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July 2003, Week 4

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Subject:
From:
Lang Thompson <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 24 Jul 2003 22:44:20 -0400
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>eyes."  The director does not mean this comment literally (the film
>employs point of view shots only sparingly), but rather, the director
>seems to imply that the experience of the story is filtered through the
>consciousness of this marginally involved character, who is frequently
>shown watching and reacting silently to the events of the narrative.


I've never heard of a term for this but the approach is used sometimes in
literature.  Perhaps the best-known may be Jean Rhys' Wide Saragasso Sea
focuses on an otherwise barely glimpsed (but not minor) character from Jane
Eyre (the events of which are witnessed in another odd way in Jasper
Fforde's wild The Eyre Affair).  There's also Valerie Martin's Mary Reilly
(Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde from a housemaid's view, filmed by Stephen Frears),
Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (which may be one of the
films you're discussing), Gregory Maguire's Wicked (about the Wicked Witch
of the West and much much better than you'd expect), Kurt Busiek and Alex
Ross's Marvels (events of classic Marvel comics as witnessed by an everyday
journalist).  There's even a nice episode of Babylon 5 about two
maintenance men who see bits and pieces of the "major" events.

Lang

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