overall story utilizes prevJOus knowledge. The rest of thls book '1-vill consider vanous schemata specific to narrauve comprehension.

3· The matenal and structure of the film ztself In narra­tive cmema, as we shall see in the next chapter, the film offers structures of information- a nanauve system and a stylistic system The narrative film JS so made as to encour­age the spectator to execute scory-construcung acuvtue The film presents cues. patterns, and gaps that shape the viewer's application of schemata and the testing of hypoth­eses.

l have isolated these factors for converuence, but plainly they mteract in any single case Consider the role of time m film viewing. While watchmg a narrative Aim. the spectator takes as one goal the arranging of events In temporal se­quence. Our pnor commerce with narratJ\'e and lhe every­day world allows us to expectlhal events will occur m some determmate order, and in most films specific cue~ encour­age us to treat each distinct action a:. following previously presented ones. lf the narrattve presents events out of chron­ologlcal order. we must fall back on our ability to rearrange tht.'m accordmg to schemata. But such films run the nsk of confusing us Moreover cmema's viewmg condH:tons add a c.onscraint· under normal condittons, u ts not pos. tble to revie'' stretches of a film as one can reread pa.!tsag~ of pro~e. The rclent..less forward march of stimuh in a film put an extra ~tram on the spectator's memon and mferenoal prcx;esse~. A filmmaker who presems storv e\ ems out of chronological order thus risks forcmg the spectator to choose between reconstrucnng story order and losing track of cur­rent acoon This 1s probably wby most films 8\ '0ld temporal reshuffiings. But we have seen m recent decades that films with complex ume pattern~ can upph aud1ences \Ht:h new schemata or encourage them to see the film more than once. The history of ftlm form can thu~ J.l.ter the percel\ er's prior expenences •• (Thts htston is invesubrated m Part 3 of thts book. )

In opposition to all pas i\ e notions of spectaton.hip, then, we should cons1der film vic\\ ing a compbc.ated.. e\ en c;killed, acovtty. Watching a mone may seem as etTortle~~ as nding a

btcycle. but both draw on a range of practiced acts. Here. perhaps. is the most s1gmficant relation between the specta­tor and the reader We are accustomed to think of reading printed matter~ automatic, but even after the language has been learned, reading 1s an unmensely intricate achieve­ment, requiring the selecuon of sallent cues, the processing of large umts. dec1s1ons about how to sample the text. antic­tpallons, and the projecuon of an ongoing semandc whole.'5

Comprehendmg a painong seems no less fonrudable. E. H. Gombnch has shown that the beholder needs a knowledge of the mediUm's constraints and conventions, a sense of the pamung's purpose the ability to fill in what ts nussing. and a prochvity to compare the palnung wuh pernnent experi­ences of the world • lt would be surprising if a film, With its nuxtures of visual. audltory. and \'Crbal sumuli. did not de­mand actl\ e and complex construcllon.

Narrative Comprehension

The point of the preVlous sccoon 1s that the spectator thtnlts. To make sense of a n.arrau.ve film. howe\er the vtewer must do more tlian pe.rcel\'e movement, construe images and sounds as presenung a three-dirnensaonaJ world, and under­stand oral or written language. The vtewer must take as a central cogniU\ e goal the construction of a more or less intelligible story. But what makes somethmg a story? And what makes a ston• mt.elligible?

Smce the early 1970s 1>everal psvchologil;ts and linguists have sought to understand how people comprehend and recall storiel>. • The research i:t still limned by ats reducdve assumpuons. smce the :>tOTies are simple, short, written in prose, and hom of most aestheuc lntel'el;t. Yet what data the researchers have discovered ofl'cr some pomters for theoriz­ing. First, these studies have revealed that even five-vear-old children in our culture recogruze certain actlVJUes as.charac­tenstic of storytellmg and stan·-following Second the pat­terns of comprehending and recalling a story are remarkably uruforrn for all age groups People tacitly assume that a story lS com~ of discnrrunable C\Cnts performed by certain

• • J

I L pies People also share ••und linked by parucular ~SIOIY·~ po~n1aii([What1S ~~~~~ . tfromaConsrruc-~IL~~onastoi)'.When lftiiiiiilliiii~;,en Ulfer 11 or make guesses ~ iLJllllliDI .,...,a ged out of temporal order, lbluLl'- Wben -:.::::Sin sequence. And people ~~ aDIOII&e\'elllS. bolh m annctpauon

iiiil1l ~has poeed but not yet solved two problems: ~c:ompebensiOO.andtherelauonofleammgto IDDIIe llilllles. It seems likely that. m non-Western cui­-. falowln& a III«Y does not take the exact fonns 11 does

111 CIIIIL• And 11 seems very likely that skill Ill stol)' com pre­....._ 11owever mucb 11 may operate with mnate mental Gljlldllel(e.J., pen:epoon citime or causality), 1s acquued. Oae 111111y fouDd alder children more profi01e01 than youn-111' Cllel 111 undenlandmg SIOiies with events put out of -.pnltlder.llus would support culture· based theories of J111Q!111111110d cognilioo. as well as late strUcturalist con­....... ciuamtivecodes' dependence upon "already read" .-: Naaetheless. neither problem IS of central importance ...... Fll' 1ICbooled perceivers in contemporary West­tf!a,llllbft, ll1mliYe comprehensJon and recall are cen­-&Uiled by lbe goal ci creatmg a meaningful $lOry out of

~~comes to the film already tuned, "'P ~fti:iii= ~nstruction and to ,C11111 ~deriWd~-tandpriorexpen-Ia - mWim . I ~=;-; ~=ane.J.11!1.towaid 1::: ave utres ~g it

-:.;• ~local level, the VIewer must grasp ... 11111 10 1111. More of dialogue: relations between -..noe.lnliclmatioofi.-~· the VIewer must test the Ia •W&J we can Identify? For tency: does it hang together ......., 'lllllllls, IIIII . · lllStance, does a series of lalltiD-..oce we~ of objects add up to the ....... lnda 111111y by looktn buymg a loaf of bread"? The ._far llll*tiDence to the g for relevance, testing each

action wluch the film (or

scene. or character action) seems to be basicall forth. Such general criteria direct perceptua/ 5ett!ng through anticipations and hypotheses, and they are ietnltl modified by the data supplied by the film. tn turn

We can specify these schemata more exactly. In COtn hencling a narrative film, the specta tor seeks 10 gras pre. filmic continuum as a set of evems occurring in d ~ tht setungs and unified by pnnciples of temporality and~ ll!JI lion. To understand a film's story IS to grasp what hap:· and where, when, and why it happens. Thus any sch~ for events, locations, time, an d cause/effect may ~ pertinent to making sense of a narraove film. More ngw. ously, we can follow Reid Hasue m d istinguishing amoog various types of schemata; each has a role to play in namm~ comprehension."

"Central-tendency" or proto I ype schemata, Hasoe sug­gests, mvolve identifying mc!Jvidual members of a chll according to some posned norm. Jn narrative comprehen­sion, prototype schemata seem most relevant for identifJlll! individual agents, actions, goals, and locales. Under5talll­ing Bonnie and Clyde involves applym g prototypes of"kri· ers," "bank robbery," "small Southern town," and "Depres­sion era." We cannot inventory all the posstble protot)Jle schemata that might be perunent to narrative comprehen­sion; each film will call on a parucularconfigurationofthem

More useful for our purposes ts the tendenc)' for sU<h prototypes to operate in a larger structure. Hastie calls such structures template schemata, or filing systems. Tempbtt schemata can add information when it is absent and testftr proper classification of data. T he early results of st~: comprehension research s uggest that in our culture percet ers do tend to presuppose a particular master s~hem~ abstraction of narrative struc ture which embodtes ll 00 expectations about how to classify events and relate paJtS 1 the whole. Perceivers tend to use this master schem~, framework for understanding recalling, and sum man

10 be

. , h event P~:ular narrative. The perceiver expects eac ocale. 1111 discnminable and to occur in an idenufiable 1 andllneli' String of events should reveal chronological order reo!1l~ causality. (For perceivers of all ages, texts With

story events or ambiguous causal connecuons tend to reduce understanding.) Causal connecuons are ~s,pecJally impor­tant: In remembenn_g_ stones, J?OOEie tend to mven the order of events more frequently when the link IS only se­quential ("and then . _ _:') and not also consequential Cas a result ....::,)..

Several experu11ents y1eld evidence for the schematic funcuon of a "template" of narrauve structure m contempo­rary Western cultures. The perceiver tends to recall a de­viant SlOI')' as bemg more norn1al than it was. If the text as presented omns cau§_al c.onuectinns perceiYeQ tend to supply them when retelling the t~. Th1s IS also strong evidence for the acuve qualiues ofnarranve understanding: spectators are filling m mate!J.alsxtrai>Olating_an.i_ adjus~ What tbey remember Percet,ers al~ ~about what can be deleted in summanzmg a Sl2n::,."" And adults have de­veloped strategic> 10 deal wuh deviations from the master schem~. the chief one of which seems to be a tolerauon of amb1gutty. In such ways. baste structural pnnciples con­tinue to serve as reference pmms for the Identification of "les> imellig~ble" narratives. The narraU\'e schema is like those circles. squares, and triangles wh1ch artists revise and adorn to pem ut the portrayal of any obJect; the perceiVer constantly relines the basJC schema to lit the narrauve at hand.

Nearly all story-comprehension researchers agree that the most common template structure can be articulated as a "c~onical" story format, somethmg like th1s:.mtroducnon of set ling and characters--explanation of a state of affairs­complicating acuon-ensuing events-outcome---endmg. Distortions in comprehension and recall tend 10 occur at points when the narrative vtolates or ambt_iuates thts tQeal scenarto. There IS further evidence that goal onentalion is a salient aspect of the schema of causality. One researcher found that comprehension and memory are best when the story conformed to the dnve-to-a-goal pattern. When the goal was stated at the end of the tale. comprehensiOn and recall were SignifiCantly poorer. but still not so poor as when the goal of the acuon was never stated. Jn other words,..ea<:ly statement of ~rot~1ist's goal pelJl)itted the perceiver~

flU m causal and temporal conllecuons more exactly. And in recalling and summarizmg stone> whtch Stated the goal tardily. percetvers inserted goal statements earlier in !he sequence. Thus the fon11at can be recast as: setUng plus characters-goal-attempts-outcome-resolution ,.

ow, the canon1c stOI')' formats have a familiar nng; they resemble the formulru; for plot construction dear to Freytag. Bruneuere. and a hundred lesser theonsts of narrauve con­struction. We are thus inclined to ~uspect a strong cultural bias at work in the experiments' descnpuons of story for­mats. Would an African perceiver necessanly grasp a tale In tenns of exposition/complication/outcome? I do not wish to disrruss the posslbiliry of a cross-cultural canoruc story. since perhaps at some level of descnpuon these fonnats hold good. But since the matter needs much more study, I suggest only that the formats have heunsuc value for analyzmg nana­tives produced and consumed in our culture. Th_e con(!ml­porary Western perceiver d~c~t e~ material at the outset, a state of affaus dlsturblrl.h)'.JL.COIIl<.. plication. ana some character ready to function as a goal­oriented protagorust.

As a template for organizing causaluy and ume, the ca­nonic story accords well with a Cons!TUcuvtst theory of narranve cogmtion. The perceJver gauges how wen the narrative at hand can be slotted into the schema. In most cases the perce1ver does not patiently isolate each datum (In a film, each movement or shot or sound) and slowly assem­ble a narrauve event such as ''buymg a loaf of bread." In­stead. the spectator selects salient cues. then draws on pro­totype schemata (e .g .. knowledge of bakeries and hunger) and template schemata specific to narrative structure (e.g_, what IS likely to be causally pronunent). Gutded by some­thmg like the canoruc story, the perceJver "chunks" the fibn imo more or less structurally Significant epiSodes. Only some such process can explam how the perceiVer understands that very d.J.fferem forms of surface information convey simi­lar mearungs. In a film. buying a loaf of bread might con­sume an mstant, a scene, or several scenes. As Roland Barthes remarks. 'Thread a narrarb.·e continuum JS In faN to

~ge it-at the g_wck pace set by the readinJl material-m

NARRATION AND FILM FORM

~t the hero meets her), realistically (she plays a cabaret ger). and transtexrually (Marlene smgs such songs Ill

anyofherfilms,n'soneaspectofherstar persona). Some­es too there may be disparity among these rat1onaJes as

when we constder a ~tray ··~stic" detaJJ as haVJng ' no bearing on the unfolding acuon, or when in the mus1caJ genre the causal chain halts to make way for a song and dance. Most films ask the spectator to em ploy com positional and transtextual motivation. Realistic mollvauon1s usually a supplementary factor, remforclng expectallons already ar­nved at on other grounds. Artisuc molivallon IS a residual category and remains distinct from the others, the spectator has recourse to It only when the other sorts do not apply. Thus, the concept of motivation brings to Ught several pro­cedural schemata which the spectator must actively employ

To wh?t extent, we might now ask, does the VIewer pos­sess styiJSllc schemata? Most narratives use their med!um

~'::;!~::•;.J~: ~aph~c art. whatever) as a vch1de for ' . a on. erceivers' schemata thus tend to .avor narrative !)aUernln a d terns difficult 10 notJce ~ to find purely styltsuc pat­hterary text· "Our or . Teun van DIJk Write• of the

· memory and p . able only in a very resmcted rocessmg resourcCb are kinds of surface structural t;,Y 10 store and reUieve these municative convenuons ';:rmation, even If the com­structures."" The sam "':,JU spectfic attention to such

e o.ten hold nomena: afteronechecksacloc s true for visual phe-nol the shape of the numeral k.onecan recall the time but been registered at some stag:· ~en though those must have that when spectators are con~ perception." This suggests @OS its styUsyc features the,_':~~-~ aJilm tg.,r empha­~ story. ' -~~cues for con-

r urn sty~ usua!Jy go u ~ enlaJJ that the spectator h 11J10dced, but th Constructivist account th as no Stylistic SChe at does not of applying an aestheu. e PetceJver neoo be mata. On a live operation. We hav~ ~ntion than of anno more aware processes are nonconscJou /seen that m~ other cogm­uniformity of mamstre 8

· erhapS OWi Y perceptual mata is a tOfKiown PI'Oca;; cinema, appJy;~g 10 the stylistic to operate automallca!Jy. 1~ :~t has becOm: ~tyUsti~ sene-

clear that on th Pracuced as c basis of Prior

THE VIEWER'S ACTIVITY 37

expenence, the spectator assumes that certam stylistic sche­mata will be adhered to, as when we ldenufy a long shot or a nond1egetic commentary on the bas1s of prototypes. We also employ styusdc templates In mainstream narrative cinema, a long shot IS likely to be follo.wed ll)Ca cl~ view, and a musical bridge Is more apt to fade out than to be cut off. Some stylisuc altemaoves are uiilikely and some are com­pletely ruled out. We also know that spectaton accustomed

- to one stylistic tradJuon can use procedural schemata to comprehend other styUst1c options (e.g., "motivate this cut by stOry necessity"). A ConstrucdVJst theory would empha­size that to a great degree spectatOrs can learn to notice and recall stybsuc features of any film. At later points m th1s book we will have occasion to consider how film style can operate as a veh1cle for narration and a system m Its own nghL

What does the vtewer do with the schemata? Plainly, many cognmve acuvlties are performed In making sense out of narrative. The viewer pos1ts a more or less stable set of assumptrons. The spectator assumes, for example, that ob­Jects and human beings perslsttri space even when they are not on screen , that a character possesses the sameindiViiiUar identity on s uccessive appearances; that a film in Engli~h wUl not suddenly lapse into Urdu. We notice such basic assumptions only when a film violates them, as when the same character IS played by two qu!le different performers (as m Bufluel's Obscure Ob;ect of Desire). The viewer also makes many i11[ere11ces. lf our hero bursts into tears, we conclude that he IS sad. L1ke other inducuve inferences. •uch conclusions are open-ended, probabilisnc, and subject to correcuon. Maybe our heUJ is delighted. Memory of course plays a role as well Again, 'fnemory must be seen not as a simple reproclucoon of a pnor perception, but as an act of construcuon,jguided by schemata (as was proposed by Fredertc Bar ett over fifty years ago).• There is also the COI!DIUve task of hywtlzesizmg: the spectator frames and tests expectations about upcoming story infonnauon. Smce hypotheses exemplify the anuclpatory quality of schema­driven perception, 1 shall rry to clarify their operation at a little more length.

Melr Sternberg IS one of the few theorisrs of narrativ~ to give due weight to the process of framing and tesung

hypotheses. In Sternberg's theory, the paUem oiiiOI'y 11>­fonnadon withheld In the work prornpta the ~ 10 make hypotheses of vanous sona A hypochesia may pertain to past action that the text refrains from lpedfylng; Stem­berg calls thls a curiosity hypothf!51a. By(:OIIaast.antqmW hypothesis Is one that setS up anticlpadono abour forthc:Gm­ing events. Hypotheses may also be more or lea ,oloal*, rangmg from the highly likely 1.0 the flally improbable, and more or less exclusive, ranging from ettherlor cbOica 10 nuxed sets. And smce hypotheses artie Ln the coune of lime, they may be held simultaneously or succeosively, aa when one hypothesis simply replaces another" All ollheae c:ate­gones will prove of use when we seek 1.0 analyze how panlcu­lar films both cue and constrain the specrator'o activity.

There are levels of hypothesis tesung. Typlc.ally. ~ lions and Inferences cake care of the "miCroiCoplc," mo­ment-by-moment processing of the ac110n, but at crUical junctures we are tuned 1.0 expect particular evenrs. Aaola scenes, hypotheses emerge with tiOJDe clartty: will the char­acterdoxory? A moreindefinile but highly &tgniJicantarcof "macroexpectauon" may extend across a whole film. 1be narrauve Itself can Inflect these levels, auch as by playing down small-scale portions ( transloon.s, or the secondary ac­l10ns Barthes calls "catalyses") in order 1.0 suesa longer­range hypotheses about SJgruficant ac110n sequences (Barthes's "kernels" or "hmge10")." Other namattves may deny us large-scale expectations: in such a cue we call the text episodic. Hypotheses also vary m preclaon acconllng 10 theu placement in the text. they tend lObe more "open" at the start of a text; some remain tacitly m force throughout because they are never countermanded

The primary focus of hypothesis forming rematna what. Sternberg calls sus nse-anllclpaling and wei

es future naqaUye eyen!S. onslder the al!C:ma-tives. When an a ks u an confirmed hypo eszs, It is redundant and cannot !rJgm the full am!c­fpatory range of hyporheais casting. "Our whole sensory apparatus," writes Gombrich, "IS basically tuned 10 the morutonng of unexpected change. Continuity fails 10 regis­ter after a time, and tlus IS true both on the physiologl.cal and the psychological level"" But when the action preeented

PRlN C lPLF..S OF NARRATION 49

From this chapter forward, my focu& IS on how film form spaual or temporal links The tmagmaty conslruct we create, and st)'le funcoon m relauon to narrauonal strategies and .-progressively and retroactively, was termed by Fonnalists ends. As an altemauve, we could undertake empmcal tnves- the [abula ( someumes ttanslated as "story"). More specdi-tigalion::. of how actual spectators construe pa.rt.Jcular films caily the fabula embodies the acuon ~ a chronologtcal, While worthwhile, this enterprise would not necessarily lead cause-and-effect cham of events occurnng "1thtn a glVen to ms1ghts mto how films encourage, su&tam, block. or un- aurauon and a spatiil field. In Rear Wtndow, as in mOfit dercut specific vieWing operations. As I have said through- aetecnve tales, there is an oven procet.s of fabula construe· out, formal systems both cue and constrazn the viewer's uon. smce the mvesn ation of the cnme involves ~tab-construction of a s tory The theory I propose cannot predict hmg certa.ltl connecuons among events utun any actual response; it can only construct dJ&tincoons and a together" wres us to constrUct e story of the on oin histoncal contexts which suggest the most logically coher- mqurry w eat the same ume mg an tesung ypoth-ent range of conventionally pemuss1ble responses. eses abOut past events. Thalts, the s ton• of the mvesugaoon

We have seen theones of narration founder upon super- IS a searcb tor the concealed st.orv of a crone. By the end Of fic1al analogxe!> between film and other mecha-Uterature or -lhe typtcal det.ecuve tale. all story events can be fitted UltO a theater (the muneuc approach) llterature. speech or v.-nt- smgle pattern of nme. space, ana cau~a:Iicy. mg (the d1egeuc approach). The theory I propose see::. narra- - The fabula 1s thus a parr em whjc h pea eayer, of narrauves tion as a formal activity. a notion comparable to Eisenstem's create through assumpnons and mferences. It 1s the Oe· rhetonc of form. In keeping ,.,.1th a perceptual-cogrutive ~ veloping result ofptclting up narranve cues, appl)1ng sche-approach to the spectator's work, tlus theory treats narrauon mata, framing and tesung hypotheses. Ideally, the fabula as a process whtch 1s not m Its basic auns specific to any can be embodied m a verbal synops1s, as general or as de-medium. As a dynanuc process, narrauon deploys the mate- talled as circum::;tances require. Yet the fabula. however nals and procedures of each medium for lts ends. Thinkmg imagmary, b not a whtmstcal or arbitrary construct. 1l!!t of narrauon m thb way ytelds cons1derable scope for mvel>- )jg\\er builds the fabula on the basis of protOtype schemata ugauon whUe t.till allO\ving us to build m the specific possi- (identifiable types of persons. acnons. localet., etc. 1. template bibues of the film mechum ln adc:huon, a fonn-centered schemata (pnncjj)illv lhe ''canoruc" story). and proceduraJ. approach sets itt.elf the task of explammg how narrauon ·schemata~ search for appropriate motivations and relin.ons funcuons m the totallly of the film. Narrational patterrung is - of causahty ume. and space). To the extent that these pro-a maJor part of the process by whlch we grasp films as more cesses are mtersubjecnve, o is the fabula that is created In or less coherent wholes. pnnciple, VIewers of a film will agree about e1lher what the

Fabula. Syuzhet, and Style

ln previous chapten. r have assumed a difference between the story that 1s represented and the actual representation of it, the fonn in wh1ch the perce1ver actually encounters 1t This cruc1al distincuon may go back to Aristotle. 1 but1t was most fully theorized by the Russian Fonnahsts. and it 1s indtspensable to a theory of narrauon

Presemed w1th tWO narrauve events, we look for_g~.usal or

sto · is or wfiat factors obscure or render arnbi uous th equate construction of the story

-lt would bC an error to take the fabula. or story, as the pro filmic event A film ·s fahaola 'S neyer matenally present on the screen or sOundtrack \\'hen \\e see a shot of Jeff looking OUt fus wrndow ,hiS action IS a Ie!?J"el>Cntation Which signals us to infer a story event (Jeff looks out his window). The

same piece Of Uif'ormatlon nught have been COn\'eyed many other \\avs. many of them requlring no s1ght or sound of Jeff at all. The &taging of the action, ~ Etsenstem showed, l.S

ttself a representational act. ThlS theoreucal move lets us

so :..; \ R R \ T 1 0 >" A "' 0 f I L \f F 0 R 'I

a' o1d that a prion favonn~ ot certa~.n film techmques c:: harac­Len ... ttc:: of numcuc theones.

The fabula \\'11Les Tvnia.no\', "can onh be gu~scd at~t .. Hts not a tmen :_What JS ~J\eif> \\'hat 5-0rt!> ot· P!lenome­

na:II) present materials and form do we encounter~ \\e can a.n.ah 1e the film cu; conststmg of two sy~tems and a remrun mg bod" ot matcnal diagramed m figure 4.1. The syuzht•t (usual}) tnutslated ~"plot') IS tht dCtual arrangement and pre5oentauon oft he fabula in the film It Is not Lhe text m toto llJs a more a~trnct consLruc t the paucmmg of the ~tory as a blow-by-blow recountmg of the film could render tl. The syuzhet ts a 5.Vstem bccau:>c it arrangc:s component.s--{hc stol)' event!> and stat~ of aiT.urs-acconbng to !tpec1fic pnn­ciplcs As Bons '1 omashevsky puts tt · "The fabula is opposed ~ wh1ch b butlt out of the same event..<; huttlic

:.yuzhet respect<o their order m the work and the senes of infonnauon processe~ '~ hich design aLl' them ~ ".S) uzhet · names lhe architectonics of lhe film's pre.c;entauon of the ~ula 1ence the rightward arrow m t 1e dJagram Lo~1

<; ) ~yu:lhet pauem.mg JS mdependent of the medium. the same syuzhet paueru<> could be cmbodiL>d m a 110\'CI a play, or a film

Style also con<;titmes a S\'stl'm m th.1l it too mobilm.?s cOiii'j?OOcnt:.--partlcul . .u mstanuallon~ of film u:chntqucs accordmgto pnndples of <>rgaruzauon fhere are other uses of lhe term "M·.-Ie · (e g to desi~n He n:curwnt feature of struc:tur\; or texture tn a lxxh of fllms. such as "m:orcabst style") bul tn thb t:Ol\lCll.l ·~ylr . sunul) n.mws !he him:,

_.5' 1 UIAU' !C w.c. of cmr·malu dj;'\I<:Cs Sl~ lt> 1'1 thu& wholly in~ucditmt to tlw m<.><llum Style lnleract!J with !>)'Uthet m \anous \\a't's hem:<. the t\\0:\\aY MH)\\ m the thagx.un

An ex.unpJe mav lllustratc how svuzhct ~tnd stvle d1ll~r. In Rt·ar Wmdou. the"' u1hct c.onslsts ul the parucuLu ruuem ot l'\t>lllS.(ac:twns sccnc.>s lunungpotnl!>. plot tW'i!its de 1ct

1 on' a s J11Ur er .md th Ill\ c ... u~auon and the tale of [J';o;I a.nd Jeff .., romance \\hen 111 the prec.;Cd ing chaplt•r I dcscnht>d fonu.u p.utcrns ol wtthlwld kno'' I ed~L or abrupt rt.H.:l.ttton. W.lJ) u: emn • 1 1 alh '

.. const 10n o l 1e s\'uZ ~ t sanw hlm hO\H'\'Cr, t:.Ul

b<: dt."S(.nbed a-. ,t steach flo\\ of .tppUcauons ol cmcmaut:

S)~tcms svuzhcr fabula

~arrauon L l ~tvle

"Excess''

t<'Chmque.-..-mtse en-scene. cmcmatogr.1phy, t:.-diong and sound. In one seen(..'. Jell and StelJa are spotted byThon~ald fhe' srep qu1ckh ba<..k mlo jdf's room ' f1gurc movement. ~tung). the\ wh1sper ( o;ound) and douse the lamp (Ught­mg): the camera tracks qUJckh back to a long shot (c.tnema to~mphv): .md all of thts cx:cun. alter the cruual shot of 'Tborwald tummg to look out IllS \\tndow (edamg , Nute that 10 a narram c film these two S}btems coeXIst.

1 h~y tan do th1s because svu.Ghet and snlc each treat dif. ferent a!\J)C< lb ollhe phcnontt'nal process The syuzhct em­bodtc'> the Cllm as ·• "dramaturgical' process st\ le embodies ll ac; a "tcchnJcal' one While tt would often bt; arbitran to scparat~: the two system~ m the process ol perception. the distinction ha.-. precedent m muc..h n.UTative theon Indeed \~e shal! dbt.over one mode of narr-auou that requires u!. to keep ..,, uz~et .md "t\'le conteptualh eparatt:. A sunun that the dtsUII<:.Uon ,.., Warrantt:d T '\ ant now to s U out th~ relaoons bet\.veen S\ ll7hct and tabula and s\ uzh: and stYle

Jn dt:.CU6'-tng the ~~tdtor·.., actJ\t 1 D·UT3ll\ e schematu The the t\ • "'tressed the role of ~fet"S a wa, of anal)zin t~:~~al.concept of the_:u·;:'3et spectator organnc::. mto ~ E>ccts of ' ftlm r h. le though thatlhe "' uzhet 1~ .:~~~~g 'to~ It :.hould be clear, called the canotllc ston• forma 1~t1~al Mth what Ch<ipter 3 <..om ""~!>c~· c alter, we <.an no\\~. . ~ '>3

PRINCIPLES OF NARRATION

nificant effect on most of h1s neighbors; one function of the courtyard vtgnettes is to parallel the romanuc relations of Jeff and Lisa with other male/female relations. What counts as an event, a cause, an effect, a stmilarily. or a dlfference-­all will be detemuned within the context of the individual film.

2. Time. Narrative time has several aspects, well analyzed by Gerard Genette. The syuzh~t ~an cu~ us~-~struct fabula events in any sequence ia matter ot order). The syuzfiet can suggest fabuJa eyepts as OCCurring in virtually any time span (duration). And the syuzhetcan Slgnal fabula events astiling place any number of times (frequency). These aspects can all assist or block the Viewer's construe­lion of fabula time. Again, temporal representation will vary with historical convention and the context of the indiVidual film.

3· Space. F abula events must be represented as occurring in a spatial frame of reference, however vague or abstracl The syuzhet can 1acilltate construction of fabula space by informing us of the relevant surroundings and the positions and paths assumed by the story's agents. The confinement to Jeff's courtyard in Rear Window is an instance of the use of syuzhet devices to advance our construction of fabula spaCe:"" But the flhn could also impede our comprehension bv

- susperiding, muddling, or undercutting our construction ~f s pace.

Depending on how the syuzhet presents the fabula, there will be particular spectatorial effects. Anned with the notion of different narrative principles and the concept of the syu.zhet's distortion of fabula information, we can begin to account for the concrete narrational work of any film. It is obvious. for instance, that Rear Window depends upon with­holding certain fabula infonnation; we can now see that our schematl.zing and hyootbesizing acri}'ities are gwdedby the syuihet's cues about causality, time, and space. The basic­training aspect of the film's early port1ons-1ts Lendency to give "isual cues let us draw inferences. and then confirm or disconfirm th~ bv =al statement::::Wses from man­ipUlation of clill;al infonnatiQD, To take a specific scene: while Jeff is asleep, we see a woman leave With Thonvald

NAR RATION AND FILM FORM

and wonder if ~he is his wife: the ::,yuzhet has generated this susp1c1on that Mrs. Thorwald is sull abve by not showmg us thts woman (who is not Mrs. Thomald) emenng the apan­mcnt. The S\'Ulhet · r Wmdow also blocks our knowl­edge bv mumg space. we can uc,c onl}· naqo\',lv re!\tncted \'i'e'WS of the court\lard to construct t a_ And Rear \ mdow is not exception m lt'io hmJlaUons, concealments. and revelations For theoretical purpo~es it rna\ someumes be convement Lo take as an 1deal baseline an instance m wh1ch the S)UZ nst acccs~> to t c f abula ;:B:.:::u~t...._..":""....::...:..;:.;.::;:.:.~.::..;-~:==~~ post ne com lc uction of the a ula At the \er, east the end of the ston: or the means whereby we ani\e there, will be wllhheld. Thus the s~uzhet a.tms not to let us construct the tabul.t m some logically pnsunc state but rather to guide us to construc.;t tht fabula m a ~t>eeific wa~ , by arousmg in us parucular cxpcct,mon-. at th1s or that pomt, ehcmng our cunosuy or suspense and pullmg surpnses along the wav.

In some cases, the wut.het willmdude mas'>C' ofmatcnal that block our construcuon of the tabula. Such matenal may encourage us to treat the s\ uLhet a~ mtcrprctmg or com· mcnung on the fahula. In October, both Kercn~k) and General Komilo' appeal to the !>logan For God and C oun­lTV. Suddenly we cut to a sencs of statue~ of god" from ma_ny cultures These shots do not help us to con!>truC.tthe spau~. temporaL or logical connecuons amo~g !>ton e'ents, m fabula term~ they are a dtgresslon Nonetheless the se-

uence consututes svuJhet mampulauon As a lmle dis­q . th ery idea of God the passage em phaslles the sert.auon on e v • l alto

It ural vanabilit)' of religion and suggests t lat an appe

film's style can interact w1th the svuzhet m various ways. Ftlm techntgue 1 c=rilv used -tQ perform syuzhet ~ks-J?ro,id!ng mfm;n;ti(;n, cueing hypotheses, an<rso forth In the "normal" film. that fs. the syuzhet system con­trols the styllstic system-in Formalist terms, the syuzhetlS the "dommant." For example, pattems in the syuzhet's pre­sentation of story mformatlon wlll be matched by st.ylisoc patterns, as when at the close of Rear Window a camera movement homologous to that m the operung underlines the changes in the li\eS of the courtvard's inhabitants.

Still this ts not to say that the systematic employment of film techniques-that is, the film's style-is wholly a vehicle for the syuLhet. When altemattve techniques exist for a gh en syuLhet purpose. it may make a difference which techmque 1s chosen For mstance, the syuzhet m ay rewire Jhal-tWQ Sl9Pl @Vents be...cu ed as OCCUrring simultaneously. The ~imultanclt.)l.Jn_ay be denoteQJ?y crosscuttmg fromone C\ entto the other s m the two acuons in depth, by use of ~pht::§creen technique~, or by the inclusion o particular ~bJ:~.ts in th,!.,liettmgi§_uch as ateleVision set broadcasting a ~ e' ent). Whatever stylistic choice is made m ay have

dtfferem effects on the spectator's perceptual and cognitive acuvily ~t~le ts .~hus a notable factor in its own right, even wh7.n tt 1s only supporting the syuzhet.

. film .style can also take shapes not justified by the syuzhets mampulauon of story in"ormau· If ' R w· · h 1

' on. m ear m-dow Hue cock systematically cut from J ff' 1 f · ·I · e s gaze to c ose-ups o nus eadmg or irrelevant objects which h e could not see, then the stylJstic procedure itself could . f. . nence with the syuzhet's task of prese . Vle or proml­wemtght take thJs stylistic flourish a nung hlhe s tory. True, baffie us about causallrv 5 a syuz et maneuver lo

' ] or space; but if th d . repeated systematically across the film wi e evtce. were

~~e holv of ten ' ells pohllcal opportumsm. The m:;erted m~te~ nal inSIStS in tts patterned development that we mo~~~:c~-

transtextually a~ ~~~e~=:~{;~:~~:~~o:ngsu:~~~~gral part t~t's commenta.T). d d Eisenslein's essayisuc nuerpola­of the syuzhet. an so o

the developing syuzhet and ~"~L. 1 th th no clear link to l<LuU a. en the ·

cal explanation would be that style h more econorru-clru.m our attention independent of syuz~ come forward to Chapter 12 will show how this happens ~t/fabula relations.

lions. . h dramaturg) of e fiction filin, Y The syuzhct. then, ts t e -- s n~ . e

Q the or . the dta~am on p 50 suggests, the ~As

For analytical purposes, then, we must a vanety of films. dis panty between the styllsuc system and ~nt a potential tem. even 1f such a tendency 1s rare. e syuzhet sys-

It is evident that ?o~ syuzhet and style invite the specta­tor to apply the motivational rationales discussed in Chapter 3· j\t the syuzhet level, when Jeff and_Stella recoil from Thorwald's look, the audience justifies this event as psycho­logically plausible and compositionally necessary for what follows. At the styhstic level, when Jeff scans the apartment block and the next shot is of Thorwald's Windows, we assume the shot to be compositionally relevant, grant it a certain realism (Jeff's point of VIew). and acquiesce to a generic convention (this could be a suspenseful buildup). In the hypothetical example of patterned cutaways to melevant objects, we would try to moth·ate them compositionally, realisticall) , or transtextually; but if all were unequal to the task set by the style, we would have a ca e of''artistic motiva­tion," whereby the materials and forms of the mecilum con­stitute the ch1ef obJect of interest

It is time for a formal defmiuon. In the fiction film. narra­_.t.ign u; the process whereby the film 's syuzhet azzd style

interact m the course o(cueing and channelmq tlze specta­tor's construct tan o(the [ahulu. Thus llls not only when the ~yuzhet arran es fabula ulfonnauon that the film narrates.

arration also includes sty sue rocesses It would of course e ossible to treat narration solely as a matter o syuz e abu ·ons ut this woul ea\e out the ways m w ic

the filmic texture affects the spectator's activity. We have already seen that the spectator possesses stylistic schemata as well as others, and these invanably affect the ove~all process of narrative representation. Moreover, by including style within narration, we can anal~ze stylistic depart~res from the syuzhet's project. In an earher example, a cut from Jeff's gaze to irrelevant objects would be a narratJ~nal.act as much as would a cut to relevant ones. Narrauo~ I_s the dynamic interaction between the syuzhet's transmisSion of story information and what T~manov c~~d "the movement, the rise and fall of the styhsuc masses. . , a}?

Is there anything in a narrative film that ts ~ot narrauon . 'b t t narration but we can Any image or sound can contn u e 0 ' ali

£ . h perceptual s ence. also attend to an element or Its s eer . .. Roland Barthes has spoken of a film's "t~ird. ~~:m:e~mo~ lying beyond d~otation and connotatign.

which casual lines, colors, expressions and textures me "fe ow travelers" of the story. 13 Kristin Thompson has iden­tified these elements as "excess," materials which may stand out perceptually but which do not fit either narrative or stylistic patterns. 14 (See fig. 4.1.) As we have seen, the spec­tator's categories push her or him to construct objects and denotative meaning from the outset. The canonic story in particu~ favors the dominance of story-world factors. From this standpoint, it is as if nothing but narration matters. But in the first shot of Rear Window, we can choose not

_to construct a story world and instead savor random colors, gestures, and sounds. These "excessive" elements are ut­terly unjustified, even" by aesthetic motivation. Now, this attitude is actually uite d' cult lo maintain over a long

o ' tive a o . The t rouvailles will never add up. Nonetheless, there may be aspects of a fi.Jm that we cannot attribute to narration. In some cases, as Thompson shows with Ivan the Terrible, "excess" may offer a useful way into the fUm's overall formal work "A perception of a film that includes its excess implies an awareness of the structures (including conventions) at work m the film, since excess is precisely those elements that escape unifying impulses. Such an approach to viewing films can allow us to look further into a film, renewing its ability to intrigue us by its strangeness. "15

Whatever its suggestiveness as a critical concept, excess lies outside my concern here. The rest of this book is devoted to the process of narration In the rest of this chapter and in all of the next, I will concentrate on basic principles of syuzhet patterning. We need to examine how a syuzhet may Qrganize story material, how it may limit or expand our access to fabula information We also need to understand overall narrational strategies, the broad aims that syuzhet tac tics and film style may fulfill Subsequent chapters will concentrate on how narration may render fabula time and space, and there we will take up specific stylistic procedures.

Tactics of Syuzhet Construction Again, assume an ideal syuzhet which supplies infonna. lion wh1ch is relevaru to the coherent and steady consttuc­lion of the fabula Opposed to thts, we can situate any syuzhet which indulges m information not relevant to such construction. Godard's filml>, for mstance. are often pep­pered with citations, skewed alluswns, and interrupnons which cannot be clearly related to the story. We tend to take these as digressions. It is of course often dllticult tojudgethe pertinence of a ptece of informatJ.on at the moment Jl emerges. Something which seems out of place may even­tually slot Hself neatly into the totaJ fabula. (Here we touch on the problem of gaps, to be taken up shortly.) In any case. m Judging the pertinence of infonnation as in judging its quantity, the analyst will need to specify generic and other tr~nstextual constraints. The clitena of relevance m a drama ":ill not be appropriate to a farce. And som e films, such as L an nee dermere a Marienbad or Not Reconciled make it hard to deten:mne a main fabuJa path from wluch ~ve could ~===u~ d~Vlti atioaJns-exa~tly a point which characterizes

s orm operaoons The most analyticall · ·

mal correspond by unportant var1able is the set offor· ences etween fab J Th .

to what extent does the unfi 1 u a and syuzhet. at .IS. lo cal tern ral and ~ dJng syuzher correspond to the structi Are there' · s .;;auaJ_ nature of the fabula we con·

aes, mcom atibili· . 1 k chronization? Any syuzhet 1 ties, ac so syn· present ana--combines them se ects what fabula even to creates gaps; combination cre1~ Particular ways. Selection

Nos uzhet explicitly presen a es composition. We presume too pace. Prine . of the fabula events that she is eighteen years oW. ln Jea:!s JS born_: in the next seen -narration implies that nothing e ~a gap ll1 the syuzhet. the lhose intervening years. We wtll x aordtnary took place in had an infancy, a childhood, and ~ssurne that the princess the conventions of fairy tales, we rni a~olescence. (Knowing will soon meet a prince.) TemporaJ g t also expect that she mon sort, bur any mystery or ndcUe ~Ps are the most com­tam causal gaps. (Why is_ Mrs. 100:~tJve ~ay also con­syuzhet can presenr us Wlth spatJaJ gaesd lllissing?) The withholds knowledge about a characte . 100• as when it

rs Wh ereabouts or

neglects to define the action's locales. Gaps are among the ~!earest cues for the viewer to act upon, since they evoke the entire process of schema formation and hypothesis testing.

r- Sternberg points out that gaps can be temporary or permanent. 16 That is, the informational hole in the fabula can be plugged (quickly or eventually) or never plugged. In our fairy tale, the gap is fleeting: we leave the princess's cradle and then see her as a young woman; we very rapidly fill in the gap. In a detective story, the crucial causal gap­e.g., what became of Mrs. Thorwald-is maintained much longer, but it too is eventually plugged. In some narratives, however, a gap remains open to the end; !ago's motive is the classic example. We can characterize syuzhet processes as working to open, prolong, or close gaps in fabula events.

sive and homogeneous hypotheses. while a diffuse gap yields room for more open-ended inferential work. A flaunted gap may warn us to pay attention: either th~ omit; red"Taliula information Will become important later • or the

- narration is misleading us by stressing something tliat will prove insignificant If a gap is suppressed, however. surprise is the likely result, especially if the omitted information ranks low on a scale of probabilities. These are only general indications, but they suggest the range of effects that .. gap­ping" tactics can achieve. In each case, it must be remem­bered, the viewer will strive to justify the very presence of the gap by appeal to principles of compositional, realistic. trans­textual, and artistic motivation.

We can also describe a gap as relatively diffuse or focused. How the princess passed those eighteen years is unspec­ified; we can fill the gap only with general and typical assumptions. But "Did Thorwald kill his wife?" is a clear-cut question demanding a precise answer. Sometimes a syuzhet will conjure up a diffuse gap only to bring it into focus later. For instance, a flashback might jump back to an otherwise unremarked interval and sharpen our sense of what in­formation might fill the gap.

The syuzhet can also flaunt or suppress gaps in the fabula. A gap is flaunted when we know that there is something we need to kriow. Our fairy tale calls the temporal gap to our attention, demanding that we fill the eighteen years of the princess's life with the help of our conventional assump­tions. A detective sto also · calls attention to its gaps, m ·ng us fret over our lack of certain data. Other

- syuzhets do no attention to their aps. That Rear Win-ow does not show Thorwald's mistress enter his apartment

1s a striking case of a su ressed a . At the time we see her leave, we o not ow that her entry has been omitted.

It should be evident that selections offabula events shape the constructive activities of the spectator. Temporary gaps point us forward and build up surprise; a permanent gap invites us to apply a "scanning" strategy, sorting back through single episodes looking for information we might have missed. A focused gap obviously tends to solicit exclu-

Gaps are created to re rtain ieces of fab a information and to hold back others. The pieces o information selected can be combined in a great variety of ways. In cinema, the narration can arran e fabula infonna-tion te or y or s ati , as we shall see in ters 6 an Lf or now we can look at two general principles that govern syuzhet composition in any medium: retardation and redun­dancy. Both offer clear-cut instances of how textual form both triggers and constrains spectator activity.

We have already noted the overall importance of retarda­tion in cueing the spectator's comprehension. Only by de­laymg the revelation of some information can tile syuzhet arouse anticipation, curiosi , sus nse, and su rise. For examp e, ear indow lays out its fabula information so

_that (a) rhe cmcjal murder evidence emeries piecemeal and the case is not solved too uicklv and (b) the murder inves­tigation su pen s an (possibl reso ves e an Usa s romanoc pro ems. e ''God and Country" sequence of October breaks off from presenting the fabula and interpo­lat~s material ~at not only retards the outcome of the story action (how will the battle between Komilov and Kerensky tum o~t?) but also has its own miniature retardatory curve: the pomt could have been made by an intertitle rather than dozens of shots which form. to say the least. a fairly difficult passage.

The very centrality of retardation as a principle demands that we make some distinctions. Meir Sternberg has shown

Unhke prose fictJon. the fictional film seldom confines its nan.llion to what ortly a smgle character knows. Most com­monly, portions of the syut.he t wJJJ be organtzed around one chJ.rac tcr 's knowledge and other porltons wtll con One them­sclvc., to the knowledge held by another character Such rcsuict.Jon-, and divJ~tons will mcvitably create gaps in the fabula W e Lend to motivate restricted narratton rea.UsucaJJy ("AfLCt aJl. we know as much as she plau~jbJy couJd") but to motivate more unrestric ted narrallon •transtcxtually ("In film!; of thJs sort. you always know more "). Both sorts of narration J.re. of course. fundamen tally motivated by com­posJliona.l requirements.

\Ve can ask a second question. How profound is the knowledge• :maiJabJe I.O..tbe narration? TJus IS a maller of depth . of degrees of subJectivity and obJectivity A narration may present the whole of a character's ment.J..l J.lle. either

ronse;Jous or unconscwus; it may confine itscll'to the charac­ter's optical or aualtory expe1ience; it may eschew any but 6ehaviorai ind1cabons of psychological states; tt may even mimmue those ]•or example, iilthough tfie narration of The Birtfz of a Nation 1s relam ely unrestricted in range, ll pene­trates the characters' mmds less deeply than does the naiTa­tion of, say, Secrets of a Soul. which represents the protago­mst's dreams. The Maltese Falcon, wh1ch contru.ns one shot cued as bemg through Spade's eyes. is less subjective than Rear Wmdow, with Hs many optical pomt-of-view shots. Again, depth ofknowledge can be justJfied on composiuona.l. realistic, and/or transtextual grounds. .

Range and depth of information can be related m vanous ways.1iestricted narration does not guarantee greater dep~.

ence? We can call th1~ the degree of self-consciousness. example. Eisens tein 's films often m ten sify an emotional max by having characters look a t or gesture to the audie Similnrly, a re trospective voice-over commentary can p the narrauon toward a greater sel f-con sciousness, espec lf the addressee is not another fic tional character. We sec many tactics of redundancy, such as rep e tition offab iuforma tion by the syuzhe t, as eviden cing a degree of consciousness (e.g., Eisenstei n 's repeated intercutting Kerensky with statues). At the beginrung of Rear Wzndj the camera movement presents aspects of courtyard life pu~ses of quick exposJt.Jon . In contrast, the artificial b reJauveJy inofTensive frontality 1. Ji . . observed in Ci ur . o gur~ poslt10n

. Wh g e 1 · 1 ear.lter IS less self-con sczous than the ~~~e;.filrn :;~us~=~~f:~eing "aware of manipulation" in film, we are usual! ; ~f such manipulation in a Haw ~

Y re.len1ng to .. ~...e . ' te lesser acknowledgme th l.lJ narra uon s grea r o perceiver. nt at a tale is being presented for

The concept of self-consc. tages over "enunciatJve" ac tousness offers distinct advan· - counts of k . uons. such as the apphcauo f spea er -listener rela·

theory. For one thing self enos 0 _Benveniste's grammatical · - nsc1ous .

gree, not of ab olutes (as s .. ness IS a matter of de-person" are). All filmic n:- ay, first Person " and "third

- ... auons ar some are more so than others_ F h e self-conscious but

.. . d urt enn " ' ness vanes m egree and function Wi ore, self-conscious-and modes of .film practice. Grou h t1un different genres ~udJence a1·e more self-consciOus ctho Marx's asides to the tmprecatJOnS, but the patriotic vo1· an Popeye's red

· 1 If ce-ove f mutte F1g lt IS more se -consc10u than eith r o Capra ·s Wh Wt HoUywood shots reveals a ntoderat er. The staoi... .~!I e

• nor aoes depth at any pomt guarantee that the narrallon will stay constantly limited. Hitchcock's films alternate be tween s uences of eat sub-ectJVlty and se uences that flaunt the narration's unrestricte knowledge. In gener . narra- . tive films are cons'fiilidy modulating the range and depth of.

:Jlle nWation's knowledge. Such shllts provide sfrong cues for h~thesis formanon. _ _

Narration also relates "rhetoncally" to the perceJver, and this opens up other areas of inquiry .. T~ what ext~nt does th·~ narration display a recognition that lt JS addressmg an audJ

· h fi e self. c:r--&•g 01. most groupmg c aracters or our best View ( ·consciou musJcaJ, characters may sing direcuys~efigs, l.J_:n)ss by stronger narraoona.l self-consciousne 0 us-a lllo ·3 · In a genre. By contrast, Antonioni will stage~~ cOditieQ r;;ent of ters turned away from us. and the oven su enes With cl the expressions and reacoons becomes tn con~e~Sion of:a~­narration 's awareness of the viewer. In the ce: a token of e1r station sequence of Deux ou trois choses que e~l'ated AJazthe

JesQ>ft ~g - d'elle,

The Detective Film

Oetecuve films pro"1de clear illustrauons ofhO\'\ lhe syuzhet manipulates fabula mformation over an enure narraove. In fact, specmc sort& oi syuzhet tactics are the dzfferentza spe­qfica of Lhe genre Most bas1cally, the VJewer construes the fabula's c.ausal chain a& consiSung of a crime and its m' esligauon. whJCh may be represented schemaucally m this way·

CRIME

(

cau sc of t:nmc commission of <..rune conceahnentof crune cbscovery of cnme

JNVESTICATION

begmrung of invc:>Ugauon phase:, of mvestJgauon elud1cauon of cnme tdenlification of cnmmal <.onsequenccs of idcnuficauon

investigation and plays upon cunosity about the rrussmg causal matenal.

Smce the investigaoon is che basis of che syuzhet, there is obviously a more or less constant revelation of poor fabula information. The circumstances goverrung the investigation will typ1ca1Jy be expJamed compactly General Stemwood hires Marlowe ( The Bi.g Sleep), or Moose comes to h1s office (Murder My Sweet ). But the m ost pertinent missmg causes will emerge only mdually, oHen near the very end of tbe ?yuzhe!:_ In other words, exposition about the invest.Jgation uself tenas to be concentrated m prelinunary portio'1s of the syu7..hct, whJ.le mfonn ..- bo aiJon a ut the motive agent and circumstances of the cnme will be dJ b d d ti all . summed up clearly in later st:n ute an n ) permanent portJons. Thus no gap will be

Thts Udy description Js oversun liJi thmg the cxpos1uon te d P ed. however. For one TI11s tempenng is genen~aUs to temper the pnmacy effect , _ h Y mot.J\·ated · th ~.uow& t at. in a detectwe ftlm alm . smce e spectator to be the cuJpnt and that fin,t ,'m ost_ anyone may tum out nusleading On a larger scale, ~:ssions_ may therefore be comphcawd by retardatory mvesogat.lOn is usually h h rnatenal lJ ~ t e syuz e« tvpu:~Jy do~ · : ' e de.t.ektlv~ t~.

The fundam ental narrational charactcnsuc of the detec- in. serun_g comedL~<M: ~~v~~~Ou ~~0a~~ ll\'e tale is that the syu~ wubbolds c ·ruc•al.ey~nts occur- 19manc~Ca vmmg,cO•!pfe c~wid; Ul~o..m~t~DL.J2nlu:e)..

nng 1n the "cnme" portton of the fabula Thg_syuthct may ~~u~ve~Jsf· ~re~~to~rohmijan~ti~c~m~c~JJ~n~a~u~o~~) ~~'l~CJ~o~n~o~r~th~~:!~-~-- co th Ian or the commJl>ston ofthe m ore crimet;. Tius last ret3J'i atol)ns · an .

d , evtc cnme (an a<..t wh1ch includes the J enury of U1c cnmmal • or !)Jncc Jl generates new cau:)al gaps and e JS espec1aJJy useful aspects of ~vcral of these The~ uzhet mav commen . dt r My Sweet two lines of actJon ,., hYPotheses In M , -, .. ,oose ~~~ · ur-

. ~ f the crune, or Jt may start before the crime ll> \ clma. and the theft of Mrs. Crayte•s "''alloy's ~arch foe commuted and find other wayb to conceal the crucwJ events block one another unill Marlow linall Jewels-al(emat

1 Jnj!i•h, .. r case. the syuzbcl 16 pdnctpally srmctured by the Grayle l!i Velma. Y reait"es that Me Y progress of the detectiVe's 1nvesogauon ·1 hus the dctectJve flze B1g Sleep proffers such a marc's rs. nim creailis gaps wtuch arc usuaDy focused and flaunted by that It fs not easv to reconstruct the c~st of teta.rdau bemg posed as que~ Lions, &uch as :who killed Arrhm: GPJ- ch.w1 Tn fact, Hawks and some cntJcs ha\·: fahula·s cau~~ gcr?" (The Bzg Sleep) or "What has become of Moose Mal- fabula could never be reconstructed; "l neve~kC<:J as if the loy's grrlfrlend Velma?" (Murder My SwcC't). 11le VJewer the story out . rl11ey asked me who killed s ~uld figu creates a set of exdus.Jve hypothese:s- a dosed set of sus- man- 1 d1dn 't kno~' " One VIrtue of the theol'\~~ <llld such': peels, J. gradually defined range of outcomes The genre Js that us categories can expJa.tn the \'lewer's ~ 1 sugg~: promotes suspense w1th respect co the twists J.nd turnb of the here The Bu; Sleep has an abnonnalJy O\'erloaded illiculues

.syu:lhet· .

SIN, M uRDER, AND 'IA RRATl ON

lowe IS explormg a thicket whe n a sound catches h1s atten­lJOn, he fl ashes his light. cut to h1::. opucal point of view on a temhed deer In both films, we typically enter or leave a locale when Marlowe docs: most if not all !>UbJecuve sh oL-. arc from Jus opucal vanta~c point, .md he IS ofte n placed so that we look over h1s shoulder at the action. The mus1c often reflects his understandmg of the scene: m Murder My Sweet, wh en Marlowe remem bers a clue, 1he mus1c announce It; and ~lax Stetner 's core for The Btg Sleep s1gnals whether Mal'lowe .JUdges the scene to be menacing,

;.:-:~~~~~:"':~?:__:.:-=::::-:=:".=~~;..:.:.:..:.:_-=;.::...::;.:..:.:.:.::.::.:.::._ comic. or romantic. Wh at urprises Marlowe often surpnses u-. lie returns to a nigh tclub table, and at the moment h e

~:!.!.l~!.U.a.;:,-s.~--J~ ............. ._;u-U.~L!!.o~~~~~~~~~- d1scovers that his compamon has vanished. the camera re­ve.tll> it to us (Murder M11 Sweet ). Or he comes home to find Ca:Jmen in h1s annch rur, d isclosed when the camera pans \\Jth h1m tossmg h1s hat onto a chair (The Big Sleep). In both films. the flnaJ scene confines ICsclf to what ~1arlowe, tnSlde ,\parlor wllh a killer could erce1ve, the film never de pic t!> acuon outsi< e t e house unless he sees it. To a great extent. our "tdenllflcauon" wub a fi lm\. protagonis t 1s created by exactlY this systemauc restnction of mfonnatwn.

-...nor \H' k•.tnt \\hat thl deWC"U\e k•,tms. whcu she or 1e .:h· '"l!. l t fhcre can 0e hncl marks ulan unrc-.lm.tt•d narra·

uun a:-. \H:U a \\e sh.ill -.cc hut th ' '>t' funcuon to enhance c uno-.lt\ or -.uspt•u .. c B' fl -.tnc ung the range of kn<m ledge to that po!>s(•-. .. t!<l h} the dctt."Cil\·c. the n.trr.lllon can present mtoml uon m a lillrlv un .. clfcon .. cluU~-o ''·l}' we p1ck up fa hut. tnlonnauon ln folio\\ mg the dett>tll'-e s mq01ry. 1\ ~;Un, the llJ.ITUUOn <.:an ... l,.:npost mfonnauon more overtly. but t}u .. J), oc<.:.i.,IOnal and ccxhfied \lost !>tgmficant, of cou1sc, Is the coded Lommumcau,eness of the detective ~cnre. '1 he dcm.mds of "fatr phw" ha\'e dtctated a parncular c;oluuon to the problem of how suppn .. ,srve to be

Both Tilt H1g Slt•ep .md Murder 1,111 Sweet restncl our ran~c ofkno\\ ledge to that posses!>ed b\ the detecuve In Tile Btg ~lct·p. tor mstance ''hen the butk•r asks Philip Marlowe to stop to ~ec \'1nan Stemwcxxi Marlowe .tl>ks "flow did she kno" I was here'>' The butler respond!>. "She sa\' you through t.he wmdo\\ s1r and I was obliged to tell her who vou \\ere· It would ha' e been s1mplc for the film to ha\'e shown Vman lookin~ out her \\ mdO\\ and observing Mar­lowes entrance hut 1t would ha\'e made the narrauon more overtlY knowledgeable. Smularly, m M urder My Sweet, Mar-

Several styUsllc convenuons come mto play to restrict our knowledge Point-of-v1ew shots are obvious examples, as lS

the vo1ce-over commentary m Mu rder M Sweet. At cen am 1omen . L ee t e narrauon needs to underscore

Jl.!:!r perception of what Marlowe hears rat e r t an sees. an thus res rts to an .ima e 'eldin limited mfonnauon For

a man's feet spnnung away, the shot IS a comprorruse tween restncuon to Marlowe and suppression of the killer"s 1denuty.

What this last convenuon reveals, though , ts that the film ism fact consututed by an omniscJenl narrauon that "volun­t.arily" resmcts 1tself for s~ifk u ses the need to cone story events) ut \\htc h can al an mstant dive r e rom 1ts confineme nt to character know ge. Often, of

course. Marlowe u; a !Jt tle ahead of u s. spotting a detail we miss or m aking a discoverv tha t a new shot then shares w1th U!> But someumes the him gJVcs u ·a shght edge o\·er hun. a nd then we glimpse omniscient narration's work. In both

• ti1ms .\larlowe's head '"ill t-um for a moment and we will sp,· a gesrure or expression he cannot see In The Bzg Sleep. we see Joe BrodY dra" Ins gun before \larlol\e does. Sunilar siruadons crop up m .\furder .Uy Sueet: we see Helen emer ~larlo\o,.e's aparunenr before be glnnpses her m thenurror, or we notice Moose scrolling behind ~farlowe's table before he does. True, our extra knowledge often turns out to be a fleeting sacisfacuon. in these mstances. the detective gets the message very soon after we do. The point remams. though. that an omniscient narration can frame the detec­uve's field ofknO\\Tedge w1thl.n a shghdy wider compass for purposes of suspense. cunOSity, or surprise.

Omniscience. in these films, is thus still paradoXically "l.t.mited'', It Js thac of the ideal-but-not-impossible observer praised in mamstream mimetic theory. This discree1 ommscience often emerges m a rhetoncal flourish For in­stance. Canino fires mw the car where he beLe\·es Marlowe to be hiding. The framing gJves us the "point ofvtew" of the car's nonexistem occupant before Marlowe shoots Canino, an action filmed from another angle. Such camera position~. whjJe motivated by Marlowe's knowledge. could proceecf only froin an omnisc1en(, or at least "omrupresent." narra..:' con

We can watch this omniscience at work elsewhere. Credil sequences are very important narrational gestures. Thesf: exrrafictional passage~ usually present infonnaoonm lughl}:.

• self-conscious and omruSCJent fashioTL TranSltions between scenes also tend to play up knowledge which t.he detecdve · doesn't yet have. The camera can begm on a sign and then crane down to the derecdve arriving beneath it (Murder My Suteet ). Such exposJtory shots-estabJishmg shots ofJocales, sign~, or other indtces of location- can be atuibuted only to the omniscient narration, relatively self-conscious fn its mounung of these images for our benefit Usually, however. the film does not reinsert these images when later scenes return LO the locale, the cJass1caJ narrauve cinema assumes. that we will recall these earlier expos1tory shots For such reasons. we can best study the narra tion's ommscience when the expositional burden 1s heaviest: m the very first scene of the Jilm.

---

The beginning of The Big Sleep might seem a p.mg00.­£he sober. '"invisible" filmmaking for which Howard HawL! is famous. but scrurun reYeals a moderate se1f-consc~ ness and omniscience. A medium shot reveals a hea\'fu carved door w1lh lhe name 'Sreum ood"; the camera pa15 left to a hand pressing c.be doorbell. \Ve are nOl shown lbt hand's ov..ner. A dissolve takes us into the foyer as a bulle goes to answer lhe door But he does nor swmg the door wide enough for us ro see the caller. A voice says: "My name·~ Marlowe. General Stern wood wanted to see me.'' The buller ushers Marlowe in; the camera tracks with him as he looli5 around the foyer and encounters Carmen. The visual ubf. quuy (from outside LO msJde. anucipating Marlowe's .en­trance) sets the knowledge lilnits of the film as a whole. The first two shots have aJso posned the nan-anon as mioaD\ self-consctous, not only infonnlng us where we are (\ia the s1gn) but del · . t.. creat.in b . aym~ llJe reveJatwn of our protagonist and ters, h;w:v~e~uildup of antic.ipauon. Once Marlowe ~­cmd the degr ' fe camera ~ybo. r<Aoates Itself co fus suid. e.

eeo selfc - --filters salient facts th ~ onsc10usness drops as the nsurauon. and the General. Wiro~gh his conversations with C~en smoothly lnlO a restn thm two shms, the narration glides and unselfconscious cted and comparatively commurucatire

Murder My <'-.. presentation. . ~,. . ~weet open · •.ue Pnnciples are th s m a rnore flamboyant fasruon. bu£ down toward a tabl e sarne. Under the credits we crane ~ven.tua!Jy a1J we :ee~~nd which several men are seated. ~~If s surface. After a djssa 1 dazzling patch of light on the

amp overhead Whil 0 ve, the camera tracks back from cracks about M e unattrtb around the tab! arlowe. Soon the Uted ~ffscreen voic~smake camera m e interrogating him ~g reveals policemen men. and ~=ments, the geome ·.his eyes blindfolded. The source) alJ rnarS::lOOtb l:tans1uon trical arrangement of the audience-.opent~ut a narration~ (from light patch to llgbt iry and a sombre n g gaps for the sJroce_ss addressed to the up a PotenuaJ di lOQd. Moreove the of Intensifying curios­sltuauon and ou~~ty bet"'"een ~ e film inunediately sets (As the last SCen . Slnce We en... arlowe's k.now}ecfgeoftbe

e Will ""'' see the reveal, we have ~m and he can't

n t seen everything

SIN, MUROr, R, A • D NARRATlON

Desp1le th(. lack of close analogies between prose and cmema syuLhetJfabula patleming-Stemberg's "pre\crbal compo!>ttional construct ''-can be homologous acrol>S mcdm. Llke the no\ el. the detectl'.'e film employe., the generic convenuon whereby we are not allowed access to the detec-

unportant ctther, but \\C ''ill sull be one Jump ahead ofhtm.) Onh after ~tarlowc begms ht~ tale and th~ camera track-::. to the "1ndo'' a:. a tr3Jlstuon to the fi.lShback does our range of knowledRe be~mto approximate h1s \\hen the tr.tnsttion ll>

O\ t!t we slJde mto a!> rc::.tncted a narrauonal <;tate as we had enJoyed m Tile B 1g Sit t:p

Both films. then. moti~ate the withholdmg of cenam stol') ... U\'e\. mferences until he or she \'mces them ( unless--Salet;­

also remmds n'>=rhc deu~ctjye IS baffled or turns out to be :;yrong).The detective film will unlize a re:.Lricted narration

to JUStU}' gapb m our knowledge of the cTlJlle fabula, and when the detecuve is m the dark we will be too. but the narrauon will make sure that we do not become pnV} to the

1auon b r narrauon to what il1e invesu ~cuor learn~. Thts rcslncted narrauon b franl<!d an inter­rupted b\: .u~ onuu:.c.1em narrauon that asserts lt~clf chtefl) m exposuory pa!>sae;es 3.lld during moments of localized suspense The altern.tuon ol restnclion and ommsetence and the , ·anauons m self-conS<:tou nes.., that re~ult .tre char­ac.:Um!>UC of cl~ ... tcal narraU\ c cmcma, but the degree of resmction Is spec.:tfic to lhe mvstet} genre.

The mo film-. are al:.o !>tm1lar m theu neL>d to TC!>JX"Ct ut

anothl!! ~cnc.nc com enuon. and this lead to an mtt:resun~ problem ol commurucaa,·t!nc'>" On(. <.-om:enuon of detecu' e ficaon !>IDCe the 1920" has betn the rule of "tcur pla\ ." m \\bleb the reader has ..., good a chance to discO\er the solu­t.Jon a ... r n. dt·lt'f!J\ ,~ dQf..., But thb ra.J!Oe!> a difficult\', \\ h1ch [)r-,rot.b" ~d ·ers e.' plain:. in i.hJ.S way: 'The reader must be gJ\en ever) lue-but he must not be told. sure I~ , all the dete<.U\e' dcducuons,lc-.t he should see the l>Oluuon too far ahead . . Ho\\ s: an we at the same time shO\\ the reader

_ccnthmg and \f:l legmmawh obfuscate him as to llS­

mf".WIDg?''l Putm our tcnns ho\\ 1s the author to mouvatc: a­f)arncular 1..3ck of commurucamencs~ in the narrauon? The soluuon which Sa)er:. m<licat<.-s m,·ol~es a pia} between VCIJlOus degree!> of depth m representing the dete<:U\e Sbe ho\\s how pro~ m detecme ficnon modulat~ between a

"purely external'' de5(;npuon; a "middle \-iewpoun" m whit:h "we !e what the det.ectl\'e eel' but are not told \\hat he obsen.:es"; a "close muma<ry" 1n which ''e :;ee all the detec­uve sees, and he then ~tate:. h1s mferences; and "a complete mental1dentllicauon \If tth the det.eem e." m \\ htch v.e follo\\ h1i thou~ts v.ithout the need of external report • Thruu~h an .an.U "h of a page from Trent' lA'>l Case, S01}Crs sho'b that F C. Bentley hihs three umes among thc-.e different

,tffi8il!~alor's solurjon Jm!JI be or she states it atlhe proper· time.

1 hdmg the detecuve' t.hink.ine; po-..es no problem m The B1g Sle~. for here MarlO\\e ~a closed mouth C ntil very late m the film, he takes no confidan~ and tru~ts no one. The nanauon I!> wholly external ~1.elding no access to any con­clustons he has drawn unlil he speaks his mmd. When \larlowe goes mto Ge1ger·s bookshop and ~ks for certam rare edluons. tbe clerk Agnes rephe that he hcu.n't an) of them He does not e~pose her, butlea,·es a!ter a little more bamer) Only later will we learn !.hat her ans\\er re\eaJed to hun that Geiger·!> bu ines!) \&a front. This 15 Sa\ er·o; "rmddJe 'IC\\ pomt" m acuon Compare the film wtth the novel. Even before -\~nes g1ves her repl)", ~Iarlowe shares h1~ thoughts wtth us. "She didn•t sa\ Huh?' but she wanl.ed to." As !>CIOn a~ ~he an \\ers, ~larlowe draw!> a concluston 'She;; knew about as much about rare books as I kne\\ about handling a flea CliCus. ... Here the narration 1s much more intemal pr<,...tdmg the "mental indentilicao.on • Savelb menuons. I~ the film. the ruwauon need never suppl) direct acce<o:. to Marlm\e· mmd, so we muSt often figure out the clues and also try to figure out what .Marlowe makes of them This proc~ 1s mcely laid bare b) lhe film 1~clf. After \' 1\ l.aJ1 has­tn<!d to pump him the tmp.lS!>I\'e ~larlowe sa)'> ... You're tT)mg to find out what your father hired me to find out and I'm mmg to find out wh' ~ou \\ nt to find out-" Vl\;an merrupt~: .. You could goon fon.wer, couldn't \ou? Ann-.a\ ll'll gl\C US ~meth.ing to talk about next ume WC m~t" •

Murder .'r1y Sweet offers a more complex case. Unlike Tlte

70 N ,\ R R A r I 0 N t\ N D F I L M F 0 R M

\\'ho LOid \'OU to su~ar me off thl'> case?" In .~furder i\ly St1 t•et, we are asked to wonder 1t Marlo,,e·s mtcrec;t m ~tr.; Grayle ~~ ft?agned for mvcsugau' e purposes; thb 1s :mother aspect of hh d1ar.1ctcr whrch the final blindfold te t m the pollee s~Jtton \\Ill reveal to Ann and to us Re!;tnl'tmg us to the dctccuvc's ram~e ol kno\\ ledge while 1im1Un~ ho\\ antcr naJL~ed the na!Tauon will be .ufccts our Judgments about the dctc<:tl\e's pcr~ona.li"' as the syuzhel takes Its cou~~

(

Detective films illustwtc one way that cla .. stcal cmcma has !>Ohcd problems th.tt every narrative mu .. t face But these bOiullon'> are not the only ones ava.Uable We can exammc how anothcr genre mothates a diUerenl approach.

1 he ~~clod ram a

It ,., a cnucal commonplace that him melodram.t a .. a genre ~ubordmat<'s \'lrtuall · • · t _

· an ... a c mto the thl:oreucal cateJton~ Chapter 4 out­lined, thts ,.., to c;:l\ th.u the narrauon w !II be hi~hJy com­muru<:.Jttve .tbout fabula mlomtauon spedhcally, mfonna­uon ~ n.unmg to ch.uacwn:;' emotional state!t. ·n,cw \\IJI be fewer focused gaps an lahula mlonnaoon. Ibe narrauon wdl abo he quttc \tnrcstnc.;ted m ran~e d~ to ao ommsqent !>liTVt')', !>O th:uthe film c.u1 tJngendcr pnv, uom. and othcr "dJss<><.t.llcd'' rmouon!t. Where.ts the dctec"five Mon empha· si1.cs lhl' .tel nf u;!CaUiung wbar alm1d' vnurred. the mt:lodr.ullal)'J)I(.'ally rcht.·<> on a linn runac\' cfh:t:t Ia . ..,

• c.;uno:.~ty a X>UI L 1r Jsl, and maxnmzes our urge to kuO\\ ,~hat \\1lf tuppt>n next--and ~ cct, y, 1ow an ·

W\'l'll ch.mtt tt·• w• react to ''hat. has tappen. tcwcr •1nrcrcSC 1s 111amt.u11Cd hy n:taTdaUon and caroi"Ulh-tullt'<l

(.(lJJlCJdcnccs that produce '>UllJJist· All of Lht'l>L' nnrr.1LJonnJ !>tr.Ht:gtc~ can he ~ct:n JL work 111 !~1 11m 011r Ltjt.·

rlw c,u1st.··cfft•t t ch.un C)l the him s tabula \.Cntcrs on st.uJl()) 'I unherl.rkt• .m hnf)<;tuou" anc.l~>elihh VIHlll~ \\om.tn from n dechnmg Soutlll'rn t.unil\. St.Lnle?V '>t.'<luc:cs Peter ht•r .,1slcl Ito\'\ hu!>b.md, dmc., hllll to akohoh"m ,md Slncrdc:

I I ·tk••s 11 pl:t)'f()r Cr.uo Lhe n1.111 !>he h.td spunlt'd lo ,Uit t ll'n IJio "' • to• nut oll with Peter Wlwn Cr.u~ avmds lll't allt•nuuns. prefer-

ring Roy inste,'ld St.mlev drJVc~ off m a rage. Her car f\Jll1 over a mother and her child. She tesufies. hO\\C\er lha Parry, a fan11h sen am 1s e:uilt) AfterCrrug forccsSt.antq tell the truth Stanley flees lhe police m a reckless chase He car crashe!> and she rs kJUed. J have skipped O\'er llUill

det.liJ-; and some characters such as A!kl, the ba111d~ bur lnt:!ffectual father. Lavinia. the neurasthemc mother: w Uncle WiUtam a \C!)l·poppingtoperwhoatonepoimun~ that he would lake to make his ruece tus mistress. but tbt general oullme is clear enou~h (My reader will also lta\UO

accept the fact that the pnnctpaJ women characters ha\t ma.le names.) Grven that Stante' s action& propel the fa~ (not to mention that she Js pla}ed b:y Bene Dav1s), u ~ 'teem odd that the ftlm 's range ofknowlt:dge 1s not resUicted to her. If flze Bzg Sleep and \Jurdt:r My Sweet enhana ldentlficauon wuh <i -.mfde character b' lmuung our m­lo~auon to "hat he could know, I rz Tllz; Our Lzfe shuult$ us irom per!>on to pen.on; we "1dentifv" Jess With a <.sn~ character than \\Jth a presentation of th.e emergmg sJtumon .lS a \\hole.

'fbe em x ru~s1veness of the film 1·sues pan}r from the narration's tendenc, to omrucommuruca -e. ~O'r one thin~ characten, usuallv speak their rrunds. When

1 r.ug morx:~ after losmg Stanle\·, he declares: "I don't be-JCwe Ill am thm " La R • eel .. · . g ter ov s emotional numbnc~ t:> ex· reter k~ d~l t Want lO hear anvthmg or feel anythmg." t\J'tc!f

hordenn 5 •~n:.elf Stanley breaks down tn a fit of remorse

soul-be~~~ ~~;;ttcna lne "big !>cenes" of melodrama. full of s1re to comm nome.~. bear Witness to the narrauon's de­sourct•., or mt~~-1~1~~: . evervthmg. ·• AU the exprass!Ve re· lltnlt~ work to c cene-gescure. lightmg, ... cwng, cos· . on\'t;:\• mn • t St.mJ~::v d"-I•I'Y• h 1 cr Stateb. Dressed in a ~cxy frocr.

"" ·u-.S ~ e won't het loot pctul.tnth• "til , wear "-'!dow's black, stampmg nught be a slogan tbr l1e~mg her l>Pinc. and o;pcakin~ what up "tth Prt:tendin e melodramauc character: 'Tm fed Cr.ug "ee a forc~t fig sornethtng 1 don't feel " \\'hen Ro' and s<m to thl!tr Ill tens: ~n t~e ~Jstance. ~he dra \\''!) the con; pan· loundattons of "m lodut nef affatr. And mus1c one of the murllt.""' . h e rarna'' as cl . al . .. ,( ~ c aract , • ass1c h conc:CJ\·ed com· cr... J>erce tJ • ,

P ons and attitude . It lS espe-

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N~ tM. b"\e u.); ~e: t •I till" 111111 ·•t.•hllflhlnK 11hrrt• .til tcmtrllmllng ''' u dr•Kf•' · cir .• .fr. Ulllfll l!JII!Hif'bll I lw ,.,,r·· lUI ·'"lit,,,,,,. wh II will IX Ill I, Will t1 t1Vt I .1 titlflliJf ~')( l(t]t•y'~t I ·H I fat• tlt•f.H nrJ.Ibft• M.•K C.,tt'lfll'l ••Hppllt•~t tlltl 11h.1111 ui "J l(·rt· ('111111'1!1111' Hrlrft•," A11tlllw frl111 •· • whol•• 1'1111 hJit•l uull• llw·~ c,f .uthm ttlallllng 11~ I rum,, b<:\'11'' rc•hl r1c '' cJ 111 St ullr•y or l,cter ''' m11· Unrllt:tl to H•l) 11r ( r.ttv, H111h lwr·Jiu film lt•<.hnlcf'"'" .1url 'lyl\tmrMIIC ptluc\pJ, tt nl IIYU/tlf't Jlr"l>i•tJiotllrm '"'' UM'IIIcll'lllwm •• nur r.•rrK• uJ kuuwl•·tlut

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c·uc I• '''" •• "''''"'"'Y llt.tlllu film cJ,,. • rmr u~o~lli()Uic~t,. krl•JWL .?sl.K• n WI tompllculcd .rl..tt.l.uuu dh df.11t1..!.!.Ldr, M ,,~.; rcwt•l .uu1

/Itt• llltf ~lt·r·p Ill!' hUt· th.rc ·•h•·r tlu tiJ)(·ntiiK fc•w "l''"''ll \<• ry lllllt ul pr1•1r f.thul., lllfllffll,tllun tllllll' w hglu (J tw uh· tw •·•Ill ,. IIIV•IIVt , I 1111 It \Villl.ttu' c.mrft'tiWltl to St.utlc·y

ullum Ju hilkt•tl ht r l.llh• ' • w!IU h h nut,, nw)c>r 111 til' I nth•· 111111 J I Itt• palllllplll jnlt 11 ·•11111-.t•!! lmm tht• qu••.,lll)ll Cll whit I WIIJ h •IPJW'flllt'XI ~\'t• h t\'4 ' ai1C'.1dy M't'll I hilt l fl.tr,tlll•( fl',ll 111111 tt'lll' .m· <,,1111' l!,t•,~> 111 IK.IIUI I ht• yu.-lu•l nl o m.uupu f,ttc'!l 11111 '''"' tluousth unlcx: IIM~I lt'lllt)(u.tl K••Ptt. lJ H' r !J!:Io drnmu\ ~tYu<lwl.w!U tnluwa ur: .Qlu)JIJ.Itlllll (ll ,, du!!!l.2L m Ut!ll.Uncl lhcu aklu O"'t.'l &mlf um• ur JIIO\t In motlu·r lllu­ul u ""''' 'W wtll alwn wuucJc.r wh,u lu:&ups.•twd In the lJ!tl..'r

.... 'Ulll•UJ C'\.UIIJ'h•, olllt•r Slllllll•) ... hit .IIHI·run , '"'' bll.'l\1' t•llfl!i

trhtllptly f'ht•m·~" \t' t•tw til trt~'- 1lu·lulluw1ug motnlllg, wh•·n tlw poll~;t ,.,.,111111' l.uulh' hontt· Oulv ,.,hell 1111' pulicu rc•wal that tlwv found tlw c.u • b.rudorrt~J clo Wt• J(t'l .111 \11 wcr ''' tltt• quosllon nl what Swnlt·\ dJcl ulcer tlw .lt:c.:ldcut. Anolhcr !>ll'nt' t:uust!tlro ut t!ll', llt d qtt.lfl(•llwtWI'l'll St.mlcv urul tlw dnrnkt•Jit'tll'l Ill' I IPS lu·a .and till' t.ltul qUidJ radt• (lUI

\\t IS~UIIll th.tl tht• Ill lll),l~:t· \\Ill COllUil\lc tO lfcU .. 'Il<ll 11'1

Lu t "t· sc-.• nu nlut\' of It, I "u ~>t.:\JUt·W.:t•:-~ latt.•t '' L' l.rl' told th.ll l't h·a h.ts klllt"tl hunst If In gt•m·r.tl tlw pr.atlllt' ot p.u.uh·l plutuu~ t~·t ud th1.• rcH·I.umn of fabut,, Inion n:u on, ~om·

!,!nu.:d.m:tul .L.wmjt•ti.Kt cht:J I. "tit' .rtc><lllt ... ~.., n.tl wn\., ywlhttl{ us to .. u .. rx·nt.l <tuc .. uon.., .tl)(lUl the p1og~ ' ot om• Cut.l\\t\\.., to ,1Ltlon m·.u h\ 1. ro·•M'\111111~ Jlllt't\'1\l t~ut lutt's, luw c1l •lrllllll ''hilt anotlu:-1 on upt('" uur attcnuou. folio\\ In~ "'' tt.tl c:h u .rll;., s hum unt•l1x .lfl· tu .mlitffi·t .Ut - llw d~h.'ttlvc.• him lt•rut ... to Pll ... uppost• a st.rhlt· but lOt\·

-:iiw-uul tht' I UIVI' ul kt€1\\ ktlKt' in [j. llt" Our l m "111~ c.S,t•nh:'\1 cmouun.ll ne u .. (,\ hates md IJils tr,bur ~tt'Tld~ tlt•l\ IIW hliiit.. I hr tlll\111 lll'lln' nl fl,lfl,tlttlll tcaiJ', hl (){•· l.\1 ll lw chtl not h.tlt• 01 kfll). rht• mctilJI>\nta hU\\C\ l!f,

ttlll\l' tllOh"'. tl\t'l t Itt U ,tlll>ttinnnl p.ISS,l!tt'~. \\ tth .,1~0'<, tullsl• \S);UJlll'S \ tOit•nt .uul 0\ ~·rt Clt,mgcs f Ctt\0 on,l] .ttutud~!t.----

S'ABRAT JO~ ,\ 1" u • • - ·

. . • • . '·

When Peter fea,-es Rov. he \'0\\ ~ robe haru · c:· aJ:e l:ue.z _ ten-. through ltne for Cra~r.: CtafJ!'s ~... : ~:.ml~· tcm­para..fu ~es htm cyrucal butthrou~h Ro}... -., he re<:O\'­

a-s ht old deali5m. £,-en the apparent!\' inflexible Stanley st!ein' 0\--ercome b · P~ter' suicide Another urce of meJ~ drama!> typu:al ,_.ztta paucm b tbu \\hat\\~ normalJ) cai.I character chan~e y,e U') t03llOCJpate hou an e'\ent will n.lter a character ... conduct Titi imens \\hat a commonseza­sica.J account oh"le\\1nf! mhrht le-.1d u ... to po:>~t. Jt b not that dte "arld of the melodramatic ilm COIJWil ,'OlatiJc charac­ters which the nar.rauon fa.JthJullv record' Rather, if the \1et\er f to esec:ute the mferentbl mo''e!; comentfonal in dte 2enre, chnractcr beha\'tor mu't trace an cmoaonall.i:!· za~ From a rhetoncal otandpomt the characters·' OJarilirv 1

a struCtural ncces:san for the ~cnre's narrational procc. nnd dfecL ..

TI1ere 1 one other w~n that the film nuunwn ... the Jorwa.rd course of tl:i fabula despite bemg ommSCiem and h1~;hh commurucau' 1ost commentatOrS on the melodrama m both dtealer and film. ha\e ob~ed the cenual role p .1' • .

b' coincfdence. .il\s Damel GerouJd. paraphraSJ.Ilg tbe rt :J .... -

..,l.ll1 cnu ... r.geL.Ba.Jukh;tt)1. put lt u.~t th~ mom~u~

.., hen e~te phases of (the.~~ uzhc!) are.;uruted. 'chanc-1' pia)-'> a keY role a oohesh e element. com bin: !1._ .nd cmss ·• me lines of coon and tnU1gue nnd producu.~ ::.1 .up dra­mauc tuauoo . Thu:- ·chanoe' allm'"' far r -. ·' une.x­pccted plot twm " Coinodence retains our 1merest in the unfolding ~zhet. Rm happens to encoumer Crat~ in the p:uk a mceung \\ hich reh bill tat htm and mr:-ue.rs lhclr romanoe Atlhe moment Roy and Crah: agree to mam. A sa

C l-1JI.'l Jf'-Ob1 nt.o h·v4f•'4. o."LJ.rrence at a parocular mumem. Comcidence m die melodrama sene' one purpose of me Jme:.oeauon m the

.detcca\c film: both p!'0\1de generically comentlonaJ «a-ion:. for urpnse. • Agaan.st the background of a eeneraJ uruc?!'tnctednesslllll

omrucommunicachenes ... anv ,:,harp resmcuons orsuppa. SJOn::. '!>land ouL Jn In Thz.s Our Lifo, these elements rem~~ l.'>OI.ated moments, bnefly incensuymg our emodorutl.m\'!31-ment. Form tance. Pecer ang:ril} abandon::. Sumle\· lt a C. and we foUo" him home. When he am' e~. he--dnd we­di;;cmerthat shell. there ahead afhim. wa.iun~ma~ her tamrum m the bar was .solely a lesson m ~·bo i bca (nus lS a ~«'lnd example of ::>UC'Cessl'H~ h\'pothe!,-; .. formin&, one h.vpotheMs "llnph replaces anOther) At a.n<Xber p::w. ;:::: pla..'l ~· male SLAil.ley oonfe,~ to the hir-and-nm

1.~H l.S temporanh 1\ept from u Bur agam It gers quzc""' l"e\e.aJed On the h-' .:._.,..f ;.:n<mled~"' ,....,. ... _, \\ we, rcstncted and su.....,~

c --.. lVI. come to the fi .L ~ anuc1p.1oon of tho are n1u.~our n:uUC'lllf oar in ::. :;o centrat to .~ misalliance~ and fatal misundersWJd.

u1e ~en.re. If J ha\e said littl~ abo

abl~ u b because In Tl. ut the depth ofinform.aoon 3\'llil-

feelin~:o. ~uare.ly u~zs Our Life explains the characterS aspectsoflJlbe..en-scene gh ~PE'eeh, behanor, and ocher deE"per uno characters· OthermeJodramas of we 194osgo pie. prc~us \ uaJ and mental Slates; Po ~t!!> ed, for e.'1UD­ta~oru::.r The ~ ~u tic hallucmations of the pro­~b to \-aty \\1thin J: 10ter.nal informaoon presented e\posure of the cnucaJ e genre. t.be b.tsic dc::mand being teria tPeter' deathnu ... ~rl..- Pmc~ SL:tnJe,··- fn-s-lh e) • UJarJ It TL' o:;.u Uol\ e been " , tell .. them tb t Pcten~ dead The eremng that Stanley 1 ou~

to P'ursue CraJg a mother and her Uule girl rep m front ot her car. And t11e rug}u that tanle) beg~ Unde \\ llliam for help is also the mS!ht he ha..' JU r learned that he has onl .. x mont} ro b\oe. \\ e get an owr.ill kno\dedge of 'uch f\'Cnts

\\hen lhC\ O('('Uf (cutaway to Asa m tJJe hou~ gerWlg

~ • ~:us ~enre h nmdtTed mure .subJec· aspect$ of the Prot.agonls:t• as no tnherent need ,.-..:., fllm' ··rniddle-vrewPot .. rnenta.~ life to .... up,...-lhe narrauon':. d~ ;~ COrn-enuon. a:S~ the dececkoW! b\· genre. One COUld -<:onscJO • same to en \en frontal pJa mg. ~ue lha, ~snes 1S not opulated

h can c:ros:scUl-.ho~ofmothera.ndchild teppingmtoa pone · J Jd 'ba str -et a part~ntou!' compo:>IDon Jowmg t le octor ~ m U~dc \\illiam'=> home etc). bur \\ e could ne\-er ha\ predicted the occ: UJT('nce of these C\ ents or at )east rl!eJr

a 01newhat cylized e habh oflllakinf>auem ofstai!fng­an gun~ of renaw se~tJon b) St.anJ g. a scene end Y.itb oou nes So d the~ ~ ~. or the unu~ual

.. l\Jizauon" commonh· ~~?· 0\~ lhe lihn's self-con. • ---~ fn ~~&ht SCore. The

-~ temstrom

:-- AP.RA "l 10:-i AND FILM f'OI'. M

' . ; · · ·. ·. . C-~~ MAV7 Vlto b'v4t;~ Wh••n Yet r \ vcs \\0\ h · "owG to be • ha:rd' , yet &~c bu·r ( occun•:ncc at a pMll(.;ulat wr.n.~nt C..omctdE:'flt.· ·r. IlL tiOft·n<i through l•J\c lor Craig, Cral~ 5 loss of S~.anl~ tern- melodrama crvc one purpose of the m"esugalion tn 14 PQrarl\y ma\.:• hun I:"Jntc a\ butlhrough \\•.>)'SlQ\:<: he· tec:w· d(!tccuvc film. both provide gcncncally convenuonal oca.. ,.,..,Ius old tdt•al m L'H·n th•· tl(1parcm\y inf\cxth\e Slan.ley tQns tor urpnS~: •

·•·m fJ'IICt<.:,,m ·by P(.'t •r s ulc1d1..: Anh\hcr =>Ourc.~ or mc\o- A\l,illnstthe backgmund ot a gen~ral unrcstticwdnesa zrx~ drctma' t)pu~ syuthc \ pattern 1!1 thus what we norm:Ulv omntcommumcauv~n<."S anv ~harp rc.stn( ttons orsu~ call ch ra< wr ch.m~c·. we• try to tJ.IItl<;lp:\le how an event will Inn stand out In lr1 "I ht., Our Lzfe these elem<!nts ~ alu.:r ~·character s <. cmduct 11nto Ulo,:t·rtt> what d c<~mmonl>l.m· lSOl-tu:d moments, bndl v uncn .Uymg our emouonallml$l· t.tcal ac·coum u\ VICWIIIIl. mw.ht \cad utt to post\... lt"' not that m(•JIL ror \n!>t.anc~ Pcu:r anJqJlv aballdons St.anJey at a baJ tlle wor\d ot the mc\odr:ull:tiJC ~1\m conwns volaUlc th.l'r-.tc· md we fo\low htm horne Wh.:n lie arnve..,, he-and v;e-U:t11 whiC.h thl' narr.lll<m launlu\\y r<:cords. R.ath~r. ,{ the di"'<:..venhat shc Is there ahead ofhm1, WaJUng m a neg)jgflt, vv·v.(!r 1 to cxi~Ulc thl! tnh:rcnu.d mu\cs wnvcnllonal m her t.a.ntrum 111 the bar wa~ !>Oldv a le~wn m who

15 ~

tlw genrl•, 4 harhtll'r hchao,:\or musltTacc an cmollou u 11~- (lbts I<> u l{.ood example of !>uccessl\e hvpothe~JS formiil~ t.al!, t· rom u r\wtonea\ 6\<!.ndpotnt, lh~ characte'' o,;o\aullty 1s one hypothL~t~ bun ply rep!aces anotlter ) At another~ •1 lilt uuural n<·c\!!i tty h1r the ~cnre s nilrrallonal vroc~~ CnuR s plan to mak'· S• ~-~ r t h .. -.l

"' •••-JUey conu;:ss to hlc tt-<uJU·run .md cHct;ts acc1dem I!> temporoml . ke t f \ 1wrc ts ()nc other v. ·''i that the film m.unt;uno; the forward qulcl<.ly re\~ed

0 ~ ~

1 rom u... But a gam, It :::

<uun;e ol u lnhull\ despite bcmg omntS<;Ient and h1W1h· knowledge cannot ~ t e w 0 e, restnclcd and ~uppre <.ommumcauv • Mohlcommcmato1:. on the mc\odr.una, 1n anuc1pa1Jon o{ tho~~~ the fore \\lthoul reducing our hr1th thcau•r .md h\m, ha,·c o\,r.crvcd the <.cntr.u role plawd Ul~'> M> c~ntrdl to th ances and lalal rru'>undc~

· 1·' . h .l. • R.. e Renre. hy (.01111.1!\I'IICC /\'!; nanw\ t.uuu u, parap rasmg UIC U'>· l{ ' h.t\t,: ~oild Ultle abo s1an cnuc • ·r~t:l ~.uuklunyt, puts It· "At those mumcnt:. able, \ltc, becaul>!! Inn Ut the ~eplh of tnformatton avail-v. hen l'l''{>.ar.nc ph .. ~cs ot (the4>~ uLhcq are umtcd, 'chancu' tec\mgl) !>quare\) th u., Our Ltfc explam~ lhc charactm' p\.lys n k ·v role as a cuht!!>WC clcmcm, combmmg and cr.cbs·.. al)pcCL'> of mlsc.:.'-en-M:~~&~ St>ee<,h behavior, and othet mg hn<:s or auton and mtnguc and produc.:mg sharp dra deeper Into tharacters• • ther melodramas of the 1 940s go mauc ttuatton • • • Thu ... c..hancc allow!> lor llC\\. une>. ple pn.:!-.ent~ Vlt.ua\ and':~ntall>lates, Pos~es:.ed.. for exam· ,.....c.:.tL'<l p\ot lWII>ts.' .. Com1.1dence rctaln~> our tntt!rC!>t m lht. tagomM The dccn... ou~uc h.uJ.ucmauons of lhe pro-~'"'" C • l && ... e ot lnte a1 unloldin~ l>yulltct Ro) hd.ppcns to encounte1 ti.Ug In lit.. !>tern<> to vary V.'llhm th m lnfonnat:ion presented p:nk. a mccllll~ Ythll.h Jeh.tbl\tt..lteb him .md lriMen. their cxpollurc o£ the cnucaJ e &enre, the baste dt!mand bcmg roman~.:c 1\tthc moment Rov .tnd Crcu~ agree to many. Aba t ·rw. at Pcter'bdt>alb nu~""hlionaJ Proces~. Stanley'& hys· tc\\!i lhcm t\Mt Veter I"> dead The cwning thatStanlcv II> out. live\v thantti'-. lh\s ~e,,~ have been rendered more subJec-lO puT!\UC Cr.ug. a mother and hct little girl ~tep In fmnt ol ;u,pc.ct~ of the prot.nsr.omst\ as no inherent need to suppress her c.U'. 1\nd the mll,ht that ~uml~·y beg::. Uncle Wllham. for 1\lm I> nuddle-vlew'POint'' co mental hre. as tn the detecu-.e h \ al"' .l.n O\U}lt he hal> }U!>tleJ.mOO that ht! \ns 011\-i .,\.). the llaiT<lUOn l> de~ Qf

1., nvention 8\. th l.

I! p 1s .,.. ua... ,.. h b 0 ~u.-co . · 1 e same tol\en. ,\, t \t"'" We uet an overall knowledge ot sue e\enh ' ~enre ne could argu .. h nl><::tou nec.-c •~ ul ed tnonu1'!> o .... " h , . , 1 ill 1. "t at Cf: . "~...,not sttp al!

when lbcv occur < cuta\\ ayb to t\sa In the ousc ~cmn~ a 'crv TOl\1.4 p aymg, the habn r nain Patterns of t.agmg-phonecall.etO~'>cutsholl:>ofmotherandchlldstcppmg.mtoa :\ l>OUO\C\\hfat Sl)'Uud ~lion~ 0'\aking a "Cene l> d ~ . th

stlion ~>howmg the doctors ba~ an)!. ng o cen;un set""-' ) stanle en \1

~treet. ~ ~~~~~~~:~~:~etc.). but , .. c could never have ::C'ousne l) So does the ~1 en~ce ~e ~~e unusu~ m ~nc ed h currence of these e\ent~>, or at lca't thcrr st}liLaUon commonly h:nt:~~i 0\ct\t.'l'Ou h s self *Con:. preulCh' t ~ oc • -"Qlln llle~ g t core The

l'anla stems from

5 :J In nu ... Our Ll.fc

J gure mo\cment apd mw.jc from the con~tructron ol space (e.g. Canmo finng into the car in ThL• Uig Sleep) to the arrcm~emcnt of temporal order (e.g., the fia.,hback In Mur­di!r .\ltj Su t'et). AU film techniques. then can funcuon narra­uonall~ St.:condh· trd.Uf>t(CX(Wll mol!yanou If. a SITODtt faqor m decermmmg a film's narrauonal option" All fllms e~mlott d•-.pantieo; hNween tabula and S\ uzhet hut dJfferent genres do !>O m different wan We c;hould not expect any lilm to adhere to a ... m~Ie pttch of knowledge or sell-consc10u..,ne!>5 or commurucau .. enc ... ~ There wlll be shif~ between omru· ... c,cnce .and restnc uon , greater and lc~cr self'"(!onscwus. ne ..... more ()f less ~upp~Sl\ e narratuJJl. lt 1!. the pat tern:> and purpa~<'s of these shJftg that ~ome comenuonahzcd Jn the tny'>tery Him, the shltb promote that emphasiS upon (:Unusny charac ten<>UC of the genrei the melOdrama's msl's­h:nce upon commumcauvene s JU':IU.fies -,hafts that reveal a mn~e of cmouonal expenencc Each film operates, u• u~ own wav and \\llh 1ts 0\'>-"'0 devtccs and systems, wHbm a fr.tme Ol reference t;OC.ltfiecJ by p:1Sl praC:llCC nu~ Will be· come e\ Jdl\nl again Ul Part 3, "hen \\C con .. ider SC\ eral com cnuonal modes of narrauon

Other theoreucal regions sull wam expJonng. ho~ ever. 11.•~ chapter and the pn.>\ &OU'> on~ have concem.rated on h<e ic fabular-...,·uJ.hct ~lrate~cs .Uld o\erall narrauonal qual­JUe-;. I ha\ c not done suHic1cnt JU'>llce to the wa;s m \\ h1ch iilm •avlc can set'\e narrational purposes. As a mt"f.Dum, cnwma 1s parucuJarly -.unable lor "upporung the ~,·u1hct' marupulalion ot umc and space