To cite this article: King, G. (2026). ‘Le son empathique au cinéma : le paysage sonore sourd de Sound of Metal, Images Secondes, issue 6: Disability studies et cinéma : dévalider le regard, https://imagessecondes.fr/index.php/2026/07/king/.
This article is written in French, however an abridged version was translated into English in the open-access film journal Senses of Cinema.
Film can control not only what we hear, but how we hear it. Through a sound design that uses muffling, distortion, oscillations in volume, tinnitus-like overlays and abrupt cuts to silence, countless films and series attempt to convey an experience of deafness, for the benefit of a presumed hearing audience. This article proposes the term “empathic sound” to describe this immersive and audiocentric representation of hearing loss, focusing on the 2019 film Sound of Metal.
