Are You Watching Closely?
The Prestige as a Prominent Example of the Power of Non-Linear Narrative
Many prominent non-linear films disguise what is essentially a linear plot, where two time frames progress chronologically. As a result, non-linear films can still exhibit many tropes of the classical Hollywood narrative. Much of director and auteur Christopher Nolan’s filmography, while non-linear, does not necessarily conform as such; The Prestige, a tale of competing 19th century magicians, is told non-chronologically through three time periods via the journals of said magicians. The Prestige benefits from the non-linear narrative, and many key plot twists, including much of the third act, would be lessened in significance if they were instead
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Leading into the scene, the audience has witnessed both Borden and Angier commit acts of sabotage against one another, first in retaliation, and then in competition; immediately before the given scene, Angier can be seen donning makeup and prosthetics, presumably in preparation for a further act of sabotage. As the scene begins, Borden is seen in a wide shot atop an inexpensive stage performing unexciting tricks, looked upon by some audience members, though many seats remain empty. The following shot is a medium shot from behind Borden on stage, confirming the very small audience, while showing Angier, in costume, make his way to an empty seat. The orchestral soundtrack is a quiet droning suspended chord, sounding ominous, as if the scene bears significance. From Angier’s point of view, Borden begins a new trick, with a rubber ball in his hand. The scene intercuts to a medium shot of Angier seated in his workshop, after the performance, removing his fake beard, and relaying what he saw to his assistant, Olivia. The shot zooms slowly on Angier, who appears astonished still, while the orchestral drone slowly increases in volume. He tells Olivia that Borden performed a new magic trick. Cutting back to the performance, a wide shot of the stage shows Borden approach and open a door to a tall box on one side of the stage, and then approach and open an identical box on the opposite side. Cutting back to Angier’s workshop, Olivia asks if the trick was good; the shot continues to zoom into a close up of Angier’s face, as he relays that it was the greatest magic trick he’d ever seen. The music begins to swell. Finally, cutting back to Borden’s illusion, a wide shot shows him stand in front of one open box. All non-diegetic sound cuts suddenly. Borden bounces
This pleasant outlook is often in stark contrast to what is being said. What I did next is to watch the scene several times without sound, to try and pick up the visual points in the scene. The first shot struck me as an ominous one; it is of the camera pointing. directly into the cutting blades of a large cutting machine, which is. moving towards the camera.
...s when it cuts Richie’s forearm skin. The use of diegetic sound allows the viewer to feel as if this montage is going through Richie’s head as he cuts himself. As Richie is standing in front of the mirror we see things from his point of view and we understand his reality at the moment. The rapidly edited montage of memories is analogous to the immediacy of his actions.
A joyous celebration of the sanctity of life is generated through the element of Mood and atmosphere. The clip begins with a soft orchestration of piano and violin, creating a magical melody. The choice of melody creates the mood and atmosphere that influences the audience to feel joyous from the outset. The use of lighting adds dramatic effect to the mood and atmosphere of this scene; a warm yellow beam of light streams out of the barn, cutting through the dark and rainy morning, which
Initially the audience is witness to how particular sound techniques shape this film. For instance, one of the main details that the audience hears is the song that the murderer whistles. Due to the marvel of sound the audience can pick out that the whistling is related to the murderer. Along with the blind man who figured this mystery out, the audience could only put these two together with this sound technique. The director shows the audience how such a simple part of every day sound can be so important to solving such a terrible crime.
Enhancing the sustained fright of this film are an excellent cast, from which the director coaxes extraordinary performances, and Bernard Herrmann's chilling score. Especially effective is the composer's so-called "murder music," high-pitched screeching sounds that flash across the viewer's consciousness as quickly as the killer's deadly knife. Bernard Herrmann achieved this effect by having a group of violinists frantically saw the same notes over and over again.
A set of practices concerning the narrative structure compose the classical Hollywood Paradigm. These conventions create a plot centering around a character who undergoes a journey in an attempt to achieve some type of goal (). By giving the central character more time on screen, the film helps the audience to not only understand the character’s motivation but also empathize with his/her emotional state. Additionally, some antagonistic force creates conflict with the main character, preventing immediate success(). Finally, after confronting the antagonist, the main character achieves his or her goal along with growing emotionally(). This proven structure creates a linear and relatively easily followed series of events encompassing the leading character and a goal.
Non-linear storytelling is the structure of a film in which time is presented. This means that the film can start at the beginning or the ending. The first film cited as an experiment of non-linear storytelling was Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956). The structure that Kubrick based the film was from Lionel White's novel Clean Break. As Kubrick's film was nearly meant to be a test, it wasn't until Quentin Tarantino whom with the release of Pulp Fiction (1994) raised the popularity of non-linear storytelling in the twentieth century (LoBrutto 2012). So non-linear storytelling is fairly ne...
A great example of this would be the film Breathless, directed by Godard. This is a story of the love between a small-time crook who is wanted for killing a cop, and an American woman who works for a French newspaper. Their relationship develops as the man hides out from the police. Breathless uses the famous techniques of the French New Wave: location shooting, improvised dialogue, and a loose narrative form. Godard also uses cuts that seem, to jump from one scene to another, with what seem to be deliberate \"mismatches\" between shots. This is what makes this movie so special. It could never have been made before it had been. It was made in the post worlds War II era in the year 1959. The plot and subjects reflect this, because there really is no major plot except for the one that I have already described. This was a revolutionary movie in that aspect. This movie was made in France, partly because that was where it was set, but mainly because that is where the new director could afford to make such a makeshift movie.
As an audience we are manipulated from the moment a film begins. In this essay I wish to explore how The Conversation’s use of sound design has directly controlled our perceptions and emotional responses as well as how it can change the meaning of the image. I would also like to discover how the soundtrack guides the audience’s attention with the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds.
According to historians like Neil Burch, the primitive period of the film industry, at the turn of the 20th century was making films that appealed to their audiences due to the simple story. A non-fiction narrative, single shots a burgeoning sense
Christopher Nolan, the british-american director of the critically acclaimed “Momento” and the most recent “Batman” movies has a fearless mentality for the complicated plots and epic themes which his films bestow. And one of his most epic new thrillers and astonishing new story is his 2010, “Inception.” Over ten years, Nolan had contemplated the idea of a movie around the dream world where action scenes could be manipulated and redoubled continuously. And that time of sitting on the idea led Nolan to dig much deeper into the idea that though before, diving into the realm of dreams within dreams and tiered action within each dream level as they go deeper into the subconscious. In Christopher Nolan’s “Inception,” the main character Cobb remarks, “The mind creates and perceives our world. It does it so well, we don’t realize that we’re doing it.” To tell a story about a man washed up on the shore of his own subconscious, Nolan captivates audiences by propelling them along his non-traditional narratives full of complex themes and intricate story lines. He blurs the lines of reality and dream through parallel editing, set design and architecture. As a result the audience believes whole heartedly the repeated notion that “downward is the only way forward.”
Inception remains one of the most complex and deeply engaging narratives of this century. By defying traditional filmmaking, Nolan crafts a stunning cinema masterpiece that plays with the human subconscious. Equally, he provides audiences with the question of whether their reality is true, or perhaps the world they know is a dream. Paralleling the film’s ambiguous ending, the line between reality and the dream world is blurred due to the exceptional strategies Nolan and his team utilize. Mise-en-scéne elements of setting, brilliant cinematography, and profound editing techniques institute the film’s prevailing narrative form and motifs. Many film directors manipulate the concept of fantasy versus reality, but instead of providing a mundane exposition, fantasy becomes the new reality in Inception.
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...
This paired with the camera switching from a close up of Bruce to a close up of the people at the bottom, accentuates the scene for everybody. When the music and chanting finally hit there climaxes they die out instantly producing an immense amount of suspense while he makes the jump. The music returns when Bruce stands up and it slowly decays as he finally sees the light. This musical aspect paints a fallacious image of hope and perfection while he becomes a hero that everybody wants, but close-ups create a collage of truth and imperfection that define the hero that everybody wants on the
e.g. The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, US, 1903) • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari uses a flashback device, arguably first film to do this, revolutionary non-linear narrative format, important to know in terms of audience reading of text as it has become an overused narrative structure in contemporary cinema. -“…it’s surprise ending on the other hand still echoes in contemporary films” The Cinema Book (pg.