Sémiotique de l’“effet sonore”/Semiotics of “Sound Effect”

The expression “sound effect” is often used in classic film theory, as well as in more recent theoretical production. However, the development of a rich terminology has never gone beyond the purely descriptive aspect, nor has it ever concerned itself with specifying what the sound effect consists of, limiting itself to considering a sound effect any effective combination between image and sound, capable of generating a “strong” moment in the film. This essay aims to put some order into the terminology developed so far, as well as the concepts it covers, in order to explain what this “force” consists of and how the sound effect contributes to the production of meaning in a film. In particular, this essay manage to demonstrate that what gives the “strength” of the sound effect is the belonging of the sound to the action, i.e. to the diegesis, which means that its interaction with the image belongs both to the enunciate and to the enunciation. Its effectiveness, therefore, its textual force depends on a shift from the level of the narrated to the level of the narration.