Punctuated by fits of, flinch-inducing

Question

Though a trifle awkward in his demeanour Ahuja's expressions change from anxiety to brutality with remarkable fluency.
Rahmani is restrained and effective in conveying both her character's vulnerability and cunning.
What comes in the way of their performances are the speech patterns - the thickly laden "Keralite" accents often go awry and end up coming in the way of emotions.
What saves the day is the relatively quiet soundtrack punctuated by fits of Williams' flinch-inducing fury.
The sequence at the girls' hostel from where William calls Rosemary away on the pretext that her mother is ill is remarkable.
"I'm ill I'm suffering!" bellows William before tearing Rosemary's clothes off.
The explicit depiction of anxieties that underline the clandestine liaison is keenly contoured in the two protagonists' body language, and the way the director silhouettes them in mid close-ups.
"Sins" is by no means an outstanding piece of work.

Source : http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/hindi/review/7455.html

Could you please explain to me the emboldened parts?

Mr Wordy · Accepted Answer

Here are the relevant dictionary definitions.

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/punctuate (sense 1)

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/fit_2 (sense 3)

"flinch-inducing" means tending to induce flinches; see

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/induce (sense 2)

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/flinch

User_gary · Answer

Thank you Mr. Wordy for your replies in all the threads.

I can't understand the meaning of "by fits of" as well here.

Anyway, overall I guess the sentence means "Amidst the bad story of the film, the songs which comes at regular intervals showing Williams' fear or nervous is noteworthy".

Mr Wordy · Answer

User_gary
Anyway, overall I guess the sentence means "Amidst the bad story of the film, the songs which comes at regular intervals showing Williams' fear or nervous is noteworthy".

Um, no, it doesn't quite mean that. Sorry, I thought once the word meanings were clear the sentence would be, but I guess it's not that simple!

the relatively quiet soundtrack -- The soundtrack of the film is mostly fairly quiet. In other words, there isn't a lot of shouting, loud music, over-the-top histrionics, etc.

punctuated by fits of Williams' flinch-inducing fury -- However, at intervals, the quietness of the soundtrack is broken by loud, furious outbursts from Williams. These outbursts are so violent that they are likely to make other people flinch.

What saves the day is... -- These features of the film are (in the reviewer's opinion) good things. They are said to "save the day" (i.e. redeem other possible faults that the film might have).

There is no mention of songs in the sentence.

User_gary · Answer

Thanks a lot Mr. Wordy. You are great.

Now I almost got it. I just have one more doubt. Is the soundtrack refer to "the songs of the film" or the "background music which appears through the film"?

Mr Wordy · Answer

In its most general sense, the "soundtrack" of a film is all of the film's audio, which includes the dialogue, the background music, songs etc. Often, and especially for films with a large musical content, it refers especially to the music.

Without knowing more about the film, it's hard to tell here whether "quiet soundtrack" is referring mainly to the music, or just to the overall level of sound. I more naturally read it as the latter because of the contrast with Williams' "fits of fury" which seem unlikely to be expressed musically (unless the whole movie is in song, like an opera, of course). But, as I say, it's hard to tell.

Punctuated by fits of, flinch-inducing

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