sequence involves brass and string instruments which highlights the era the film was set in and also demonstrates the tone. This music plays throughout all the scenes and perfectly represents the term 'sound bridge' as it carries on from one scene to another. Although the same music is played throughout the three minute trailer, there are changes in tempo, volume in pitch suggesting a change of mood. After the funeral is shown, the tempo of the music picks up which suggests the people have finished mourning and are beginning to move on. The scenes show a community spending time together and having fun and the parallel sound of the upbeat music reflects this.
When the funeral scene takes place sound effects are introduced. Whilst the music mutes slightly, the sound of church bells are played representing the religious atmosphere. As everyone is familiar of the sound of church bells, this sound effect was important in showing the audience that a funeral is taking place.. The church bells also suggests that the theme of death may feature prominently in the film. There is also the ambient sound of 'chatting' outside the church
The trailer is introduced with a girl dressed unusually skipping outside her house in the dark. she is counting to herself. This diegetic sound allows the audience to realise, within the first minute, that the film may not follow an ordinary plot and the characters in it may be slightly twisted. The fact that the girl skips fearlessly in the dark by herself shows she is unordinary to girls her age as they would be scared to stand alone in the dark. This moment suggests the girl is slightly ignorant or slightly problematic as she is obviously unaware of the dangers of being by yourself at night at such a young age. Her fearless nature introduces the unusual tone of the sequence.
The next example of diegetic sound takes place outside the church in the funeral scene. The women are standing together and are all muttering numbers that are a multiple of three. Not only does this link back to the beginning of the trailer, when the girl is counting whilst skipping, it also may be making a reference to the three women in the family that drown their husbands. The fact that this random counting is taking place at a funeral re-emphasizes the eccentricity and horror element of the film. This whole dialogue convey the women as the sinister ones in this film. The last example of diegetic sound in this sequence is of two men discussing the unusual death of the man who's funeral is being held. The dialogue consists of the doubts one man has about the real reason for the death. This dialogue is a key sound in the trailer as it reveals that the film may involve deceit and deep secrets.
The first use of parallel sound was at the beginning of the sequence. Although the music was of the same melody throughout, it was slightly eerie at the beginning to reflect the unusual scene of a young girl skipping, by herself, in the dark. Another example is how the music became more upbeat after the funeral, reflecting the new mood and suggesting people are moving on from the death. Parallel sound is a powerful technique as it fully clarifies the theme of the scene.
Sound bridge is a key feature of the sequence, as there is one piece of music played throughout each scene. The sound bridge was effective in this sequence in the way that it represented the close knit community and also showed the era of the film as the music was orchestral and in no way modern.
I think the sequence suggests that the film falls in to the category of a "thriller with a twist"as whilst playing classical music, I think this may be a contrapuntal sound as the plot of the film involves 3 murders. The upbeat non- diegetic sound is used in order to advert the audiences pre conceptual ideas about the film. The sequence involves little dialogue and when dialogue is used it follows the theme of death or absurdity.
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