Narrative cinema

1. Narrative cinema • In earliest days, cinema not used for story-telling (Lumières, Méliès) • Cinematic narrative vs. other forms/media: particular to cinematic narrative are (1) collective production (2) allocation of budget (3) requirement for technical apparatus (4) distribution and marketing/advertising (5) certification/censorship

2. Film narrative: the classic narrative model • structured around equilibrium > disruption > new equilibrium • events between also subject to ordering, typically according to cause > effect • classic narrative governed by verisimilitude (vraisemblance) • classic narrative driven forward by central character or ‘hero’, who often brings about resolution

3. Codes of classic narrative 1 • story must be kept moving • causal links between events have to be made clear • location(s)/sets must be credibly constructed • characters must be individuated, ‘fleshed-out’ agents

4. Codes of classic narrative 2 • editing is key mechanism of control • ‘continuity editing’ maintains appearance of continuous space and time in finished film. Viewer can ‘read’ film without conscious effort • establishing shots and shot-reverse shot e.g. in Les Diaboliques

5. Variations on classic narrative • device of ‘delay’ (= withholding of knowledge) in Les Diaboliques. Begins from moment Lasalle’s body is disposed of. • Flashback in Chocolat = 80% of film

6. Flashback (= retour en arrière) • juxtaposes present and past - present dissolves to past • cinematic flashback more efficient than literature or theatre • dissolve (fondu) takes place through voiceover or in image • concepts implied are (1) memory (subjective) (2) history (shared, recorded)

7. Flashback in Chocolat • to address enigma ‘Why is France in Cameroun?’, answered at end of film • is story in itself (becomes the film). Then ‘memory’ becomes ‘history’ again: France is in Cameroun to find out if she still belongs there (no).