Lecture 3: Narrative Form

1. Lecture 3:Narrative Form Professor Aaron Baker

2. Previous Lesson • The Technology of Moving Pictures • Film Production • Film Distribution • Film Exhibition • Matewan (1987)

3. This Lesson • Defining Narrative • Framing the Fictional World and Organizing Events • Narrative Structure • Classical vs. Non-Classical Structure • Rashômon (1950)

4. Defining Narrative Casablanca (1980) Directed by Michael Curtiz Lesson 3: Part I

5. What is Narrative Form? • Narrative form is the structure though which movies tell stories. • When we speak of ‘going to the movies,’ we almost always mean that we are going to see a narrative film – a film that tells a story.

6. Narratives are Everywhere • Narratives appear throughout media and society – in novels, plays, comic books, television shows and even commercials. • Even when we talk with friends and family we tell them about our lives using stories.

7. Expectations • We approach narrative film with definite expectations. We may have: • Read the book or graphic novel • Seen the original film to a sequel or remake • Seen the trailer • Followed advance information about the film • Seen films in the same genre

8. Assumptions • Spectators also come prepared to make sense of narrative films based on having consumed thousands of previous stories. • We assume that there will be: • Characters with goals or desires • Obstacles and conflict • Resolution and closure

9. Cause and Effect • A narrative is a series of events occurring in space and time. • Narratives do not unfold randomly, but rather are connected by the logic of cause and effect. • Clip # 1 from Casablanca (1942)

10. Cause and Effect in Casablanca • Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) Shoots Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt) • That event makes possible the successful escape of Ilsa and Lazlo (Ingrid Bergman and Paul Heinreid)

11. Character • Narrative films generally focus on human characters and their struggles. • Characters are typically responsible for cause and effect in narrative.

12. Choices and Goals • Characters create cause and effect through choices that lead to conflict and consequences. • Characters possess traits, face conflicts, make choices and undergo changes that enable or hinder pursuit of a specific goal.

13. Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull • Chooses to confront his wife about his fears of her infidelity. • This confrontation, and his subsequent violence, changes their relationship and blocks his goal of keeping her.

14. Goals and obstacles • Goals might include locating treasure, choosing a foster parent or looking for love. • Characters encounter obstacles in pursuing these goals – the collision of goals and obstacles create conflict and thus drama.

15. Kinds of Obstacles • Obstacles to character goals can come from within the character, from other characters, from non-humans (such as aliens or monsters), and from nature. • Many narrative films involve characters overcoming obstacles on more than one level.

16. Character • Flaw • Ghost • Want – External Goal • Needs – Internal Struggle • Subtext

17. How Narrative Unfolds • Typically a narrative begins with one situation. • A series of changes occurs according to a pattern of cause and effect. • Finally a new situation arises – through character choice and conflict – that restores equilibrium to the world of the story and brings about the end of the narrative. • The new story equilibrium almost always results in character change.

18. Example from Girlfight • Girlfight begins with the protagonist Diana (Michelle Rodriguez) angry and in a dysfunctional family. • She chooses to learn about boxing, her new confidence helps her handle conflict with her antagonist father and boyfriend. • She changes, becomes more confident and less angry and achieves equilibrium Pause the lecture and watch the clip #2 from Girlfight (1999)

19. “You Belong to Me” • Diana stops her abusive father with her new fighting skills. • After she defeats her boyfriend, Adrian, in the ring, she tries to reassure him, but she now has the strength and confidence that she doesn’t need him if he can’t accept her.

20. Framing the Fictional World and Organizing Events Lesson 3: Part II Adaptation (2002) Directed by Spike Jonze

21. Diagetic vs. Nondiagetic Elements • Diagetic elements are everything that exists in the world that the film depicts – including everything implied offscreen: settings, sounds, characters, events. • Nondiagetic elements are elements within the film, but not within the film’s world, such as credits, music or voice-over narration. • Characters are unaware of these elements.

22. The Purpose of Nondiagetic Elements “Filmmakers use non-diegetic elements for several reasons: they may draw attention to aspects of the narrative from a position outside the story, they communicate with the audience directly, and they engage viewers on an emotional level.” • Pramaggiore and Wallis,” Narrative Form”

23. Examples • Examples of non-diegetic narrative elements include: • The voice-over in The Shawshank Redemption • The opening “crawl” of text in Star Wars • The printed book pages that designate ‘chapters’ in The Royal Tenenbaums

24. Selecting and Organizing Events • Feature films have a running time or screen time of between 90 and 180 minutes. But the stories they tell rarely take place in that amount of time. • In order to tell a story that may cover months or years, the filmmakers must choose to present certain events and leave others out.

25. The Fabula and the Syuzhet • The writer transforms a complete chronological story into an abbreviated, recognized version of events that plays out on the screen for the audience. • Often the differences are referred to as story and plot. • Pramaggiore and Wallis use the Russian Formalist terms fabula for story and syuzhet for plot.

26. The Fabula • The fabula is the chronological narrative, in its entirety. • It include events that take place during the span of time of the syuzhet that are implied but not overtly depicted. • These include a character’s backstory. • Though we never see Charles Kane’s teenage years in Citizen Kane, an idea of them is implied to the viewer; these offscreen events are part of the fabula.

27. The Syuzhet • The syuzhet entails more than simply omitting events from the fabula – it also involves reordering events – some times using flashbacks and flashforwards. • These are scenes from the past or future that interrupt the film’s present tense to rearrange the chronology of the fabula. • Repositioning events influences the way audiences understand them.

28. Selecting Events for Significance “The distinction between the fabula and the syuzhet makes clear that each event represented in the film has been selected for dramatization and has been ordered systematically – there are no accidents . . . The syuzhet need not chronicle every moment in the fabula, and it usually emphasizes the importance of some moments relative to others.” • Pramaggiore and Wallis,” Narrative Form”

29. Narrative Structure Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) Directed by Guillermo del Toro Lesson 3: Part III

30. Three Act Structure – Act I • The three act structure is the standard structure that shapes narrative films. • Act I introduces characters, goals and conflicts and ends with the first turning point, an important change that affects characters and situations. • A turning point can be thought of as a point of no return for the characters, when the initial situation can no longer exist.

31. Three Act Structure – Acts II and III • Act II presents complications: • The protagonist meets obstacles – often the result of an antagonist – that prevents her from achieving her goals. • The conflicts increase in number and complexity, leading to a major turning point, often referred to as the climax. • Act III presents the dénouement: • Here a series of events resolves the conflicts that have arisen – not always happily.

32. Four Part Structure • Some film scholars and screenwriters prefer to think of feature films as being comprised of a four-part structure. • The major difference is that the four-part structure features an extra turning point known as a midpoint, which happens at the dead center of the film.

33. Example • In Jaws, the midpoint comes at minute 60 of a 120 minute film, when the hero realizes that he will have to kill the shark at sea. • This turning point – also known as a reversal – sends the film off on another direction. The initial situation can no longer exist until equilibrium is restored.

34. Exposition • Act I of a film is often dense with narrative detail, backstory and plot set-up. • This density of story information is called exposition and it is designed to orient viewers into the world of the story. • The exposition briefs viewers on place, time, characters and circumstances. • For example, James Cameron spends a great deal of Act I orienting viewers to the fictional world in Avatar.

35. Classical Vs. Non-Classical Structure Lesson 3: Part IV

36. Classical Narrative Structure “The principles of narrative that govern commercial feature films emerged from the practices and preferences of Hollywood filmmakers in the early part of the twentieth century. Commercial Hollywood studios established a formula for making popular films that tell stories and refined these rules over several decades.” Pramaggiore and Wallis,” Narrative Form” 36

37. “Rules” for Classical Narrative Clarity: Viewers should not be confused about space, time, events or character motivations. Unity:Connections between cause and effect must be direct and complete. Characters should invite viewer identification, be active and seek goals. Closure: Third acts and epilogues should tie up loose ends and answer all questions. 37

38. Other Aspects of Classical Hollywood Narration • Individual characters serve as causal agents and the narrative centers on their personal psychological causes. • Desire often moves the narrative • Cause and effect imply change. • Objective point of view. We see what the characters do and say. • Closure

39. A number of narrative filmmaking traditions have modified or rejected the rules of the dominant Hollywood method of storytelling. Art films Independent films Experimental / Avant-Garde films Alternative Storytelling Forms 39

40. Rejecting Traditional Rules • Some examples of rejecting traditional narrative rules include: • Lack of clarity – multiple, conflicting lines of action, inconsistent characterization, extreme degree of character subjectivity • Lack of unity - broken chain of cause and effect

41. Art Film: Blow Up 1966 • David Hemmings inadvertently photographs a murder. • He becomes obsessed with the crime. • Despite his investigation, he never finds out what happened or why.

42. Unconventional characterizations – audience is distanced from characters rather than invited to identify There Will be Blood Unclear character goals; unreliable narrator -Shutter Island Devices such as direct address that call attention to the narrative process Do the Right Thing Rejecting Traditional Rules (Continued) 42

43. Alternative Narratives Some non-traditional films may be open-ended - that is they conclude without resolution: No Country for Old Men. Frame narration - used in Citizen Kane consists of a character who narrates an embedded tale to onscreen or implied listeners. In episodic narratives, such as The 400 Blows or Pulp Fiction, events are not tightly connected in a cause and effect sequence and characters do not focus on a single goal. 43

44. Narrative Structure in Rashômon Rashômon(1950) Directed by Akira Kurosawa Lesson 3: Part V

45. Rashômon (1950) Based on a 1921 story by Ryunoskue Akutagawa titled “In a Grove.” Directed by Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. First Japanese film to gain international recognition - Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Famous for its unconventional narrative organization. 45

46. The Narrative Rashômon represents an alternative to classical narrative form through its structure, characters and conclusion. This approach to storytelling helps the film develop its central theme the impossibility of comprehending truth. This is an example of how film form and content are inextricable from one another. 46

47. The Frame Story Rather than a traditional, linear three-act structure with a beginning, middle and end, Rashômon is composed of a frame narration and an embedded story. In the frame story, a woodcutter relates the details of a violent encounter between a samurai, his wife and a bandit. Pause the lecture and watch clip #3 from Rashomon, which depicts the frame story. 47

48. The embedded tale relating the events of the forest altercation is told in flashbacks, and not just the woodcutter’s version. Four flashbacks show the same events from the perspectives of the woodcutter, the samurai, the wife and the bandit. Cause and effect is confused, raising the question of what actually happens. Pause the lecture and watch clip #4 from Rashomon of a flashback The Embedded Tale 48

49. With the multiple versions of what happened, it’s difficult to know what really occurred and why. The self-serving and unreliable characters are hard to sympathize and identify with. The film’s conclusion is open-ended - the truth about what actually happened remains in doubt and unresolved Pause the lecture and watch clip #5 from the conclusion of Rashomon Characters and Conclusion 49

50. Final Point “In these three aspects - narrative structure, characters and conclusion - Rashomon departs from the classical narrative in innovative ways. The layered narrative, unusual characterizations, and open-ended conclusion have all contributed to the film’s ability to fascinate viewers for many decades.” Pramaggiore and Wallis,” Narrative Form” 50