Divergent focalization music/image

There is a divergent focalization when the image and the sound do not represent the same elements, as if the camera is in one place and the microphone in another. In other terms the ocularization (visual focalization) diverges form the auricularization (aural focalization).

This is a resource often used at the beginning of a film or a sequence, to create anticipation and curiosity in the audience.

divergencia-sonido-flotante
There is an ambiguity when at first we hear a music not linked to the image, until both converge and we see the source of the music. Once the music has been ascertained as diegetic, the audience keeps hearing the music as diegetic regardless of the new divergence music/image.

The music is heard with an auricularization and stops when the diegesis makes a change in the scene, so it is clearly anchored in the diegesis.


Divergence music/image at the beginning of Funny Games (Haneke, 1997)


Divergence music/image at the beginning of the remake of Funny Games (Haneke, 2007)