Question 2
Sound and visuals must not support each other. Instead, they are to compliment each other. They must never engage in a relationship where one is reliant on the other.
It took a while for me to wrap my head around Bresson’s notes of cinematography and the conclusion I’ve come to is that sound and visuals must never be equally important in film. Through a personal anecdote, it slowly made more sense to me. Imagine, watching a film while playing an app on your iPad thinking it will be fine because you can listen to the audio assuming that in some way, it will help you understand what is going on in the film without using your eyes. However, what will happen when the sound’s role is diminished and more importance is given to visuals? Answer is, you would be lost because you did not watch what happened in the film.
This leads to the second point, “an eye solicited alone makes the ear impatient” and vice versa. Appealing to sound and visuals at the same time may make the viewer bored. There needs to be a balance, a relay, so that the viewer is kept interested in the film both visually and aurally.