Abstract
This chapter reflects on the ways that the play on Johansson as star and as voice is essential to the perceived romantic authenticity at the heart of Spike Jonze’s Her (2013). Exploring the place of sound within classic narrative form and realism, Bordun examines Her as a film that at once complicates but ultimately reasserts established relationships of sound to image within narrative cinema. Within this discourse, Bordun further implicates the star, exploring how iconicity forms through the perception of embodied attributes—even when a visible or physical body is withheld.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Captain Phillips was nominated for Academy Awards in Film Editing, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing, among others.
- 3.
- 4.
I suspect that Jonze had to keep the name Samantha because Johansson provided the voice after production was complete. The OS was already identified as Samantha in a number of shots and sequences. As to the effect the change had on the film, Jonze was reluctant to answer. Cf. Film Society of Lincoln Center 2013.
- 5.
Johansson was the seventh highest paid actress of 2014. Johansson’s Her co-star Amy Adams was eighth (Rawes 2015).
- 6.
- 7.
The Hobbit received Oscar nominations in Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects and Gravity won these categories; Her did not receive nominations in Sound Editing and Mixing, but did receive a nod in Production Design. The film did receive many awards and nominations for its score (Arcade Fire) and theme song (Karen O, lyrics by Jonze).
Works Cited
Associated Press. 2006. “Scarlett Johansson: ‘I’m Not Promiscuous’.” Washington Post, October 9. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/09/AR2006100900872.html.
Burgin, Victor. 2004. The Remembered Film. London: Reaktion Books.
Chion, Michel. 2011. “The Acousmêtre.” In Critical Visions in Film Theory: Classic and Contemporary Readings, edited by Timothy Corrigan, Patricia White, and Meta Mazaj. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Corliss, Richard. 2013. “Spike Jonze’s Her: Falling in Love with the IT Girl.” Times, October 12. http://entertainment.time.com/2013/10/12/spike-jonzes-her-falling-in-love-with-the-it-girl/.
Coulthard, Lisa. 2010. “Desublimating Desire: Courtly Love and Catherine Breillat.” Journal for Cultural Research 14 (1): 57–69.
Cousins, Mark. 2016. “A Study in Scarlett.” Sight & Sound 26 (10): 15.
D’Addario, Daniel. 2014. “Ruined by Woody Allen: What Does Scarlett Johansson Want?” Salon, October 4. http://www.salon.com/2014/04/04/ruined_by_woody_allen_what_does_scarlett_johansson_want/.
Dargis, Manohla. 2013. “Disembodied, but, Oh, What a Voice: ‘Her’, Directed by Spike Jonze.” The New York Times, December 17. http://nytimes.com/2013/12/18/movies/her-directed-by-spike-jonze.html?_r=0.
Doane, Mary Ann. 1985. “Ideology and the Practice of Sound Editing and Mixing.” In Film Sound: Theory and Practice, edited by Elisabeth Weis and John Belton. New York: Columbia University Press.
———. 1986. “The Voice in the Cinema: The Articulation of Body and Space.” In Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology, edited by Philip Rosen. New York: Columbia University Press.
———. 1988. “The Abstraction of a Lady: ‘La Signora di tutti’.” Cinema Journal 28 (1): 65–84.
Dockterman, Eliana. 2014. “If Philip Seymour Hoffman Had Replaced Scarlett Johansson in Her.” Time, January 23. http://entertainment.time.com/2014/01/23/if-philip-seymour-hoffman-had-replaced-scarlett-johansson-in-her/.
Dyer, Richard. 1998. Stars. New ed. London: British Film Institute.
———. 2004. Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society. 2nd ed. London and New York: Routledge.
Ellis, John. 2007. “Stars as a Cinematic Phenomenon.” In Stardom and Celebrity: A Reader, edited by Sean Redmond and Su Holmes. Los Angeles: Sage.
Film Society of Lincoln Center. 2013. “NYFF51: ‘Her’ Press Conference | Spike Jonze, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde.” Youtube, October 13. http://youtu.be/ZACOU3H5KO8.
Goodykoontz, Bill. 2014. “Review: ‘Her’, 5 Stars: Virtually Perfect.” AZ Central, January 8. http://azcentral.com/thingstodo/movies/articles/20140109virtually-perfect.html.
Hassenger, Jesse 2016. “Scarlett Johansson Found the Meaning in Late-Period Woody Allen.” The A.V. Club, July 11. https://film.avclub.com/scarlett-johansson-found-the-meaning-in-late-period-woo-1798249798.
Heath, Stephen. 1981. Questions of Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Herron, Antwan. 2017. “Scarlett Johansson Is the Scariest Type of Feminist There Is.” Wear Your Voice, January 22, https://wearyourvoicemag.com/identities/feminism/scarlett-johansson-scariest-feminist.
Hodge, James J. 2014–2015. “Gifts of Ubiquity.” Film Criticism 39 (2): 53–78.
Jagnernauth, Kevin. 2014. “Watch: Spike Jonze’s Prickly Interview with ‘BBC Newsnight’ About ‘Her’.” Indiewire, February 18. http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-spike-jonzes-prickly-interview-with-bbc-newsnight-20140218.
Kornhaber, Donna. 2017. “From Posthuman to Postcinema: Crises of Subjecthood and Representation in Her.” Cinema Journal 56 (4): 3–25.
Lacan, Jacques. 1977. Écrits: A Selection. Translated by Alan Sheridan. New York and London: Norton.
Marks, Laura U. 2000. The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Metz, Christian. 1985. “Aural Objects.” In Film Sound: Theory and Practice, edited by Elisabeth Weis and John Belton. New York: Columbia University Press.
———. 1986. “The Imaginary Signifier [Excerpts].” In Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology, edited by Philip Rosen. New York: Columbia University Press.
———. 2011. “From The Imaginary Signifier.” In Critical Visions in Film Theory: Classic and Contemporary Readings, edited by Timothy Corrigan, Patricia White, and Meta Mazaj. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Mulvey, Laura. 2006. “The Possessive Spectator.” In Stillness and Time: Photography and the Moving Image, edited by David Green and Joanna Lowry. Brighton: Photowork/Photoforum.
Persall, Steve. 2014. “Review: ‘Her’ Explores an Aural Fixation That Turns into Love.” Tampa Bay Times, January 8. http://tampabay.com/things-to-do/movies/review-her-explores-an-aural-fixation-that-turns-into-love/2160148.
Petrusich, Amanda. 2017. “Playboy Interview: Scarlett Johansson Talks Monogamy, Women’s March & ‘Ghost in the Shell’.” Playboy, February 14. http://www.playboy.com/articles/playboy-interview-scarlett-johanson.
Pettman, Dominic. 2017. Sonic Intimacy: Voice, Species, Technics. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Rawes, Erika. 2015. “The 10 Highest Paid Movie Actresses Today.” CheatSheet, March 7. http://cheatsheet.com/personal-finance/the-10-highest-paid-movie-actresses.html/?a=viewall.
Rojek, Chris. 2001. Celebrity. London: Reaktion Books.
Shaviro, Steven. 2014. “Spike Jonze’s HER.” The Pinocchio Theory, January 21. http://shaviro.com/Blog/?p=1186.
Sheldon, Rebekah. 2016. “Speculum Orders: Digital Science Fiction and the Corrected Present.” Science Fiction Studies 43 (1): 33–50.
Smith, Jacob. 2007. “Sound and Performance in Stephen Sayadian’s Night Dreams and Café Flesh.” The Velvet Light Trap 59: 15–29.
Toppman, Lawrence. 2014. “The Romance of ‘Her’: No Body to Love.” The Charlotte Observer, January 8. http://events.charlotteobserver.com/reviews/show/14593678-the-romance-of-her-no-body-to-love/.
Tunbridge, Laura. 2016. “Scarlett Johansson’s Body and the Materialization of Voice.” Twentieth-Century Music 13 (1): 139–152.
Williams, Linda. 1999. Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the ‘Frenzy of the Visible’. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bordun, T.M. (2019). On the Off-Screen Voice: Falling in Love with Her. In: Loreck, J., Monaghan, W., Stevens, K. (eds) Screening Scarlett Johansson. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33196-2_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33196-2_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-33195-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-33196-2
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)