SCÈNE 10. Ezgi Eren, Film Enthusiast & Founder/Writer, 11AM Saturday
Soundcheck: What a heavy metal drummer finds in the silence.
Welcome back to Mise-En-Scène, edition number 10!
I’ll be honest: I’ve been trudging through the cultural doldrums lately, not enthused by anything in the cinema or currently airing on television. (I am seeing a lot of theatre later this year—all individual links, purr!—which I’m praying gives me a much-needed boost.) Is my algorithm failing me? What are you watching right now that’s sparked for you? Friend and Mise-En-Scène alum Jenna Elizabeth Gonzalez recommended a new documentary on Jim Henson, Idea Man, which I’ll be taking in this weekend. As I texted her the other day, Where is Jim Henson’s biopic? (Sam Taylor-Johnson need not apply…)
This flavor of listlessness brings me back to when we were in the thick of the pandemic, a disorienting time for experiencing new films, nevermind everything else. There was your typical assortment of straight-to-streamer schlock (“content”), but a few gems cut through. One such pandemic standout is the subject of today’s newsletter: Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal, which originally bowed in 2019 and was made widely available to stream on Amazon Prime Video in December 2020. The film was hand-picked by our guest curator Ezgi Eren (ezgi / @11am.Saturday) as her Mise-En-Scène selection.
Ezgi is a lover of film and filmmaking; a chief advocate for going to the cinema and participating in the theatrical experience. The founder and writer of 11am Saturday, in her free time she asks people what time they like to go to the movies.
Sound of Metal is as honest a story as they come, a trademark of both Marder and Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine), his collaborator on the story. The film follows Ruben (Riz Ahmed), a heavy metal drummer and recovering heroin addict, through the experience of losing his hearing, at first gradually, then all at once. In one section of the film, he settles into a rural retreat for Deaf addicts in recovery, run by a recovering alcoholic and unflinching Vietnam veteran named Joe (Paul Raci). After some stops and starts, colored by Ruben’s resistance to break from life as he knew it, he begins to accept his new reality, finding renewed purpose in connecting with a different community. Ruben’s situation blasts apart and comes together several times before we reach the film’s quiet conclusion. Sound of Metal is as much a plainspoken story of recovery and submission as it is a bracing chronicle of hearing loss.
As Ezgi notes, Sound of Metal, a story about salvation through stillness, got her through “the great COVID Movie Drought of winter 2020.” Despite scoring several Academy Award nominations and notching two rightful wins for Best Sound and Best Film Editing, this film is due for its moment in the sun, a proper re-appraisal, in the coming years. It’s tough to be uncomfortably internal, verging on muted, and compellingly watchable all at once; just ask The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (2007; in a subtle nod, Mathieu Amalric appears in both films).
After the jump, read on for Ezgi’s thoughts1 on Sound of Metal, its final scene, and struggling into your own peace.
“THOSE MOMENTS OF STILLNESS, THAT PLACE, THAT’S THE KINGDOM OF GOD”: FILM ENTHUSIAST AND 11AM SATURDAY FOUNDER/WRITER EZGI EREN ON SOUND OF METAL, 2019
EZGI ON WHEN SHE FIRST WATCHED SOUND OF METAL AND ITS IMMEDIATE RESONANCE:
I got a Film Independent screener for [the film] while we were in the great COVID Movie Drought of winter 2020. I watched it four times in one month while praying movie theaters would re-open in time to catch it on a big screen. (Unfortunately, they didn’t.)
Sound of Metal tells the story of Ruben (played by Riz Ahmed, one of our greatest living actors), a heavy metal drummer who suddenly loses his hearing. It takes us through Ruben facing the various stages of grief as the world as he knows it changes dramatically outside of his control and he’s forced to adapt. It’s no wonder it hit me as hard as it did during the pandemic, but it also stood the test of time as a profound story of loss, grief, adaptation, community and radical acceptance.
EZGI ON THE FILM’S FINAL SCENE AND ITS IMMERSIVE SOUND DESIGN:
Sound of Metal has closed captioning throughout the entire movie by default, except when [its] characters are speaking in sign language (which is brilliant). The caption that comes in during these two consecutive stills is: "Silence continues."
The stills are from the very last scene of the movie, after Ruben has left [his ex-girlfriend] Lou’s (the brilliant Olivia Cooke) Parisian bedroom upon realizing the connection and perfectly functioning routine they’d once had together is no longer present nor relevant. Ruben takes his cochlear implant off, the one he got because he thought it would give him a semblance of his “old life” back and make him the guy Lou knew and loved. But there’s no old life, there’s only here and now—and they are different people now, not because Ruben lost his hearing, but because that’s how life and time work.
The insurmountable effort we spend on trying to hold on to something when we intuitively know it’s already slipped away only delays the inevitable step that is ultimately our salvation: Acceptance. The sun peeks through the trees and “silence continues.” Except this time, silence isn’t oppressive, frightening, a symbol of everything Ruben lost; it’s a new identity, community, a kind of rebirth.
EZGI ON THE LASTING IMPRESSION OF SOUND OF METAL AND ARRIVING TO SELF-ACCEPTANCE:
This movie has forged a permanent place in my own personal narrative of self-acceptance. While the premise might be very different from my own journey, the masterfully told story is the same: You can't find peace if you stubbornly continue swimming against life’s currents. You can’t find the answers you’re so desperate for if you’re not willing to sit still with the questions.
I love this quote from Roxana Hadadi’s essay accompanying the movie’s Criterion Collection release:
“Who are we revealed to be when our expectations for ourselves fall away and we accept the person who remains? When the dreams of our past step aside for the unknowability of our future? Sound of Metal is a portrait of transformation measured by what is lost and what is found, what is given up and what is gained. The apotheotic stillness that Joe describes as the ‘kingdom of God’ is waiting, and the next page of Ruben’s story is yet to be written.”
EZGI EREN RECOMMENDS
You’ll be shocked to learn that Ezgi’s excellent taste extends beyond films and optimal movie-going times to music, poetry, and fashion’s favorite Image Architect™. Up ahead, the cultural favorites that are keeping life humming.
Challengers Original Score (2024) by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
Ezgi says: Me and the rest of the world, I know. This score rips so hard it's already being played in clubs, and it’s given me the energy boost my every activity needed since I first saw the movie. I absolutely recommend experiencing it in the theater first, then you won’t be able to help but listen to it in the car, on a walk, while doing dishes—in fact I’m listening to it right now as I write this.Louise Glück, Poems 1962-2012.
Ezgi says: I love reading a few pages of poetry in the morning to slow my brain down before immediately speeding it back up by going on social media. This collection of Louise Glück poems has been a staple on my nightstand, and it’s thick enough to last me for a few more months.Law Roach interviews.
Ezgi says: I’ve been really enjoying fashion stylist Law Roach’s latest press tour following an insane red carpet run with Zendaya. From his “‘No’ now means no forever” motto to why he doesn’t want too many people to know that he’s a nice person, I think he has the right idea on how to navigate this insane business.OUAI St. Barts Hair & Body Mist.
Ezgi says: I’ve been in my no-buy era the last few months when it comes to fashion and cosmetics, but I’m so glad this product slipped through. I’ve been using this super light hair and body mist liberally and it makes the May Grey feel considerably more tropical. (Nat’s note: Ditto for June Gloom!)Vista Theater in Los Angeles.
Ezgi says: This one’s L.A.-specific, but I just love the Vista Theater. I’m so glad it’s been brought back. I love the lobby, I love the employees, I love the size of the screen, I love that they only show one movie at a time, I love that they carry Sofia. Highly recommend spending an afternoon or two here.
Thank you for reading edition number 10. We’re in the double digits now, baby.
You can stream Sound of Metal on Amazon Prime or, even better, purchase the special release on Criterion Collection, which features a new program on the film’s sound.
A round of applause to Ezgi Eren, our guest curator, for her Mise-En-Scène selection. Subscribe to her Substack newsletter, 11am Saturday, here, and follow the project on Instagram and TikTok.
As always, my DMs are open for who and what you’d like to see in an upcoming Mise-En-Scène edition. Comment on this post, or DM me on Instagram: @natisagee / @yourmiseenscene. If you liked what you read today and you’re moved to share it, please do—I love hearing from new readers.
Until the next one, which will be in your inbox sooner than you think. June is bustin’ out all over!
Answers have been lightly edited for clarity.
anything ezgi recommends, I bookmark to watch
Love Sound of Metal! My favorite film that year. So deserving of the praise.