Narrative Theorists
Barthes
-Codes-Barthes
- Action- What is happening
- Symbolic- The symbolism found in what we see
- Enigma - The questions asked and the mystery what comes from being asked.
Levi Strauss
-Binary opposition-- Female- Male
- Hero- Villain
- Good- Evil
- Black- White
- Rich- Poor
Todorov
-Structure- Equilibrium
- Disruption of Equilibrium
- New Equilibrium
- Restoration of Equilibrium
Propp
- Different characters
- Types of role in the film
- Their personality
- E.g.- The Hero
- The Villian
- The Donner
- The Dispatcher
- The False Hero
- The Helper
- The Princess
- The King
The prestige
Barthes Narrative Theories shown through out the opening scene of the film the prestige
Enigma Code
- What has the narrator who is an old magician in connection to the big theater magic?
- What does the man rushing down the stairs know about the magician drowning in the tank?
- "Are you watching closely" What as a viewer should we be looking at?
Action Code
- Old Magician flattens bird cage.
- How the magician ends up in the tank full of water and is now now drowning because it is locked.
- The girl clapping because the bird reappeared.
Symbolic Code
- The old mans simple trick represents whats going on stage.
- The bird in the cage represents the man in the tank.
Another film we analysed was a Pixar film called jack attack
At the start of the movie ,a young girl is being interviewed. She seems to not be taking the situation seriously. The scene which happens after the interview is that same babysitter on the phone to the child's mother saying hows everything is going well. suggesting equilibrium, with the typical characters of the a misbehaving baby and a squeaky clean babysitter. But then mysterious thing start to happen in the scene, the baby keeps disappearing & strange things start, which suggests a destruction of the equilibrium.
The baby is not acting like a normal child of that age and is behaving extremely odd/badly for example when the babysitter shows a picture of a campfire to the baby, the baby decides to take upon himself to set himself a light. This would be an another destruction of the equilibrium. The babysitter frantically manages to put the baby out, restoring equilibrium but then quickly the movie cuts to a scene showing a destruction of the entire house.
Finally the babysitter who is looking very tired & distressed while holding the playful baby is then shown,this is an Propp which is stereotypical in all films. After the scene of the babysitter a stereotypical villain shows up at the door & the film ends and is left on a cliff hanger.
Another film i choose to analyse was the film Plastic.
At the start of this short movie a moth is flying around an apartment, when a typical aged women (propp) her wardrobe and try to put on clothes what clearly don't fit, her phone then starts to ring and she answers with a man asking her on a date. She then starts to blush while breaking her necklace because he has moved the date forwards. Now stressing she runs to the bathroom where she looks at a magazine while frantically opening a tub. This is the Equilibrium. Which she then proceeds to rub cream on her face. The cream then makes her face like clay which enables her to change it they way she wants, this sends her into shock , leading to an Disruption of Equilibrium.
The new equilibrium is that she now can make herself look exactly the way she wants, which she decides to have some fun before on going to make herself society view of perfect.Her date then turns up and she is looking nothing like herself when the month decides to come back in and fly up to a light, that is when the Restoration of Equilibrium happens because she decides to return to her normal state before answering the door to her date.
So overall the women desperately wants to fit into society but when the curve ball of when she is able to she realizes this keeps the audience watching to see what she will do and too find out how she will answer the door to her date and keep the audience to think what is going to happen next.