A collection of images to supplement reading of The Sound of Things to Come.
The Films
The movie posters collected here present the major films discussed in the book. These begin with some of the earliest science fiction films to include sound, whether in the narrative (radio-contact with Mars triggers the events of the silent 1924 Russian film, Aelita), the score (Gottfried Huppertz's original score to the silent 1927 German film, Metropolis, expresses Modernist mechanical sounds), or their soundtrack (Arthur Bliss's original score to the 1936 British film, Things to Come, was conceived as an integral part of the design of the first science fiction film with synchronized sound, but hushed noises and silence also become an integral part of the futuristic world). Of all of these film posters, only three evoke a sonic motif as part of their promotional campaigns: Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971), Scott's Alien (1979), and Muscha's Decoder (1984).
The galleries here are intended as educational supports for reading and study of The Sound of Things to Come: An Audible History of the Science Fiction Film. No images are included in the book itself.