Midge Costin's knockout doc, MAKING WAVES: THE ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND hits theaters

The thrilling, information-laden new documen-tary, MAKING WAVES: THE ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND, may begin with the faulty observation about sound being the initial sense experienced by a baby in the womb (TrustMovies suspects it's that of touch). From there on in, however, the movie, directed by noted sound editor Midge Costin (her first directorial effort) and written by Bobette Buster, proves so full of fascinating history, interviews and anecdotes that I should think any real movie lover will remain glued throughout -- aurally and visually -- to this supremely entertaining and informative film.

Ms Costin, shown at left, has done a bang-up job of corralling a fine group of movie sound specialists -- concentrating on Walter Murch, Ben Burtt and Gary Rydstrom, as well as a number of others noted in this field -- and what all of them have to say is worth hearing, accompanied as it is by pertinent and entertaining visuals.

We also hear from filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee, David Lynch, Christopher Nolan and Peter Weir, and best of all get a history of the evolution of sound on film, as below, and finally a better understanding (than I have ever had, anyway) of the various divisions of the "sound" categories you may have noticed in a movie's end credits but had little understanding of what each category actually did. (The work of foley artists, I learned here, is all about sound!)

Much of the delight of the film comes from each new and usually fascinating tidbit you'll discover, one after another, in Making Waves: Murray Spivack's work on the original King Kong; regarding sound effects: how each of the major studios each had its own "sound" version of everything from the bullet ricochet to a punch in the face and an explosion; why John Cage is to music as Andy Warhol is to art; how the music industry formerly far outpaced the movie industry in terms of sound; and what particular sounds were used to create the jets heard in Top Gun (below).

Most surprising of all, perhaps, is the huge credit these sound folk give to Barbra Streisand for what she did with her version of A Star Is Born and how/why she did it. Of course, we get the info on Murch's work on Apocalypse Now , Burtt's on Star Wars, and how Rydstrom and Toy Story led us unto the digital age. However you may feel about the films themselves, what we see and hear here is germane and mostly riveting.

And, yes, there's Orson Welles, too, along with a nice nod to the many women who've labored happily in the sound field (that's Anna Behlmer, below). In their expert use of 94 minutes, the filmmakers pack in so much, so well. Early on, Walter Murch (shown above) notes that "Sound affects us in a deeper way than even image does." By the end of Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound, I'll be surprised if you don't find yourself pretty much in agreement.

The documentary hits theaters in the Los Angeles area (Laemmle's Monica Film Center, and Arclight's Hollywood, Pasadena and Sherman Oaks locations) and in New York City (Cinema Village) this Friday, October 25 -- before expanding to cities around the country. Click here to view all currently scheduled playdates,cities and venues.

How to learn to love your own voice -- David Thorpe's doc, DO I SOUND GAY?, hits DVD

Trust me: It's not just us gays who don't like the sound of our own voice. Ask anyone what they thought when they first heard the sound of theirs on a recording: They hated it. So right there, that fact should make this new documentary, just out now on DVD, more appealing to mainstream audiences. Everyone can identify with it on one level or another, and in fact, even some straight men may worry that they themselves might (often do) sound gay.

So what does "sounding gay" actually sound like? David Thorpe (shown above, doing vocal exercises), the creator and main subject of the new doc, DO I SOUND GAY?, had recently broken up with his partner and was going through the usual depressed, post-parting period when he began to wonder, rather heavily, if he sounded too gay. So he determined to learn if this was true, and if true, how to sound, well... different. Now, this is tricky territory, for it brings up the very idea of there being something "wrong" with sounding and, by extension, being gay -- not a politically correct attitude for our modern times. Yet, come on: Any gay man who has lived long in our society understands the meaning and use of the "closet," as well as the not exactly uncommon idea that, if you're a guy, you ought to sound, uh... masculine, right?

All this complicates the movie in interesting ways, cutting back and forth between attitudes of gay pride and gay, well, something else. The movie will bring many of us up short about things like self-image and, in fact, the idea of exactly how important "image" is at all. (Just as beauty is so often in the eye of the beholder, how much is image, in this case, in the ear of the listener?) Yes, this doc treads very tricky territory -- so tricky, in fact, that I suspect it could not reach even the large gay audience it hoped to. Too bad, for it has a lot to say that's worth hearing and ruminating over.

To learn about the human voice and the sounds it makes, Thorpe visits everyone from speech pathologists/consultants and acting coaches (esteemed for tutoring actors how not to sound gay) to friends, family and various celebrities the likes of George Takei (two photos above), Margaret Cho, David Sedaris (above) and Dan Savage (below) -- all of whom contribute an interesting "take" on the matter at hand.

If the movie, even at only 77 minutes, at times seems diffuse and a bit repetitive, its subject and the very "unsettlingness" of it should keep you glued and thoughtful. From IFC Films, the documentary hits DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, November 3, for sale and rental.

The sound and the fury: Peter Strickland's smart, obvious BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO

The first thing you may notice about BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO, the new narrative movie about movie-making and personality dissolution by Peter Strickland (shown below), is that its opening credits are not for the movie, the title of which appears above, but for another film entirely -- a movie-within-the-movie called The Equestrian Vortex -- for which our protagonist, Gilderoy (great moniker!), who resides with his mother in England, has been hired to come to Italy to the titular studio and provide the sound effects for that film. This is rather fun, and different, and should give you a sense of what is to come: a movie of mis-, or more precisely, other-direction.

The time is the 1970s when the country and culture of Italy was known, not only for Fellini and Visconti, but also for Argento and giallo, the latter being those sleazy-but-fun slasher movies with which the Italians had gifted the world during that famous "me" decade. So here we are then, with Gilderoy (played by the unique Toby Jones, haloed in light at left, below) -- a quiet, rather repressed and genteel fellow with a mother complex (her letters to him and the importance these hold for him make up a certain portion of the film) -- as he works on the many sounds for the movie at hand. He also, literally from the first moment he arrives at the studio, is treated like shit, refused to be reimbursed for his travel expenses, and generally taken advantage of right, left and center.

Mr. Strickland's eye is fond of going, if not where we least expect it (of course we're going to see Gilderoy at work), where most other movie-makers absolutely would: to footage of the film that has been shot for which all these sound effects -- mostly screaming by some pretty young-to-middle-aged women, one of whom is shown below -- are needed. Can you think of another movie in which we never see, aside from that nicely-done and of-its-time credit sequence, one frame of the film at hand? Neither can I. Instead, we get a lot of footage showing us from where these "slashing" sounds emanate: vegetables and fruit (watermelon is the star of one fine sequence) being mutilated by knives and hatchets.

In another nice moment, Gilderoy shows us how to turn, aurally, a little light bulb into a UFO. All this is indeed fun, and Mr. Jones is, as always, a delight to watch. If you have never seen him do the best Capote turn ever (yes, yes: Hoffman is good and all, but Jones is better) in Infamous, then you have missed a simply wonderful, rich, original movie. So where does all this visual mis-direction and abuse of Gilderoy lead us? Into the dissolving of the poor fellow's personality. Which is interesting to view, for a time. But because it is clear, and very early on, that this is where we are headed, the movie has almost no surprise and finally not all that much interest.

Toward the finale, when the dissolution of character seems near complete, there is a marvelous sequence combining an English documentary with striking sound, artwork and editing that is a  visual and aural feast. And the performances by the Italians (if you've ever felt snubbed in a foreign country, these scenes will bring it all home) are wonderfully on-the-mark. Almost carried to the point of satire, they stop just short of that and leave you fuming for poor Gilderoy. (That's Cosimo Fusco, above, left, who plays the venal and nasty producer, and Tonia Sotiropoulou, below, left, as the lazy and nasty office assistant.)

Thinking about the movie now, in retrospect, Berberian Sound Studio seems more enjoyable than it did as I was watching. At 88 minutes, the movie began, around the halfway point, to bore, and I never recovered from that. Everything we have to learn from it, we pretty much already have by the midway point. What the film is doing in the IFC Midnight series (in which you'll usually find lots of blood and gore, as per the upcoming Maniac remake, for instance) is anybody's guess. Far too intelligent, precise and subtle for that audience, it'll bore 'em to distraction. This is an "art film," pure and (a little too) simple that gives away its hand a little too soon.

The movie opens this Friday, June 14, in New York City at the IFC Center and will get a midnight screening at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn on June 21. In the Los Angeles area, it also opens this Friday, June 14, at the Arena Cinema in Hollywood and the Downtown Independent in downtown L.A. If you're elsewhere, not to worry: There is always VOD, via which it will also open this Friday in most major markets. Consult your TV reception provider for specifics.