Film Narratology

270 Pages·2009·1.635 MB·English

by  Peter Verstraten, Stefan Van der Lecq

Film Narratology
Most modern studies of the narrative tend to focus predominantly on
literature, with only passing reference to fi lm. In Film Narratology, Peter
Verstraten makes fi lm his primary focus, exploring the neglected and
essentially different narrative effects that are produced through mise en
scène, cinematography, and editing.
Reworking the defi nitive theory of narration offered by literary
scholar Mieke Bal, Verstraten examines cinematic techniques such as
external and internal narration, visual and auditive focalization, the
narrative force of sound, and the ambiguities caused by voice-overs
and fl ashbacks. He illustrates these with a broad range of examples
drawn from avant-garde cinema, golden age Hollywood, blockbusters,
and European art cinema. Insightful and comprehensive, Film Narratol-
ogy will surely become the standard reference of cinematic narration for
fi lm students and scholars.
peter verstraten is a lecturer in Literary Studies at the University of
Leiden.
stefan van der lecq is an editor at the Amsterdam School for Cultural
Analysis.
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FILM NARRATOLOGY
PETER VERSTRATEN
Translated by Stefan van der Lecq
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2009
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-0-8020-9351-6 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-8020-9505-3 (paper)
Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with
vegetable-based inks.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Verstraten, Peter
Film narratology / Peter Verstraten ; translated by Stefan van der Lecq.
Translation of: Handboek Filmnarratologie.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8020-9351-6 (bound) ISBN 978-0-8020-9505-3 (pbk.)
1. Narration (Rhetoric). 2. Motion pictures. I. Lecq, Stefan van der
II. Title.
PN1995.V42613 2009 791.43(cid:99)6 C2009-902853-0
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the fi nancial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario
Arts Council.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the fi nancial support for its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 3
1 Is Cinema Essentially Narrative? 12
2 Basic Principles of Narratology 31
3 The Narrative Impact of the Mise en Scène 49
4 The Narrative Impact of Cinematography 66
5 Story and Fabula Disconnected through Editing 78
6 The Visual Narrator and Visual Focalization 96
7 Tension between the Visual and Auditive Narrators 125
8 Sound as a Narrative Force 146
9 The Narrative Principles of Genres 171
10 Filmic Excess: When Style Drowns the Plot 188
Appendix: The Virgin Suicides as a Test Case 205
vi Contents
Notes 219
Bibliography 241
Illustration Credits 247
Index of Concepts 249
Index of Names and Titles 255
List of Illustrations
1.1 Forty Guns, an extremely low camera angle 23
1.2 Back to the Future, a character points directly at the camera 28
3.1 The Comfort of Strangers, the viewer follows the characters’
gaze 50
3.2 Partie de campagne, various examples of focalization 54
3.3 The Comfort of Strangers, an example of overspecifi city 56
3.4 Morocco, use of a mirror and refl ections 60
4.1 The Comfort of Strangers, use of black-and-white freeze-
frame 67
5.1 La règle du jeu, action sequence in one lengthy shot 83
5.2 Le Mépris, use of an inserted shot 87
5.3 Stagecoach,visual composition of shots divides characters from
one another 91
6.1 Breaking the Waves, God’s eye perspective 100
6.2 La Vita è Bella, one character focalizes another 105
6.3 Amadeus,an object functions as focalizor 106
6.4 The Gold Rush, external focalization conforms to a character’s
hallucination 111
6.5 The Birds, the God’s eye perspective is problematized 120
7.1 Johnny Guitar, divergence of shot and text 133
7.2 Rashomon,the viewer becomes detective 134
10.1 Imitation of Life, visual emphasis of lack of human contact 193
10.2 Angst Essen Seele Auf, visual emphasis of human isolation 195
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Acknowledgments
This book owes its fi nal form to the test readers, whom I would here
like to thank for their useful remarks and constructive comments. In
order of appearance, they are Ernst Van Alphen, Frans-Willem Korsten,
Vincent Meelberg, Mieke Bal, and Bart Vervaeck. Further, I am glad to
cooperate with my generous and stimulating colleagues at the Depart-
ment of Literary Studies in Leiden, who make me experience work as
a joyful adventure.
I want to express my gratitude to my parents, who supported me on
every occasion. Next I want to thank Chantal Aliet, for always being
such a dear friend, and Marieke Buijs, for opening up a portal to the
seventh-and-a-half heaven, full of thistle fi nches.
I dedicate Film Narratology to the ultimate darlings, Febe and Bodil,
who both adore (fi lm) stories – from The Gold Rush to The Wizard of Oz,
from E.T. to Ja Zuster, Nee Zuster, and from Wallace and Gromit to Rata-
touille.