The difficulty with maintaining a hard and complete distinction between the
implied and the real author is that many directors do draw on personal experience in crafting their films so that a correlation does exist between who they are as people and the content of the films. Directors such as Ingmar Bergman, Steven Spielberg, and Alfred Hitchcock undeniably have based aspects of their films on personal experiences. Knowing something about their personal history can help to 241
The Nature of Narrative in Film
TO CATCH A THIEF (PARAMOUNT, 1956)
Character meets author. On the run from the police, jewel thief John Robe (Cary Grant) hops aboard a bus and, glancing toward the window, discovers the film’s director (Alfred Hitchcock) seated next to him. As a director, Hitchcock transformed his personal experiences, interests, and anxieties into brilliant film images and narratives, but the richness of these films transcends any biographic basis they might have. Moreover, Hitchcock depended on collaboration with his regular cinematographer (Robert Burks), editor (George Tomasini), and composer (Bernard Herrmann), as well as screenwriters like John Michael Hayes. As an implied author, “Hitchcock” designates the creative result of these partnerships—an unparalleled series of elegant, witty, and suspenseful films. Frame enlargement.
clarify structural features of their films. But biographic correlations can be misleading and are easily overemphasized. Because of this, the distinction between real and implied authors is useful to maintain, not in any fixed or absolute sense, but as a way of keeping clear the many ways in which film structure, produced as a collaborative enterprise by teams of filmmakers in a medium that has multiple authors, may transcend the facts of an individual filmmaker’s biography.
POINT OF VIEW IN CINEMATIC NARRATIVES As with authorship, narrative point of view has special conditions in cinema that differentiate it from its literary context. Literary narratives customarily use the first-person or third-person point of view. If point of view is in first-person, then the narrator employs the first-person pronoun: “I went there.” “I did that.” Third-person pronouns help to produce a third-person narrative:
“He went there.” “She did that.” While novels may use either, movies almost always use third-person narration. In most films, the camera assumes a point of view that is detached and separate from the literal viewpoint as seen by each of the characters.
However, there are times when filmmakers wish to suggest a character’s literal point of view. To do so, the filmmaker would use a subjective shot or point-of-view shot, in which the camera literally views through the eyes of the character. This kind of shot creates a brief interlude of first-person perspective. Generally, the shift from third to first person in film is signaled by showing the character reacting to something 242
The Nature of Narrative in Film
off-screen, then cutting to a view of what the character sees, the subjective view, and then closing the subjective moment with a cut back to the character from a third-person perspective.
In cinema, first-person point of view is more commonly present in an implicit way. In Memento (2001), although we see Leonard Shelby on camera, the story is told from his point of view. We share his confusion and difficulty piecing events together, and our knowledge of the story is restricted to what he knows. We learn new information only when he does.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (WARNER BROS., 1951)
First-person perspective typically occurs in cinema for brief intervals through the use of a subjective shot, representing what a character sees. Hitchcock often used subjective shots in remarkable ways. Guy (Farley Granger) and Bruno (Robert Walker) quarrel, in a camera setup (third-person perspective) that represents neither character’s viewpoint (a). When Guy punches Bruno, however, Hitchcock abruptly inserts a subjective shot (b, c), showing this action from Bruno’s perspective. Thereafter, he returns to a more normative, third-person framing (d). Frame enlargements.
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Through performance, production design, lighting, color, editing, and the use of sound and camera, directors can suggest the emotional or psychological perspective of a character in a scene. George Stevens’s Shane (1953) deals with the arrival of a mysterious gunfighter in a farming community in Wyoming. He stays at the home of farmer Joe Starrett and is revered by Starrett’s young son, an impressionable little boy whose father is somewhat distant and who yearns for an attractive male authority figure to worship. He finds this in Shane, and it is implied very strongly that the story of the film is filtered through the point of view of young Joey Starrett.
There are, however, few subjective shots from Joey’s perspective. Instead, the systematic visual presentation of Shane as an extremely romantic and idealized figure, clad in golden buckskins, establishes an implicit first-person narration, one that correlates with Joey’s point of view. Shane’s idealized visual and emotional presentation makes him precisely the sort of hero a young boy, starved for attention, might desire.
Extended First-Person Narration Although extended and explicit first-person point of view is rare in film, there are a few spectacular examples. Lady in the Lake , a detective film made in 1946 from a Raymond Chandler novel, is distinguished by the novelty of having the camera take the detective’s first-person point of view throughout. Viewers see the detective when he pauses in front of a mirror or examines his reflection in a store window. At other times his hand or an item of his clothing might intrude into the frame.
More recently, 84 Charlie MoPic (1989) presented its narrative entirely through a subjective camera as MoPic, a combat cameraman, follows and films a dangerous seven-man reconnaissance mission to the central highlands during the Vietnam War.
The action is presented as he sees it through the lens of his camera, and the gimmick works well in making the viewer a participant on the mission.
Filmmakers rarely employ subjective point of view so extensively, and the reason is clear. It becomes awkward and interferes with a flexible presentation of narrative information. First-person perspective ties the camera to a character’s physical position, SHANE (PARAMOUNT
PICTURES, 1953)
Shane’s (Alan Ladd) smooth, hand-
some face, golden buckskins, and
refined manner establish an implicitly
first-person perspective in Shane . It is a
boy’s view of a romantic and idealized
Western hero. Frame enlargement.
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The Nature of Narrative in Film
and filmmakers customarily want to film scenes from a variety of camera positions.
Filmmakers therefore find it more effective to employ third-person camera positions but to use light, color, sound, performance, and composition to imply the emotional and psychological points of view of characters in a scene. Taken together, these elements of structure help create the cinema’s distinctive narrative point of view: explicit third-person narration with implied first-person components.
THE CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD NARRATIVE
A plot is not a random collection of events. It places events in a time sequence that usually imparts a clear sense of purpose. The story seems to be moving in a certain direction, and in most cases, the viewer understands that it will come to a deliberate end, and reach a purposeful and satisfying conclusion. Causality is the glue that holds the various events and episodes in the story together. One event in the story causes another event. Some plots are tightly constructed with events chained in a strong causal sequence. By contrast, other plots are loose, open-ended, or almost shapeless, with causality present in a minimal or implicit way.
The classical Hollywood narrative , named after the films produced by the Hollywood studios in the 1930s to 1950s, is still prevalent in popular cinema. Titanic (1997), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003) and Avatar (2009) are classical Hollywood narratives, as are
almost all popular film entertainments.
Such films feature a main line of action and one or more subordinate lines of action (subplots) tied to it. The plot is directional—activated by a main character pursuing a goal—and one event follows another in tight causal relationships, as links in a chain. The goals of the action are announced early in the film, and the plot follows a line of rising interest and tension as the characters confront impediments to their goals.
The conclusion of the film sees the characters either achieving or failing to achieve their goals in a way that brings the narrative to a satisfying conclusion that resolves all outstanding story issues. It is this sense of completeness, resulting from the resolution of all lines of action, that gives the classical narrative its satisfying quality. In the cases of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the story lines arc across several films before achieving complete resolution.
Alternatives to the Classical Narrative
While classical Hollywood narratives have proven to be very popular with audiences, and a great many films each year are produced in this format, alternative narrative forms have been an important and vital part of cinema. The example cited earlier in the chapter of narrative structure in Memento shows a case of nonclassical narrative.
Films made outside of mainstream Hollywood production often use alternative narrative structures. In these cases, causality may be minimized in favor of ambiguity. No clearly dominant line of action may emerge. The sequence of events may be loosely organized, giving the viewer a weaker sense of the direction in which the story is moving.
Many European films, for example, prize ambiguity over causality in structuring their narratives. Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris (1972) is a French-Italian co-production that portrays the emotional devastation of an American named Paul (Marlon Brando), living in Paris, whose wife has just committed suicide. Her suicide is the fundamental motivating event for all the film’s action, but the film does not reveal 245
The Nature of Narrative in Film
what has happened until well into the narrative. As a result, considerable ambiguity surrounds Paul’s behavior.
Unlike Memento , where the plot rearranges the chronology of story events, Bertolucci does not alter the chronology of events in Last Tango. But he omits key scenes and delays giving the viewer important information needed to understand the story. Thus the viewer cannot at first comprehend the reasons for Paul’s extreme emotional distress. The reasons for his distress (namely, his wife’s suicide) are not made Case Study THE SEARCHERS
John Ford’s The Searchers (1956), a renowned and
relationship of Marty, a relative accompanying Ethan,
prestigious Western, illustrates the goal-directed, highly
with a family of settlers, whose domestic lives hold more
motivated action of the classical Hollywood narrative. At
attraction for him than they do for Ethan. The subplot is
the beginning of the film, Ethan Edwards (John Wayne)
interrelated with the main line of action—Marty decides
returns from the Civil War to his brother’s cabin in Texas.
that his real task will be to prevent Ethan from killing
Ethan has been away for a number of years, engaged in
Debbie when he finds her—and both lines of action
activities that remain mysterious. He arrives at Aaron’s
are resolved at the end. Debbie is rescued. Marty joins
and Martha’s homestead, where relations between the
the family of settlers and will (it is implied) marry their
brothers are tense, and where it is hinted that Ethan and
daughter. In the last scene, he enters the family’s home,
Martha share an unspoken love. Shortly after Ethan’s ar-
whereas Ethan chooses not to do so, walking away from
rival, Indians attack the homestead, burn the cabin, and
the cabin into the desert and back to the rootless exis-
wipe out the family, except for Aaron’s and Martha’s two
tence from which he appeared at the film’s beginning.
daughters, whom they abduct. Driven by a powerful ha-
The classical Hollywood narrative makes use of
tred of Indians, Ethan becomes obsessed with returning
explicit causality. One event clearly causes another in
his nieces to the white community.
the chain that forms the narrative. The Comanche attack
This is the goal-directed activity that generates the
on the cabin prompts Ethan’s quest. Ethan swears to
remainder of the film’s narrative and takes the charac-
return Debbie to her rightful community. He undertakes
ter on a five-year search. The opening act of the film
a five-year search. During the course of the search, he
served to define the essential conditions—Ethan’s love
comes to hate Debbie. What will he do when he finds
for Martha, his rootless and stubborn nature, and his
her? The tension surrounding this latter question gener-
pathologic hatred for Indians—that motivate the en-
ates the climax of the film and its surprising last-minute
suing action. As the plot progresses, however, Ethan
turn of events in which the character redeems himself in
encounters impediments to his goal, chief among them
a way that allows him to honor the original goal, the one
being his own savagery. Ethan’s hatred for Indians poi-
that had driven the narrative from its beginning.
sons his feelings for Debbie (the one abducted niece
Because of its explicit causality, classical Hollywood
who survives) once he realizes that she is living among
cinema features a clear hierarchy of narrative events.
the Comanche as a member of their culture. His origi-
Certain episodes stand out as the most important links
nal goal of rescuing Debbie is replaced by another and
in the narrative chain, whereas others are less decisive
darker quest: to destroy her.
and less important. If viewers are asked to summarize
In its last act, The Searchers generates considerable
this kind of highly motivated film narrative, they can
excitement as Ethan finds Debbie and chases her down a
easily identify the most important narrative events.
ravine to the mouth of a cave. He lifts her in his arms and
Asked to summarize The Searchers , a viewer might say
the viewer is afraid that he is going to bash her brains
that a band of Commanche attacks a Texas homestead,
out, but in a last-minute turn of events, he forgives her,
and one of the survivors vows revenge, searches for
forgives himself, and honors his original quest, returning
many years for a young girl, and finally locates and
her to the white community of Texas settlers.
rescues her. These events could not be subtracted from
Ethan’s quest for Debbie is the main line of action in
the film without radically altering or damaging
the film, but it is conjoined with a subplot showing the
the story. ■
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The Nature of Narrative in Film
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
THE SEARCHERS (Warner Bros., 1956)
The highly motivated and goal-oriented classical Hollywood narrative. Ethan (John Wayne) returns from years of wandering to visit his brother’s family and Martha, whom he loves (a–c). Comanches massacre the family and abduct the children. Ethan views the carnage with horror
(d) and resolves to find and rescue the children. After years of searching, he returns with one child (e). In the last image (f), he stands alone, now without purpose in his life, turns and walks away, into the desert. Frame enlargements.
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The Nature of Narrative in Film
clear until 30 minutes into the film. This gives many scenes during the intervening period an unclear and ambiguous status. In one, Paul stands in a bathroom as a maid cleans a tub full of blood. He waits silently as the maid describes how she was questioned by the police. At this point in the narrative, though, the viewer doesn’t know what happened here, why the police are involved, or what relationship this has to Paul.
The important questions in the narrative—who Paul is, where the blood in the bathroom has come from, why he is in such distress—are answered slowly and incompletely.
As a result, the narrative in Last Tango presents the viewer with serious interpretational challenges. Bertolucci’s viewer must sort out the particulars of Paul’s distress and his wife’s suicide and their marital relationship by working through a plot structure that is not organized to facilitate the answering of these questions.
Independent filmmaking is another mode of production in which classical
Hollywood narrative is often conspicuously absent. The narrative in many independent films is often very episodic, with events joined in a loose fashion, with minimal or implicit causality . John Sayles is one of the most successful independent filmmakers, with LAST TANGO IN
PARIS (UNITED
ARTISTS, 1972)
The narrative structure
of Last Tango in Paris
withholds key pieces
of story information.
As a result, first-time
viewers have great dif-
ficulty piecing the story
together. Paul’s an-
guish is, at first, unex-
plained. When he visits
the scene of a suicide,
viewers struggle to
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