Lesson 02:
Narrative Structure
Professor Aaron Baker
Previous Lecture
• Course Requirements
• Classic Hollywood
Cinema
• Invisible Style
• Avoidance of Choice
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This Lecture
• Narrative Structure
• Classical Hollywood
Narrative Style
• Jurassic Park (1993)
and Citizen Kane
(1941)
• Japanese film
Rashomon (1950) and
Art Cinema Narration.
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Part I: Narrative Structure
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Narrative
• “A chain of events in cause-effect
relationship occurring in time and
space” Film Art page 75.
• A story
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Structures Our Lives
• Literature, History,
Biography
• Religion
• TV, Films
• Conversations
• Even Dreams
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Beginnings Set Up…
•
•
•
Themes
Conflicts
Questions
What the story will be about.
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Delay
• Conclusions About Themes
• Resolutions of Conflicts
• Answers to Questions
Otherwise the film would end too quickly.
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Jurassic Park
• A worker is killed
in the first scene.
• Theme
established:
recovering
dinosaurs from
extinction will be
dangerous.
• Then. . .
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A Different Direction
In Scene Two—
• Lawyer & Scientist
Discuss Investor
Concerns
• Finding a Mosquito
Encased in Amber
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Scene Two Raises New
Questions
• Let’s watch how the first two scenes set up
new themes and questions and practice
delay.
• Please stop the lecture and watch the clip
from the Learning Tasks page.
Delay in Narrative
• Necessary So Story Not
Too Short
• French critic Roland
Barthes has said pleasure
of stories from the
process of getting to
resolutions--as well as
endings themselves.
• In other words, delay
enjoyable also!
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Part II: Classical Hollywood
Narrative Style
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Four Main Characteristics:
1. One or a Few Main Characters
2. Definite Goals
3. Clear Cause and Effect Connections
Between Events Moving Forward
4. Endings that Clearly Resolve Goals of
Main Characters
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Plot vs. Story
Plot:
Choices by filmmaker(s) of what story
events to include in the movie
and in what order.
Story:
Events plot present, plus those we infer
or assume have occurred, in their
causal relation, in chronological order
(the order in which they happened).
Jurassic Park
• Attack in first scene happens after other
events in the story such as the creation
of the dinosaurs, and the planning of the
park.
• Starting with attack e.g. of plot
manipulation.
In Medias Res
(in the middle of things)
• Latin for how plot
starts right in the
action of the story
• Jurassic Park’s
opening
• James Bond movies
famous for starting
in middle of action
Flashbacks
• Jump back into
the past to events
before those
already shown
• Explain why
events happened
Plot of Citizen Kane:
• Starts at the end
of the story
(Charles Foster
Kane’s death).
• Then multiple
flashbacks about
the various ways
Kane led his
complex life.
A Flashback from Kane
Leland reflects on how Kane’s first
marriage to Emily Norton fell apart.
Please stop the lecture to watch the clip
from the Learning Tasks page.
Motif
• A pattern of images and sounds in a
film.
• Two Kinds: Bound and Free
• Bound: necessary to tell story
• In Jurassic Park, the safety systems,
because shutting them down directly
bears on progress of plot.
Free Motifs
• Not Essential to Story
• But Add Extra Thematic
Meaning
• The aerosol can
Dennis uses for
dinosaur embryos
reinforces the theme of
danger and greed.
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Narrative Resolution
•
•
•
•
•
Goals Achieved
Conflicts Solved
Order; All Parts Fit
Closure
Happy Ending
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In Hollywood Films
Closure = Truth
In Jurassic Park,
this is achieved
when Grant and
Hammond agree
the park isn’t
safe.
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Closure in Jurassic Park
Communicates
a larger truth:
humans can’t
totally control
nature.
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Part III: Art Film Narrative:
Rashomon (1950)
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Ambiguity
• Goals, Conflicts
• Cause/Effect of Action
• In Rashomon, flashbacks
offer contradictory
accounts of rape and
murder.
• Active Viewer Required
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Hollywood Objective Narration
• Characters
Words, Actions
• Clear Cause and
Effect
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Clip from Jurassic Park
• Narrative clearly
presents words,
actions
• No Subjectivity
• No Stylized Form
• Please stop the
lecture to watch a clip
from the Learning
Tasks page.
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Art Film Subjective Narration
• Shows Characters
Subjectivity
• Stylized Form
Expresses Character’s
Thoughts
• Direct Address in
Rashomon
• Each Character’s
Version of Crimes
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Art Film
• In contrast to Hollywood narrative,
an art film like Rashomon may
intentionally not have resolution or
closure.
• None of the flashbacks are privileged as
true.
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Why No Closure?
• The art film isn’t a story unless well
told. Rather, it operates with different
assumptions about the possibility of
solving the conflicts or answering the
questions it raises.
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Discussion Question
• As you watch Jurassic Park, consider
exactly what kinds of pleasure do we get
from the plot practicing delay--not moving
too quickly to resolution?
• After viewing the film: Post responses on
the eBoard to this question and the
comment of a colleague.
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Summary
• Narrative Structure
• Classical Hollywood Narrative Style
• How Jurassic Park (1993) exemplifies
Hollywood narrative style and how the
Japanese film Rashomon (1950)
illustrates art cinema narration.
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End of Lecture 2
Next Lecture: Mise-en-Scene
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