Synchresis
Synchresis (CHION 2009, 492): defined by Chion as "a spontaneous and reflexive psychophysiological phenomenon that is universal and works because of the makeup of our nervous system, not from cultural conditioning." When we watch a film (with synchronized sound), we naturally tend to associate what we are listening to with what we hear: the synchresis takes place when the relationship between sound and image (thus, between the sound and the source that produces said sound) occurs simultaneously (we hear a phone ringing and at the same time, we see that phone): the relationship between sound and image seems to us logical and unchallenged.
Suspension of disbelief leads us to accept some relationships between sounds and their source as logical. In Jacques Tati's Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953, France), the synchresis resulting from the sound and image of the boat is essentially due to the extreme stylization of Foley: here synchresis produces an effect that is contradictory to reality, since the diegetic characters on the beach obviously do believe that the shape of the broken boat and the sounds are of a real shark.
[C. V.; J. W.]
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