Neo-liberal Transgressions in the Contemporary Film Industry: Classical Music and Dehumanised Musical Bodies in the Films The Perfection (2018) and Nocturne (2020)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine what I call “dehumanised musical bodies” in the psychological horror films The Perfection and Nocturne. These multi-deficient neo-liberal bodies are exposed to the stereotypical, strikingly negative image of the sophisticated world of art. Particular attention is paid to the provocative treatment of classical music, focusing on the non-normative institutional practices and ethical reconfiguration of their representatives. A strikingly raw form of musical dehumanisation is found in the film The Perfection, whose soundtrack combines ambient sounds of terror and popular tunes with great classical works by Handel, Mozart and Casadesus. The film Nocturne, on the other hand, offers a more contemplative audio-visual aesthetic with a deceptive hierarchisation of the classical music repertoire. Mozart’s music is frivolously devalued, while Saint-Saëns’ “Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor” is used as a narrative device for a destructive manifestation of power that leads to an avalanche of conflict between the sisters. Such explicit play with the classical music signifiers drastically deviates from conventional musical protocols and leads to alienation and, ultimately, transgressive neo-liberal dehumanisation of contemporary musicians.