NARRATIVES

“Narratives” or stories are commonplace in every society. All of us produce them,

enjoy them, and often learn from them, yet explanation of what precisely constitutes a
narrative is a complex, contentious issue in contemporary critical theory. For our
purposes narrative can be defined as a series of unified events situated in one or more
settings. The events may be arranged chronologically or nonchronologically and may
be factual, fictional, or blend of the two. It considers the main event of the seventeen
minutes wordless film “The String Bean” (1962). This narrative shows selected
chronologically arranged events in the life of one character. Viewers can usually figure
out the relationship of later events to earlier ones.

A fictional film is a narrative that is not factual. It shows mostly or entirely

selected imaginary events arranged in a unified and meaningful order. The events are
presented in a certain style or manner.

STRUCTURE (Characters, Goals, and Conflicts)

Structure refers to the part of something and their arrangement. In a fictional film, the
selection and order of events help viewers comprehend the story and strongly influence
how they respond to the film. Some generalization about characters, goals, and
conflicts apply to all fictional films regardless of length.

a) FEATURE FILMS
- A fictional narrative nearly always includes at least one character who
wants something but has problems to trying get it.
- Typically the main character goals are not immediately apparent, though
one major goal becomes clear early in the film or viewer lose interest. In
the French film Ridicule (1996)
- In films with two or more major characters usually the characters, usually
the characters have different goals, at least initially; the result is conflict,
with or without humor.
Conflict with humor: It Happened One Night (1934), Bringing Up Baby
(1938), Four Wedding in Funeral (1994), and My Best Friend’s Wedding
(1997).
 Conflict or problems are inevitable while pursuing goals: Jaws (1975)
- It has only one major character and normally has more than one major goal.
Rocky (1976), Top Gun (1986), The Mask (1994), and Outbreak (1995).

b) SHORT FICTIONAL FILMS

- One or two major characters who usually do not change goals or personality
during a brief story time, usually a few days or less,
- One goals: the main character usually does not say explicitly what he or she
wants, but viewers can figure it out early in the film,
- One or more obstacles or conflicts in trying to reach the goal but none of
them very time-consuming,
- Success or failure in reaching the goal.
Leon’s Case (1982),
Plot Summary

A plot summary lists the various turning points of a story

• Cutting Continuity Script:

a description of a finished film, indicates each setting, describe major
events, and includes any dialogue

• Beginnings, Middles, and Endings

• Beginnings: the author hooks the reader by introducing the main
characters and their goals, the setting, and the main conflict. Typically,
does not supply much exposition although it establishes where and
when the narrative starts.
• Middles: Here a series of events or complications occur, leading to an
increase in the tension. Among other functions, the middle section
shows how the main character deals with problem.
• Endings: Here the main conflict is resolved, and the loose ends are tied
up. The ending of a fictional film shows the consequences of major
previous actions.
Plotlines

A plotline is a brief narrative series of related events perhaps

continuous, perhaps interrupted as usually involving a few characters of people.
A plotline can function as a complete short narrative, as it typically does in a
short film. A feature film, however, often has two or more plotlines.

 To compress a wide-ranging story into an endurable movie, plotlines can be

consecutive yet with large gaps of story time between them. Example: A Space
Odyssey (1968), not continuous plotlines of four groups: man-apes, scientists,
a computer and two astronauts, and the star child.

 Multiple alternating plotlines can be used to show relationships between

different time periods. Example: The Godfather Part II (1974) and Heat and
Dust (1983) alternate between plotlines: a narrative primarily about one
character and story set years earlier about a relative.

 A film can alternate between simultaneous plotlines to heighten suspense.

Example: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1963) has
three major simultaneous plotlines: at a U.S. air force base where the paranoid
General Jack D. Ripper has ordered U.S bomber on its way to bomb a target in
the Soviet Union; and in the Pentagon war room, where the U.S. president,
military commanders, and the top scientist try to prevent the catastrophe.

 Plotlines may even be consecutive yet simultaneous because they occur in

different time zones. Example: Night on Earth (1992) has five consecutive brief
plotlines, each set in one of four different time zones.

 Plotlines may be nonchronological and form many times periods yet for all but
one of the major characters intersect at one time and place. As in The Joy Luck
Club (1993), which has eight major plotlines: for four middle-aged women bon
in China and for the American-born grown daughter of each (figure 7.11).
TIME
Present time, Flashforwards, and Flashbacks

 Movies should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Most makers narrative

film agree with Franju and arrange scenes chronologically.

 Only few movies use chronological order with an occasional flashforward.

Easy Rider (1969 ).

 A Flashforward shows events that are repeated well into the film, as in The

stilts ( Los Zancos, 1984 ), My life as a Dog ( 1985), and GodFellas (1990 )

 Although flashforwards in films are usually mainly visual, they may be

auditory; According to Marc Vernet, this technique was used in Alain Robbe –

Grillets L’immortelle (1962) : “ We hear the sound of an accident at the

beginning of the film even though that crash will occur later in the film”

 Flashforwards “can only be recognized retrospectively “(Chatman 64) and are

demanding of viewers; flashforwards let viewers glimpe consequences they do

not anticipate or are not yet even interested in, they are rarely used,

 Flashbacks are much more common than flashforwards, often a Flashback

briefly interrupts a chronological progression of events to show what influenced

a character earlier. A Flashback may also be used at the end of the film to reveal

causes of previously puzzling events, as in Exotica (1994). Near the film the

viewers are allowed to partially understand how an earlier discovery of a

 murdered girl affected an enigmatic young woman, and in the film’s last two

scenes they are shown an even earlier stage in her relationship to the troubled

main character.

 On rare occasions, a film is basically chronological but includes Flashback and

Flashforwards, as in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969). That film opens

with five brief flashback alternating with consecutive short scenes from the

present.

CHRONOLOGICAL TIME AND NONCHRONOLOGICAL TIME

 Plot is the selection and arrangement of a story’s events.

 Fabula is the viewer’s or reader’s mental reconstruction of a narrative’s

nonchronological arrangement of events into chronological order.

 Both a plot and its corresponding fabula contain the same events, but the non-

chronological arrangement of events changes focus, mood, and viewers interest

– sometimes considerably.

 In the fabula, he does not appear in the last two major sections, though for many

viewers he is probably the film most complex and intriguing character.

 The nonchronological plot of pulp fiction makes possible a more exciting, more

engaging beginning than chronological arrangements of all the film’s events.

 Compared with the fabula, the plot for Pulp fiction is more demanding of the

audience, and for some viewers the film complex structure is both a challenge

and a pleasure, though the plot is so intricate that few viewers could completely

reconstruct the fabula after only one showing; as in Slaughterhouse – Five,

Jacob Ladder (1990), Lost High Way (1997).

 And other movies, constructing the fabula may be problematic because

different attentive and thoughtful viewers will disagree if certain actions are

present, past or future events or are only imagined (fantasized or dreamed).

Summary

Narratives-both in film and elsewhere-may be defined as a series of unified

consecutive events (represented actions and happenings) situated in one or more
settings. A narrative may be factual or fictional, or a blend of the two.

Structure

 A fictional film is a narrative film that includes at least one character

(imaginary person) and largely imaginary events; its settings may be factual or
imaginary.
 Usually in fictional films the central character has one or more goals but faces
problems in trying to reach them.
 Short fictional films often have only one or two major characters who usually
do not change their goals or personalities during a brief story time. The major
characters of a short fictional film usually have a goal or goals that are not
explained but that viewers can figure out early in the film; have obstacles to
overcome; and succeed or fail in reaching the goal.
 Typically, the beginning of a fictional film does not supply much exposition
although is establishes where and when the narratives starts. It also tempts to
get audiences interested in the story.
 Among other functions, the middle sections shows how the central characters
deal with problems that impede progress toward their goals and thereby reveal
both their nature and the consequences of their actions for them and others.
 The ending of a fictional film shows the consequences of major previous
actions. In films with closure. In film with closure, by the end of the narrative
the consequences of previous major actions are shown or clearly implied.
Most film of classical Hollywood cinema have closure, but many independent
films do not.
 A plotline is a brief narrative focused on a few characters or people that could
function on its own as a separate (usually very brief) story. Typically, short
films have only one plotline, whereas feature films often have multiple
plotlines. Many combinations of plotlines are possible. For example, they can
be consecutive but with large gaps of time between them; can alternate
 between different time periods; or can be chronological, simultaneous, and
occasionally interesting.

Time

 Flashforwards are used only occasionally in fictional films, usually to suggest

a premonition or inevitability. Flashbacks are often used and can serve many
different purposes. On rare occasions fictional films combine present-tense
action with flashforward and flashbacks.
 A fabula is the mental reconstruction in chronological order of all the events
in a nonchronological plot. Although a plot contains the same events as its
corresponding fabula a nonchronological plot has different emphases and
moods and causes different responses in viewers.
 How much time is represented in fictional film (story time) is usually
unspecified and difficult to determine with any precision, but story nearly
always far exceeds the films running time.

Style

 A fictional film may be rendered in one or more styles, such as black comedy
or surrealism. If viewers know nothing about a films style and cannot figure it
out quickly or if they refuse to accept a style know about, they will likely fail
to become engaged by the film.