ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of sound and music in flashback sequences in two of Jan Troell’s early feature films: Här har du ditt liv (1966, Here is your life) and Nybyggarna (1972, The new land). Flashbacks in his early films tend to emphasize trauma, providing insight into the troubled psyches of Troell’s protagonists, shifting between disparate subjectivities and varied narrative and aural states of present, past, and future with overlapping and disorienting layers of foreground and background music, dialogue, and sound effects. Troell uses a varied palette of aural techniques, making his films suitable case studies for the development of a critical framework for understanding the sonic properties of flashback sequences.
