The clattering soundscape in this scene from Robert Altman’s Images (1972) is post-tonal film music at its most vivid and immediate. There are many atonal horror-movie-music cliches; Williams’s and Yamash’ta’s Oscar-nominated score eschews them and is genuinely frightening. Leaving screeching strings and plodding basses behind, they populate the scene with sparse noises that are continually surprising and unfamiliar. Everything is working together here: the musical choices, the whiplash switch from conversation to hallucination, and the dizzying long-distance shots. The music is not a backdrop here, but a part of the main character Cathryn’s psychological landscape made physical through sound.