Narrative film

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Narrative film, fictional film or fiction film is a motion picture that tells a fictional or fictionalized story, event or narrative. Commercial narrative films with running times of over an hour are often referred to as feature films, or feature-length films. The earliest narrative films, around the turn of the 20th century, were essentially filmed stage plays and for the first three or four decades these commercial productions drew heavily upon the centuries-old theatrical tradition.

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In this style of film, believable narratives and characters help convince the audience that the unfolding fiction is real. Lighting and camera movement, among other cinematic elements, have become increasingly important in these films. [1] Great detail goes into the screenplays of narratives, as these films rarely deviate from the predetermined behaviours and lines of the classical style of screenplay writing to maintain a sense of realism. Actors must deliver dialogue and action in a believable way, so as to persuade the audience that the film is real life.

General

Probably the first fictional film ever made was the Lumière's L'Arroseur arrosé , which was first screened at the Grand Café Capucines on December 28, 1895. [2] A year later in 1896, Alice Guy-Blaché directed the fictional film La Fée aux Choux . Perhaps the best known of early fictional films is Georges Méliès’s A Trip to the Moon from 1902. [3] Most films previous to this had been merely moving images of everyday occurrences, such as L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat by Auguste and Louis Lumière. Méliès was one of the first directors to progress cinematic technology, which paved the way for narratives as style of film. [4] Narrative films have come so far since their introduction that film genres such as comedy or Western films, were, and continue to be introduced as a way to further categorize these films. [5]

Narrative cinema is usually contrasted to films that present information, such as a nature documentary, as well as to some experimental films (works such as Wavelength by Michael Snow, Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov, or films by Chantal Akerman). In some instances pure documentary films, while nonfiction, may nonetheless recount a story. As genres evolve, from fiction film and documentary a hybrid one emerged, docufiction.

Many films are based on real occurrences, however these too fall under the category of a “narrative film” rather than a documentary. This is because films based on real occurrences are not simply footage of the occurrence, but rather hired actors portraying an adjusted, often more dramatic, retelling of the occurrence (such as 21 by Robert Luketic). [5]

Unlike literary fiction, which is typically based on characters, situations and events that are entirely imaginary/fictional/hypothetical, cinema always has a real referent, called the "pro-filmic", which encompasses everything existing and done in front of the camera.

Since the emergence of classical Hollywood style in the early 20th century, during which films were selected to be made based on the popularity of the genre, stars, producers, and directors involved, narrative, usually in the form of the feature film, has held dominance in commercial cinema and has become popularly synonymous with "the movies." [6] Classical, invisible film making (what is often called realist fiction) is central to this popular definition. This key element of this invisible film making lies in continuity editing.

See also

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<i>A Trip to the Moon</i> 1902 French short film by Georges Méliès

A Trip to the Moon is a 1902 French science-fiction adventure trick film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon and its 1870 sequel Around the Moon, the film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore the moon's surface, escape from an underground group of Selenites, and return to earth with a captive Selenite. Méliès leads an ensemble cast of French theatrical performers as the main character Professor Barbenfouillis.

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Alice Ida Antoinette Guy-Blaché was a French pioneer film director. She was one of the first filmmakers to make a narrative fiction film, as well as the first woman to direct a film. From 1896 to 1906, she was probably the only female filmmaker in the world. She experimented with Gaumont's Chronophone sync-sound system, and with color-tinting, interracial casting, and special effects.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georges Méliès in culture</span>

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Women's suffrage, the legal right of women to vote, has been depicted in film in a variety of ways since the invention of narrative film in the late nineteenth century. Some early films satirized and mocked suffragists and Suffragettes as "unwomanly" "man-haters," or sensationalized documentary footage. Suffragists countered these depictions by releasing narrative films and newsreels that argued for their cause. After women won the vote in countries with a national cinema, women's suffrage became a historical event depicted in both fiction and nonfiction films.

References

  1. Brown, Blain, Lighting as story telling, Cinematography: Theory & Practice, Focal Press(2002)
  2. Alison McMahan, Alice Guy Blaché, Lost Visionary of the Cinema (New York: Continuum, 2002) p. 13.
  3. Rosalind Leveridge, “Fantastic voyages of the cinematic imagination: George Méliès’s Trip to the Moon” Early Popular Visual Culture (May 2012), 10 (2), pg. 197-199
  4. Rosalind Leveridge, “Fantastic voyages of the cinematic imagination: George Méliès’s Trip to the Moon” Early Popular Visual Culture (May 2012), 10 (2), pg. 197-199
  5. 1 2 Barsam, Richard Meran and Dave Monahan. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010
  6. Kaplan, E. Ann. Women and Film: Both Sides of the Camera. New York: Methuen, 1988