Realism in Classical American Film - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Realism in Classical American Film

Hollywood NarrativeSlide2

Table of Contents

1 Realistic Narrative

2 Non-realistic Narrative

3 Purer Form of Realist NarrativeSlide3

Narrtive

Narrative

– a structured or constructed chain of stories that tells fictional or non-fictional events.

Story and Narrative

*

Story – an account of an event or related events;

a event unit

Components of narrative

:

narrating

- the combination and arrangement of stories or event units;

narrator

-

the one who tells a narrative (generally by voice-over in the case of cinema

)

Narratology

- study on narrative, narration and narrator.Slide4

Realist Narrative

The most important component of Classical American Films is

‘narrative’

(story).

The bottom line - their narratives are constructed in such a way that they give the viewer an impression that he/she is watching something

plausible

and

probable

- that is,

‘real’ –

render

‘reality’

and

‘truth’

effects in story

.

T

he first concern plausibilitySlide5

Realist Narrative

The classical Hollywood film

creates truth

effects by concealing

artistry in narration.

→

N

arration

, too, like various filming techniques, must be

‘invisible’

and unobtrusive so that most viewers barely notice its

narration technique

and artificiality

.

The way in which a story is told – to make narration invisible.Slide6

Realist Narrative

Narration ‘techniques’

and

‘devices’

employed to create illusion of reality but kept invisible:

Formulae

-

CHRONOLOGICALITY

and

CAUSALITY

CHRONOLOGICALITY

- events occur in a 1-2-3 order (

occasional

flashbacks - the only permissible

narrative manipulation

) Slide7

Realist Narrative

Chronological realist narrative

of

Best Years of our Lives

Ex-servicemen return to their home town (E/U 1) – they try to re-establish their relationship with their wife or fiancée, while finding it difficult to settle back in their former job (E/U 2). Slide8

Non-realist (Formalist) Narrative

Formalist

Narrative

Christopher

Nolan’s

Memento

(2000)

The entire story is told in backward

(from

the present to the past).

Leonard, as a result of a blow received on his head

in an

assault on him,

has

no short term memory. Slide9

Non-realist (Formalist) Narrative

He is looking for the real killer of his wife,

photographing with his

Polaroid camera and tattooing on himself the important facts he finds. Each

action the viewer watches

is

the one taken place earlier

than the

action she watched it last.

(In normal storytelling, the

action you

have just seen is the one

taken place later

than the

last action). Slide10

Non-realist (Formalist) Narrative

Opening sequences – Leonard kills Teddy (

cs

last) - Lenard takes Teddy to the building where the latter killed the former’s wife (

cs

first before last) – Lenard in a motel waiting for Teddy’s arrival (

cs

2

nd

before last) – Lenard is told by Teddy on the phone he is coming to see Leonard (

cs

3

rd

before before) so on.

c

s

–

chronlological

sequenceSlide11

Realist Narrative

CAUSALITY

- actions are joined together as a series of CAUSES and EFFECTS

‘Plot

is a careful and logical working out of

the laws of cause and effect. The mere

sequence of events will not make a plot.

Emphasis must be laid upon causality,

and the action - reaction of the human will

.’

Francis Patterson,

‘Manual

for Aspiring

Screenwriters’,

1920Slide12

Realistic Narrative

e.g. A storm

isolates

a group of characters;

a war separate lovers;

a lack of care kills tropical fish;

a cheat leads to a divorce;

a betrayal prompts a revenge.Slide13

Realist Narrative

Homer lost both his arms in the war (cause) –

stress on

his engagement to Wilma (effect)

Stephenson’s only daughter is found going out with his friend. (cause) – a family conflict in which he opposes that she goes out a married man who is a lot older than her. (effect)Slide14

Non-realist (Formalist) Narrative

Mulholland

Drive

(2001) - divided into two main sections: the first, which could be interpreted as a dream (1 hour 56 minutes

),

and

the second, the

final 25

minutes, which might be made of real events.

Important events in the first section are repeated in the second section, but with significant differences.Slide15

Non-realist (Formalist) Narrative

A woman involved in a traffic accident (cause) – the woman falls into sleep in a front yard of a house in Sunset Boulevard (effect)

A man tells what he seems to have experienced in his dream to another man (cause) – he faints to see a hairy man (effect)Slide16

Non-realist (Formalist) Narrative

There is not much logic of cause and effect in

the actions in the

first

part.

The lack of causality is compensated by the repetition, which gives the film more textual coherence. Slide17

Realist Narrative

COINCIDENCE

According to the Hollywood narrative

‘

formulae’

,

coincidence should be confined to the initial

situation.

The later in a film a coincidence occurs, the weaker it is - the loss of

credibility.Slide18

Realist Narrative

Acceptable COINCIDENCE

A

woman and a man separated in Paris and many years later she suddenly walks into the bar he runs in Casablanca. “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”

She did not know who owns the bar. Coincidence happens

at the beginning of the film.Slide19

Less than Realist Narrative

Less satisfactory coincidence when it takes place towards the end of the film

Undercover police agent, Chan, investigates Triad crimes with little results. While his colleague Lau is out of office, he idly poke round Lau’s desk to find the envelop that is supposed to be in the hands of the gang: a sign that Lau is a Triad mole. Slide20

Less than Realist Narrative

Deus-ex-

machina

(god from the machine) – the sudden appearance of god at the end of a play to set things right

An extreme variation of COINCIDENCE

Some event, character, ability or object solves a seemingly unsolvable problem in a sudden, unexpected way.

A bus breaks down and one of its passengers is a car mechanic and fix the trouble.

A drunkard spent all his money on drinks and a millionaire suddenly appears to give him money.Slide21

Less than Realist Narrative

Boys stranded on a desert island become gradually savage and start factional fights. Jacque who fears that his position as ‘lord of the island’ is challenged by Ralph orders his boys to kill him. When boys are hunting down Ralph, a navy officer suddenly appears and his ship rescues the boys.

Lord of the Flies

(1990)

clipSlide22

Realist Narrative

A case in which a coincidence takes place in the middle of a film. People in a local community discussing about the

birds’

attack on school children.

Alfred

Hitchcock’s

The Birds

(1963)Slide23

Realist Narrative

An action must

have

a

MOTIVATION

One must have a good reason for what one does.

When an action is unmotivated, it would lose its credulitySlide24

Realist Narrative

‘In

order that the motion picture may convey the illusion of reality that audiences demand, the scenario writer stresses motivation - that is, he makes clear a

character’s

reason for doing whatever he does that is important

.’

Frances Marion,

Scenario Writing

,

1938Slide25

Non-realist (Formalist)

Narrative

An example completely ignoring the (realist) narrative formulae developed in classical American films

Chronologicality, Causality, MotivationSlide26

Non-realist (Formalist)

Narrative

Surrealist

film by Louis Bunuel designed by Salvatore

Dali

No chronological order, no causality or no motivation

Un

Chien

Andalou

(1929

)

clipSlide27

Illusion of Reality in Realist Narrative

The film drama is:

‘

… LIFE WITH THE DULL BITS CUT OUT

’

(Alfred Hitchcock)Slide28

Illusion of Reality in Realist Narrative

Classical realist narrative is NOT retelling of what happens in reality as it does because it extracts from the world of its characters almost only elements which are relevant to its progress.

The realistic narrative in classical American films, which is achieved through various techniques and devices, is the one which gives the viewer

truth

effects, but is not exactly real. Slide29

Purer Form of Realist Narrative

Purer form of realism in narrative is found in non-diegetic elements.

Diegetic - being relevant to the progress of a story

Non-diegetic - being irrelevant to the progress of an imaginary story Slide30

Purer Form of Narrative

Siegmund

Kracauer

finds an inverted relation between those images that further the story and those

‘retain

a degree of independence of the intrigue and thus succeed in summoning physical reality

.’ Slide31

Purer Form of Narrative

Roland Barthes characterizes literary reference to objects that have no discernible narrative function except to give a material, worldly weight to the description as

‘reality effect’.Slide32

Purer Form of Narrative

A purer form of film realism is found in an incidental or contingent element in narrative.

‘…

in the middle of the chase the little boy suddenly needs to piss. So he does

.’

(André

Bazin

)

Vittorio de

Sica’s

Ladri di biciclette

(1948)Slide33

Purer Form of Narrative

Gus Van

Sant

,

Elephant

(2003) – about a shooting in an Oregon high school partly base on the

Colombine

High School massacre. The film mostly follow the lives of several characters but the scenes are not directly related to the main plot – the shooting of students.

clipSlide34

Purer Form of Narrative

L’Amore

in

citta

(1953) - a omnibus film about various forms of love and lovers. Dino

Risi’s

‘

Paradiso per

tre

ore

’ (Three hours of paradise)

Stick to the realist narrative formulae - chronological, causality and motivation

Story time is equal to real time. Duration of story is the same to that of reality. Slide35

Realism in Classical American Film

Do ‘artless’ arts in

American films in the classical period still

dupe you to take narratives and images for reality?

Do those films that the cinema audience in the early half of the twentieth century took realistic or ‘mistook’ as an extension of their reality continue to have the same effect on you now?

If not, why do you think they do not?