Costa-Gavras

Patron of the 12th UNESCO Sound Week “In cinema, sound has always played a very important, if not decisive, role.In the first thirty-five years of cinema, before sound was incorporated into the image, film screenings were accompanied by music – a piano or a small or large orchestra, depending on the means available to the exhibitor –or noises, cries and words were improvised according to the needs of the film and the imagination of the cinema programmer.
Since sound is incorporated into the image, the director has complete control over the soundtrack of his film, which remains unchanged.
For my part, I consider the sound in my films to be a character in its own right – music, sounds, noises, real or invented, elaborate.
It plays a role in the story I tell.
It contributes to the dramaturgy of the script and to a better understanding of the characters’ feelings.
It contributes to their evolution and to the dramatization of the concept.
A film without the “sound character” would be hard to bear.
I accepted, with great interest, to take part in La Semaine du Son, because in our noisy, garish, flashy world, I listen and I hear.
In either case, it can be with pleasure or with pain.
If La Semaine du Son could contribute to reducing the latter and multiplying the moments of pleasure, it would be a great victory.Costa-Gavras