There are a symphony of almost undetectable sounds that make up a moment of silence, and Peter Lucian (Peter Sarsgaard) is determined to catalogue them all.
Through his job as a New York City "house tuner," the hyper-methodical Peter works meticulously to diagnose the discordant ambient noises -- produced by everything from wind patterns to humming electrical appliances -- adversely affecting his clients' moods. When he takes on the particularly difficult case of Ellen (Rashida Jones), a lonely woman plagued by chronic exhaustion, Peter finds that the mysteries of the soul may be even greater than the mysteries of sound.
A quietly moving portrait of a harmony-obsessed man learning to embrace the dissonances of human emotion, The Sound of Silence invites viewers to hear the world with fresh ears.
Directed by: Michael Tyburski
Starring: Peter Sarsgaard, Rashida Jones, Tony Revolori, Austin Pendleton, Kate Lyn Sheil, Bruce Altman
The Sound of Silence director Michael Tyburski shares some insights into the making of his debut feature, and answers our new “life in film” questionnaire.
In The Sound of Silence, Peter Sarsgaard is Peter Lucian, a house tuner in New York City who believes that the notes emitted from a household’s appliances must harmonize in order to bring peace to its residents. However, his state of mind collapses when he struggles to apply his methods for a new client, Ellen (Rashida Jones).
Directed by Michael Tyburski and based on a short film he made with co-writer Ben Nabors in 2013, The Sound of Silence debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and stood out for its “remarkably silly” unique premise and strong performance from Sarsgaard. Fans of ASMR, get your headphones out; the film’s sound design will trigger those sensations.
The Sound of Silence started life as your short film Palimpsest. Is the ‘house tuner’ occupation at all based in reality?
Michael Tyburski: The short answer is no, it’s a fictional profession. The character idea is something that my co-writer Ben Nabors brought to me. Right away, I loved the idea of a practise where someone shows up at your door and offers you a solution to the emotional problems that you’re having.
A lot of alternative therapies exist in New York City so it didn’t seem so far from reality that people would take someone intellectual, dressed well in a tweed blazer, with professional-looking tools, seriously. I really liked that as a conceit. We tried to base it in real science and looked at sound engineers and acousticians for what tools they would use. We tried to make it exist in a very real New York City; that’s why we have touchstones like the character being profiled in The New Yorker.
How has your research into music theory affected your own domestic space?
Actually, I moved, for the first time in ten years—after living on a pretty noisy commercial street—during the course of developing and making this movie. Somehow, during the edit, I made my first apartment move within New York City, to a much quieter street. I also took a cue from the main character, Peter Lucian, because I moved my office below my apartment, in a subterranean space. At least I can control the sound a little bit more now that I’m cut off from the surface level, similar to the way Peter does it in his “fallout shelter”.
Michael Tyburski and Peter Sarsgaard on the set of The Sound of Silence. / Photo: James Chororos
The character Peter Lucian feels like a perfect fit for Peter Sarsgaard. When did you have him in mind?
He was my first pick. I knew I wanted him from the beginning when I first started thinking about who would be the perfect house tuner. I feel so lucky to have him and fortunately the script resonated with him right away. He’s someone who’s very musically inclined and he plays a number of musical instruments. I was so gratified that he connected to the part so closely.
He’s such a chameleon of an actor. He can play a lot of dark roles, but also he has a very scientist-like intellect. I also think he has one of the best voices, it’s very unique and I enjoy hearing him. So for a movie about sound, it kind of seemed fitting that someone with those types of qualities would work for the role.
What was important to you about keeping Peter’s house-tuning technology analog instead of digital?
I think he’s just someone who has the philosophy of “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”. Even though his tools are a little more dated, they’re still as effective. They might not be as efficient as digital technology so he’s a little slower, but they still work. There is at least one sound engineer in New York City who we found in our research who measures the sound in rooms, and there’s one thing called a spectrum analyzer that we use in the film that we completely got from this guy’s tool bag.
Director Michael Tyburski.
The film is carefully crafted and you have Peter obsessing over every inch of New York City. What degree of obsession did you have in the making of the film?
I’m pretty obsessive as an individual in general. I like to be very organized and have everything mapped out. We had been developing the screenplay for so many years that I got tired of reading it, so before we made the movie, the first thing I did after Peter came on board was sit down and record the entire script in audio format. I kind of had this radio edit of the movie. That transitioned into a rough animatic of the film that I put into the timeline and I was able to add in location references, tonal reference photos, dialogue in different room tones, and then music.
Logistics-wise, we only had 21 days to shoot the movie which is very conservative especially because we had a lot of ground to cover, but I just needed to be as efficient as possible, so it was helpful to have that thorough, animatic tool.
With all the technical departments it was a very close collaboration and I like to be very involved in all details. For the sound design, I wanted to re-record all of the tuning forks, which were kind of an aural motif through the film. When you’re shooting in the elements, you don’t always have the control over the environment, so I hand-recorded each one of the tuning forks myself. We were aiming for that level of precision.
We’d like to ask a few questions about your life in film. What was the film that made you want to become a filmmaker?
My choice is probably not that unique but when I was 13, maybe a little too young, I got a VHS copy of Pulp Fiction. That stunned me and took me from A to B. It shook up how I thought contemporary American stories could be told.
Which film do you think is the best love letter to New York?
Annie Hall, closely tied with Midnight Cowboy. I suppose I love that era of New York.
Which film has the greatest sound design work of all time?
There’s a lot, but one of my favorites is Play Time.
Nice choice. Greatest production design of all-time too.
Yeah, not bad. I used a few frames for my look book.
Jacques Tati’s ‘PlayTime’ (1967).
Which is the most overlooked performance from Peter Sarsgaard?
I loved him in Experimenter, which I think is an underrated film. More recently too, Errol Morris’s Wormwood. I don’t know how many people went down that rabbit hole because it was long, but I think he was so good in it.
What films did you watch to prepare you for The Sound of Silence?
There were three that we were looking at, for a lot of different reasons. We watched Jonathan Glazer’s Birth for the mood and that fairytale vibe it has in a mysterious, alternate New York City.
Being John Malkovich for its bizarro version of science, and I love the naturalistic quality to that film. And obviously The Conversation for its production design and how it follows a man obsessed with sound.
This is a nicely-timed, autumnal, gentle film. What films give you those peaceful autumn vibes?
My favorite is Hannah and Her Sisters.
What mindfuck movie changed you for life?
I’ll have a couple Kubrick on this list, but for this probably A Clockwork Orange.
It’s Halloween next month. What movie do you watch every Halloween?
The Shining! There’s my next Kubrick.
As a teenager, what film character felt like a total mirror to what you were feeling at the time?
One of my favorite coming-of-age films is Harold and Maude. I definitely identified with Harold.
What’s your go-to comfort movie? And how many times do you think you’ve seen it?
My favorite film of all time, which I promise will be my last Kubrick, is Barry Lyndon. I think it’s just a perfect movie and I’ve certainly seen it dozens of times. I think it does everything I want in a movie. I don’t even know what genre to call it because it’s funny, it’s dramatic, it’s an epic. I love the idea of doing a perfect epic movie that covers a lot of ground.
Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Barry Lyndon’ (1975).
What film do you have fond memories of watching with your parents?
We were a big Chevy Chase household and National Lampoon’s Vacation holds up as a fine movie.
What’s a classic you could just not get into?
Maybe Brazil. Admittedly I think I need to rewatch it because I first saw it when I was 14 or 15 and I just didn’t quite get it at the time.
What classic are you embarrassed to say you haven’t seen?
Two Kurosawa films; Rashomon and Seven Samurai. They’re always on my list to brush up and they seem to come up in conversation more and more.
Which movie scene makes you cry the most?
Definitely the holiday classic It’s A Wonderful Life.
What film was your entry point into non-English language cinema?
That was a good one, I like that question. I remember when I was in my freshman year of high school I was given two VHS copies from someone who knew I was getting into film. One of those films was Persona, but then the other one, which I knew I watched first, was a film called Woman in the Dunes.
What filmmaker—living or dead—do you envy the most? If Kubrick, go for living…
If it’s Kubrick go for living? Oh my gosh.
I feel like you’re going to say Kubrick.
Yeah. Envy is a funny word. Kubrick has an admirable career for the depth of his filmography. You know, like a lot of film nerds I’m a huge Paul Thomas Anderson fan.
Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Prestige’ (2006).
What’s a film that you wish you made?
I would love to make a movie about magic but ever since I saw The Prestige I think it would be hard to compete with that. That period, that Victorian era of illusion, I don’t know if you can top that.
It’s time for best-of-decade lists. What’s the greatest film of the 2010s?
If we went back even further it would be easier. For the last 10 years, I think Phantom Thread is pretty great.
‘The Sound of Silence’ was released on September 13 by IFC Films and is in select cinemas now.
