in response to my admittedly provocative assertion that films can't be/have

first person narratives [at least not first person narratives about a diegetic

character] molly olsen asks:

 

>   . . . what about a film like GOODFELLAS or any documentary

>  film where the filmmaker is also the narrator (i.e. SHERMAN'S

>  MARCH) -- are these not "first person texts"?

 

 

it's a good question . . . i'm not prepared even to try to answer the part

about documentaries, about which i've thought much too little [and to sloppily]

to have anything useful to say -- perhaps there indeed are first person

narratives in documentary film [although i would guess that in these films

the film-maker/narrator is not also the subject . . . but perhaps i'm wrong

about that]

 

in any case i was talking [or meant to be talking] about "fiction" films and i

think GOODFELLAS is a good example of what i mean . . . for it seems to me that

GOODFELLAS is far from a first person narrative . . .it's not only because

 

>   you could argue that, for instance, because the camera

>   is pointed at Henry Hill several times in GOODFELLAS, we

>   are not seeing the action through his eyes . . .

 

although that is at least part of it  . . . it's more that as i watch the

action of the movie i'm NOT constantly aware that what i'm seeing is

essentially a picture of henry's mind [what bruce kawin calls a

"mind-screen"] . . . instead what i register is that i'm seeing a transcription

of the "real world" [the fictional diegetic real world, of course] and that i'm

invited to consider how this world imposes itself on henry's life . . .

 

to some extent first person novel are ALWAYS and primarily about their

narrator and only indirectly [or instrumentally] about the world she describes

. . . while in film, the world being depicted is just too much with us . . .

the camera is always showing us "stuff," while the novel is inescapably

giving us nothing but words

 

mike frank

 

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Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the 

University of Alabama.