Chapter 3

Narrative Form

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Principles of Narrative Construction

• Narrative form tells a story.• While common in fiction films, it can be

employed in other types of films.• Narrative construction relies on the viewer to

pick up cues, anticipate action, and recall information.

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What Is Narrative?

• A chain of events in cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space.

• Narratives may also make use of parallelism.

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Plot and Story

• Story: all the events in a narrative, both explicitly presented and inferred.

• Diegesis means elements that are assumed to exist in the film world.

• Plot includes nondiegetic elements and everything visibly and audibly presented, but not what is presumed or inferred.

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Cause and Effect

• Usually triggered by characters, but could be events or circumstances.

• Viewers look for causal motivation and this can create mystery, suspense, or other reactions.

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Time

• Time shapes our understanding of narrative. • Temporal order refers to the order of story

events.• Story time is constructed on the basis of what

the plot presents, even though that might not be in chronological order.

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Time

• Story duration is the period of time referred to in the film.

• Plot duration includes the stretches of time depicted in the film.

• Screen duration is the length of the film.• Temporal frequency is the number of times an

element is presented.

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Space

• Story space is where the story takes place.• Screen space is the visible space within the

frame.• Space selects certain parts of plot space and

can ask the viewer to infer or imagine space.

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Openings, Closings, and Patterns of Development

• Exposition: the part of the plot that lays out important story events and character traits in the opening.

• Patterns of Development: Can be motivated by time and space or by the characters, such as in a change in knowledge.

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Climaxes and Closings

• Climaxes resolve causal issues by bringing the development to a high point, often involving tension or suspense.

• Some films are anticlimactic and the endings remain relatively open.

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Range of Story Information

• Range refers to how much information the viewer is given.

• Restricted: when viewer’s knowledge is restricted to that of a main character.

• Unrestricted: when viewers know more and hear more than any of the characters know.

• It is a continuum.

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Depth of Story Information

• Depth refers to how deeply the plot plunges the viewer into the character’s psychological states.

• This is also a continuum that can vary between objective and subjective points of view.

• The filmmaker’s choice about range and depth affects the viewer’s response to the film.

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The Narrator

• A character (within the story or not) who purports to be telling the viewer the story.

• Can be objective or subjective, internal or external to the story.

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Narration in The Road Warrior

• Max is the center of the plot’s causal chain and the viewer is restricted to Max’s range of knowledge.

• This is emphasized by use of point-of-view shots and mental subjectivity.

• Moments of unrestricted narration build suspense and create surprise.

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The Classical Hollywood Cinema

• Historically, in fiction filmmaking the action comes from individual characters as causal agents.

• Time is typically subordinate to cause and effect.

• Often Hollywood narrative is objective and involves closure.

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Narrative Form in Citizen Kane

• Uses conventions of the newspaper, detective, and biography genres.

• The film focuses on psychological states and relationships.

• It both adheres to and departs from Classical Hollywood Cinema norms and rules.

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Plot and Story in Citizen Kane

• Scenes can be broken down into a segmentation that allows for analysis of the major divisions of the plot as well as causality and story time.

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Citizen Kane’s Causality

• Two sets of characters cause events to happen: the reporters and the people who knew Kane.

• Kane’s death creates a connection between them.

• Thompson’s goal drives the plot.

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Time in Citizen Kane

• The order of plot events engages the viewer because if its complexity.

• Earlier parts of the plot show the results of events viewers haven’t seen.

• Later parts confirm and modify expectations viewers formed earlier.

• The newsreel parallels the plot structure of the film.

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Motivation in Citizen Kane

• The narrative revolves around an investigation into traits of a character, motivated first by the search for Rosebud.

• Some motivations are left ambiguous.

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Citizen Kane’s Parallelism

• Kane’s search for happiness vs. Thompson’s search for Rosebud.

• Kane’s campaign for governor vs. Susan’s opera career.

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Patterns of Plot Development in Citizen Kane

• The flashbacks provide a clear progression and each offers a distinct type of information about Kane.

• The plot remains relatively open in the end: neither Kane nor Thompson reach their goal.

• Is Rosebud a resolution?

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Narration in Citizen Kane

• We are really only offered recollections of Kane through five narrators, keeping us restricted in our knowledge.

• Thompson is the conduit for the information. He is neutral and barely characterized.

• The narrative is omniscient overall.

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