The modern office is a site of psychological violence. Most films attempt to convey corporate toxicity through dramatic shouting matches and swelling, tragic orchestral scores. But true systemic abuse does not announce itself with a string section. In The Assistant, director Kitty Green proves that the most terrifying sound in the world is the hum of a fluorescent light bulb.
Sound & Space: The Oppressive Ambient
Bref, Green stripped the film of almost all musical score. There is no emotional crutch for the audience. Instead, the sound design relies entirely on aggressively amplified ambient office noise.
As we endure a day in the life of Jane, the mundane sonic details of her environment are weaponized. The pounding of keystrokes, the sharp, unnatural click of a computer mouse, and the deafening, mechanical scrape of a photocopier are maximized to tear at our ears.
The Banality of Abuse
C’est magnifique. By stripping away the score and elevating the banality of the ambient soundscape, Green traps us in Jane’s suffocating subjectivity. The toxic atmosphere of the office—based on Green’s extensive research into the Miramax culture—is communicated not through dialogue, but through the aural friction of the space itself.
The silence of the abuse is contrasted with the overwhelming noise of the machinery facilitating it. We are left acutely aware that the machinery will never stop humming, and the abuse will never cease.
Insights regarding Kitty Green’s use of a score-less, ambient-heavy sound design—featuring amplified fluorescent buzzing and keystrokes to critique toxic office culture—were extracted from analyses published by Deep Focus Review and Alternate Ending.