Bordwell Narration

8/9/2019 Bordwell Narration

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From formalism to cognitivism

! Russian Formalism (1920s) and PragueSchool (Jan Mukorovsky)

! Key concepts: syuzhet , fabula,motivation, retardation, parallelism.

! Defining the specificity of aestheticfunction while recognizing the importance

of social convention in what a culturedefines as a work of art.

! Refusing to put arbitrary boundariesbetween theory, history, and criticism.


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The process of narrative comprehension

! Protocols of story comprehension, or schemata,

through which spectators are cued by the film to

construct a story based on an inferential process.! prototype schemata: identifying actants, actions, locales,

etc., according to a posited norm.

! template schemata: a master narrative scheme that

embodies expectations concerning how events should be

classified and how parts should be related to the progress of

the whole.

! procedural schemata: dynamic protocols through which

spectators seek to fill in information absent from the

template. A search for appropriate motivations and relations

of causality, time and space.


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Fabula, Syuzhet, and Style


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Modes and Norms

! Intrinsic norms define a pattern of coherence

set by the system of individual films

themselves.

! Extrinsic norms refer to patterns of coherence

relevant to large groups of films.

! Codification of extrinsic norms over time may

lead to the inauguration of a narrational

mode: a historically distinct set of norms of

narrational construction and comprehension.


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Historical modes of narration! Classical narration (Hollywood cinema, 1916 to

present).

!

Dialectical-materialist narration (post-revolutionarySoviet films of the 1920s).

! Parametric narration characteristic of the formalexperimentation of filmmakers like Alain Resnais andRobert Bresson.! A single structure determines the compositional logic from

local texture to overall form.

! Art cinema (approx. 1957-1969).


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Modes of narration

! Knowledgeability : the extent to which the narration lays

claim to a range and depth of fabula information.! Self-consciousness: the degree to which the narration

acknowledges its address to the spectator.

! Communicativeness: the extent to which the narration

withholds or communicates fabula information.

ode Knowledge Self-csness Communica-

tiveness

Narrator Author

Classical omniscient moderate high “invisible” effaced

Art cinema restricted high low foregrounded present

Historical-

materialist

omniscient high very high foregrounded/didactic

present

Parametric omniscient high low foregrounded present

Godard mixed very high mixed overt present


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Classical syuzhet pattern! Character-centered causality

! Reliance upon the “canonic story”:! undisturbed stage-disturbance-conflict-resolution

of conflict

! Causality is the prime unifying principle! Double causal structure: two plot lines (romance

and action) each with goals, obstacles, and climax

! Plot pattern organized by segments

! The “closure-effect”


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Classical style

! Style is motivated compositionally as a

function of syuzhet patterning: film technique

is a vehicle for the syuzhet ’s transmission of fabula information.

! Strives for the utmost denotative clarity.

! Highly coded ; i.e.., uses a limited number of

technical devices and these devices operate

according to strict parameters.


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The parametric mode

! Influence of postwar European avant-garde

music, the nouveau roman, and structuralism.

! Values transgression and the need for each artwork toconstruct a unique system.

! A single structure determines the compositional logic

from local texture to overall form.

! Textual components form an order that coheres

according to intrinsic principles.! Textual form treated as a spatial phenomenon.

! Phenomenal form of the text tends to be seen as a

permutational distribution of an “invisible” set.


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Parametric style! Stylistic system creates patterns distinct from

the demands of the syuzhet system.

! Representational meaning is subordinated tothe profiling of a sheer perceptual order.

! Only a few parameters are highlighted andvaried across the film.

! A strong inner unity: a prominent intrinsicnorm with patterned reiterations.! The “ascetic” and “sparse” options

! Tendency to work with additive forms.


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Art cinema narration! Goal bereft protagonists: characters observe rather

than acting as causal agents.

!

Elliptical and/or episodic linking of events.! Plots based on “boundary situations” leading to

existential crises and transformations in the maincharacters.

! An “expressive realism” shapes space: dreams,

memories, fantasies motivate ambiguous and“subjective” narratives.

! Restricted narration.

! High degree of stylistic self-consciousness.


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Single and multiple protagonistsSingle protagonist

Open endingsStrong sense of closure

Restricted narrationOmniscient narration

Ambiguous or unclear motivationClear and complete motivation

Episodic and ellipticalLinear chain of cause and effect

Boundary situation storiesBuilt on conflict

Goal bereftDriven by desire

Art cinema narrationClassical narration


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Expressive verisimilitude in art cinema

! A subjective or expressive verisimilitude attuned to“exhibiting character.”! The emphasis on interior or psychological realities.

! Plots defined by “boundary-situation stories”:! the causal situation leads up to an episode where the art film

protagonist faces a crisis of existential significance.


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! Narrational characteristics of the art film

protagonist.

! Lacks clearly defined traits and goals.! Causal motivation is withdrawn or unknown, emphasizing

insignificant actions and intervals.

! The classical protagonist struggles; the art film

protagonist drifts passively, tracing out an itinerary of

social situations.

! Concerned less with action than reaction, art cinema

presents psychological effects in search of their causes.

! Characters retard the forward movement of the plot by

recounting stories, fantasies, and dreams. Often leads to

temporal disjunctions, such as flashbacks.


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! Narrational characteristics of the art film protagonist,cont’d.! Conventions of expressive realism shape spatial

representation:! optical point of view shots, flash frames of a glimpsed or

recalled event, discontinuous editing patterns associated withinterior or psychological time, modulations of light, color, andsound, are motivated by character psychology.

! The art film restrains the narrational point-of-view to a single

protagonist or may split it between several protagonists.! Enhances expressivity of subjectivity, but also makes narration

unreliable.


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Overt narrational commentary! Art films tend to highly self-conscious

narration.

! The viewer looks for moments in which thenarration may interrupt the progress of theplot and call attention to itself throughstylistic flourishes.

! The implied narrator is no longer invisible but calls attention to itself.


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The implied narrator is no longer

invisible but calls attention to itself.

! Scenes may end in medias res.

! Gaps are created that are not explicable by character psychology.

! The plot is retarded through withholding information or providing too

much.! Connotative and symbolic associations replace logic of cause and

effect.

! Exposition is delayed and widely distributed across the film.

! Disjunctions in temporal order such as flashbacks and forwards.

! Has the effect of flaunting both the narration’s range of knowledge and itsrelative incommunicativeness (telling a little while withholding a lot).

! In sum, “the construction of the narration becomes the object of spectator hypotheses: how is the story being told? why tell the storyin this way? (210).


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Overt narrational commentary

! Knowledgeability : the extent to which the narration laysclaim to a range and depth of fabula information.

! Self-consciousness: the degree to which the narrationacknowledges its address to the spectator.

! Communicativeness: the extent to which the narrationwithholds or communicates fabula information.

Mode Knowledge Self-csness Communica-tivenes s

Narrator Author

Classica l omniscient moderate high “invisible” effaced

Art cinema restricted high low foregrounded present

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Bordwell Narration