Fine Line Features | The Five Senses

Types of sound:	song noise talk
Sounds help us:	interpret communicate express

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"He is afraid that when he completely loses his hearing, his world will become much smaller, more closed in."
--Philippe Volter on Richard

We tend to take for granted the orchestra of noises the world provides us with - the songs, the chatter, the whistles and rumbles that help us to understand and enjoy life. In The Five Senses, Richard, a middle-aged French eye-doctor no longer has that luxury. He is slowly going deaf and resolves to spend all his time collecting the sounds he will miss the most. Richard is played by Philippe Volter, one of France's most acclaimed actors, best known in the U.S. for his work in such films as The Double Life of Veronique and Cyrano de Bergerac.

Richard is losing one the most elaborate and complicated of the human senses. What we hear is nothing more than waves of air molecules rippling into our eardrums, yet through the astonishing engineering of the ear - involving hydraulics, pistons and little hairs that excite nerve cells and send complex messages to the brain - these molecules can be turned into music. The human ear can hear frequencies between 16 and 20,000 cycles per second, an extraordinary range of almost ten octaves. Even deaf people report that they hear an astonishing number of noises, some from within, others mere vibrations that pass through the body.

Philippe Volter notes that what Richard fears most about losing his hearing is "becoming dependent on other people." "He is afraid that when he completely loses his hearing, his world will become much smaller, more closed in," continues Volter, "but then he meets a woman who truly understand what it means to be deaf and how it can enlarge his world instead."

Volter has worked with many of Europe's finest writers and directors but he was drawn to Jeremy Podeswa's work because of its originality. "This is the only script I've ever read that deals with the impact of the senses," says Volter. "What I most love about it is that it asks questions but leaves the answers open."

Podeswa was thrilled to have his cast joined by an actor with the experience of Philippe Volter. "He is just amazing, one of those faces you can project any emotion onto, a consummate film actor with a natural charm that draws you right in," observes Podeswa. "He and Pascale Bussieres, who plays opposite him, are two actors who can be perfectly still yet everything comes out of their eyes. They have a true soulfulness that goes beyond motion and sound."