Mise En Scene In Sunset Blvd
Introduction :
The film of the series begins with the a man's body floating and face down in to the water. Joe's voice emerged "Probably it was five o'clock in the morning, the sun a big house on the Avenue came the murder. all the newspapers are headlining this case tomorrow morning, then you will find that tarnished movie star related on this case...... perhaps we should say the most famous star." "Sunset Blvd," release in 1950, the voice-over narration is still impressive. The boundaries of what life and death are blurred, and in particular the emotional feeling of suspense confusing to seize the audience's. This film use "dead" as the film's identity to explain the task, "Sunset Boulevard" does not dwell on the death of suspense and deep …show more content…
cracks, which is not a detective films or revenge film, but with a classic Hollywood narrative presented in a way Joe meet with Norma and Joe adventures self struggle. Until the end of the film Joe decided to leave Norma, Norma stubborn in her own self-esteem and love shot the wrong hands, the audience suddenly realized the murderer, in the climax of this farce came to an end, leaving a scene: Norma face her again long-awaited shot, only to let the audience infinite heartache, sighed with regret. This essay will focus on Bordwell & Thompson's 'Narrative as a Formal System', and the theory of Classical Hollywood Narrative. The essay will analysis how those theory working on the clip of Sunset Boulevard. This essay will choice the scene and analysis the narrative strategies are used in this clip , How these do strategies reflect a classical approach to film narrative, How they do create meaning for the audience and reflect larger themes in the film.
Body:
Bordwell & Thompson's 'Narrative as a Formal System
Bordwell said :"the stories surround up, such as short stories, novels, news, history, cartoon, film, drama, biography ,Religion, philosophy, and science, people present the idea and information by those way, people never fail to find much of our conversation is taken up with telling tales recalling a past event or telling a joke, and people always ask for an explanation of something, people may say, "What's the story ?" people even experience dreams as little narratives when they sleep(Bordwell ; Thompson, p.74)...
Principles of Narrative Construction
1.What is narrative? narrative is a chain of events in cause effect relationship occurring in short it is a basic rules that humans make sense of the everything(Bordwell ; Thompson, p.75).
2.Plot and story
There is the sample diagram can easily explain plot and story.
Story
Presumed and inferred events Explicitly present events added non diegetic material（music credits and prop of a film） Plot
• Plot: all story events that are straightly depict, either visibly or audibly present.
• Story: the set of events in a narrative, including both the explicitly presented and those views infer(Bordwell ; Thompson, p.76).
In clip story is Joe's car have a flat tire and pulling to Norma's house and met Norma upstairs. the story never complex, it always plain and straight.
The plot is about car chase, Joe try to get rid of it, it cause the flat tire. and Joe was mistaken for Taxidermist, then he have chance to talk to Norma and make her interesting in Joe.
The example people always mentioned is that: "the king died, the queen died" and "kingdom of the king is dead, and because of a broken heart and her died", the former is only emphasized the relationship between the time, while the latter stresses the cause and effect, so the causal relationship is to determine both the mark of distinction. Story like bone of human and the plot like the fresh of human, the story without plot are bored, but the plot without story will be empty and no meanings.
3.Time and space
Time:
There are three techniques : flashback flash-forward
Alternation of past and present
• Temporal order
• temporal duration
• temporal frequency
4.Causality:
There are two mine elements are coming to the forint, Characters and Natural events.
• Characters(visible. people with a body and traits, which are planned to play causal roles in the in general story)
• Natural events（disasters, for example） that may trigger and react to events
The films always present cause but withhold the story effects and others present effect but withhold the cause, the clip of "Sunset blvd" given the very strong effect of story, Joe think this is deserted house(Natural events), the story doesn't say the cause but people can imagine how Norma's life look like by the house, the butler and old car, audience and Joe should have same feeling, both of them don't met Norma yet, both of them don't know what happened yet, and the voice of narration were stop in that moment , both of them see the effect such as desolate and enigmatic, but they don't know the cause. those techniques connect events by means of cause and effect, make the audience strong curiosity （Cohen, A-L&Shavalian, E& Rube, M）.
Narration: the flow of story information
There have two point of Narration :
• 1. The way of distributing story information in order to achieve such specific effects as creating expectations or increase suspense
• 2. Moment-by-moment process that guides us in building the story out of the plot.
Monologue narrator implied view
Unrestricted narration (Omniscient narration) : viewers know more, see and hear more than any of the characters can
Restricted narration: the narration is restricted to what one character knows, so the views don’t see or hear anything that this character can’t see and hear(Bordwell ; Thompson）.
Monologue narration is often used to make satirical contrast past and present. Inevitably, this contrast implying that fate, Joe's monologue is more Objectivity which can concealing the information and create curiosity & surprise to audience(Bordwell ; Thompson).
Obviously the "Sunset Blvd" using the Unrestricted narration. According to Joe's narration, audience began to follow the unsuccessful Hollywood screenwriter back to life before he died six months ago. His plays not to be optimistic, his apartment is rented, his luxury car is collateral debt, and he did not know the money come from next meal; but from a good car, he was unable to live his fantasy is to have a big house with a swimming pool.
Most of audience and Joe, is a man, a group strive to win the comfortable life in middle class. Moreover, "the role of the novel, the narrator and the reader is clear separate, but the film, the audience recognized the camera, so often confused with the role of the narrator.
When audience agree with Joe in a "normal" vision to looked at Norma's life, a baby monkey coffin makes us shudder, audience and Joe Like unexpectedly slowly explore this old woman who living on sunset Boulevard .
Sound and picture(narrative film music)
Combination of sound and picture is the most important element to created the time and space in film, Under normal circumstances, paragraphs of sound is longer than a single lens, It provide greater possibilities on time and space, like sound of footstep or different kind of music are a sure presage of all that has since followed(Gorbman 1987).
According to the Book " Unheard melodies : narrative film music "Music and sound are important in the narrative cinema. In Sunset Blvd's clip violin is main background music it sound melodious, deep and loneliness. the wind music bring the fast rhythm of movie for example the part of racing. without the pictures audience even can knows what happened by listen to voice and music.
Conclusion
Film is the art walk between the real and imaginary images. It's a challenge the audience to interpret the image. people commented that "Sunset Blvd" are too ruthless because it breaking the image of Hollywood superstar who cover the hypothetical illusion of light and shadow. Hollywood never stop created the dream for ordinary man, but Joe tell the story, tell the ultimate fate of death and implies sadness and helplessness with Norma, gorgeous costumes and arrogant attitude became the mirror of our world, the Narrative as a Formal System are perfectly match with the scene of Sunset
Blvd.
Reference list
Bordwell,D & Thompson,K 2008,“ Film art : an introduction ,Narrative as a formal system”, Boston : McGraw Hill, P73-109
Cohen, A-L&Shavalian, E& Rube, M 2015, “The Power of the Picture: How Narrative Film Captures Attention and Disrupts Goal Pursuit”，PloS one, 2015, Vol.10(12), pp.e0144493
Gorbman, C 1987, Unheard melodies : narrative film music ,London : Bloomington : British Film Institute ; Indiana University Press,
The film of the series begins with the a man's body floating and face down in to the water. Joe's voice emerged "Probably it was five o'clock in the morning, the sun a big house on the Avenue came the murder. all the newspapers are headlining this case tomorrow morning, then you will find that tarnished movie star related on this case...... perhaps we should say the most famous star." "Sunset Blvd," release in 1950, the voice-over narration is still impressive. The boundaries of what life and death are blurred, and in particular the emotional feeling of suspense confusing to seize the audience's. This film use "dead" as the film's identity to explain the task, "Sunset Boulevard" does not dwell on the death of suspense and deep …show more content…
cracks, which is not a detective films or revenge film, but with a classic Hollywood narrative presented in a way Joe meet with Norma and Joe adventures self struggle. Until the end of the film Joe decided to leave Norma, Norma stubborn in her own self-esteem and love shot the wrong hands, the audience suddenly realized the murderer, in the climax of this farce came to an end, leaving a scene: Norma face her again long-awaited shot, only to let the audience infinite heartache, sighed with regret. This essay will focus on Bordwell & Thompson's 'Narrative as a Formal System', and the theory of Classical Hollywood Narrative. The essay will analysis how those theory working on the clip of Sunset Boulevard. This essay will choice the scene and analysis the narrative strategies are used in this clip , How these do strategies reflect a classical approach to film narrative, How they do create meaning for the audience and reflect larger themes in the film.
Body:
Bordwell & Thompson's 'Narrative as a Formal System
Bordwell said :"the stories surround up, such as short stories, novels, news, history, cartoon, film, drama, biography ,Religion, philosophy, and science, people present the idea and information by those way, people never fail to find much of our conversation is taken up with telling tales recalling a past event or telling a joke, and people always ask for an explanation of something, people may say, "What's the story ?" people even experience dreams as little narratives when they sleep(Bordwell ; Thompson, p.74)...
Principles of Narrative Construction
1.What is narrative? narrative is a chain of events in cause effect relationship occurring in short it is a basic rules that humans make sense of the everything(Bordwell ; Thompson, p.75).
2.Plot and story
There is the sample diagram can easily explain plot and story.
Story
Presumed and inferred events Explicitly present events added non diegetic material（music credits and prop of a film） Plot
• Plot: all story events that are straightly depict, either visibly or audibly present.
• Story: the set of events in a narrative, including both the explicitly presented and those views infer(Bordwell ; Thompson, p.76).
In clip story is Joe's car have a flat tire and pulling to Norma's house and met Norma upstairs. the story never complex, it always plain and straight.
The plot is about car chase, Joe try to get rid of it, it cause the flat tire. and Joe was mistaken for Taxidermist, then he have chance to talk to Norma and make her interesting in Joe.
The example people always mentioned is that: "the king died, the queen died" and "kingdom of the king is dead, and because of a broken heart and her died", the former is only emphasized the relationship between the time, while the latter stresses the cause and effect, so the causal relationship is to determine both the mark of distinction. Story like bone of human and the plot like the fresh of human, the story without plot are bored, but the plot without story will be empty and no meanings.
3.Time and space
Time:
There are three techniques : flashback flash-forward
Alternation of past and present
• Temporal order
• temporal duration
• temporal frequency
4.Causality:
There are two mine elements are coming to the forint, Characters and Natural events.
• Characters(visible. people with a body and traits, which are planned to play causal roles in the in general story)
• Natural events（disasters, for example） that may trigger and react to events
The films always present cause but withhold the story effects and others present effect but withhold the cause, the clip of "Sunset blvd" given the very strong effect of story, Joe think this is deserted house(Natural events), the story doesn't say the cause but people can imagine how Norma's life look like by the house, the butler and old car, audience and Joe should have same feeling, both of them don't met Norma yet, both of them don't know what happened yet, and the voice of narration were stop in that moment , both of them see the effect such as desolate and enigmatic, but they don't know the cause. those techniques connect events by means of cause and effect, make the audience strong curiosity （Cohen, A-L&Shavalian, E& Rube, M）.
Narration: the flow of story information
There have two point of Narration :
• 1. The way of distributing story information in order to achieve such specific effects as creating expectations or increase suspense
• 2. Moment-by-moment process that guides us in building the story out of the plot.
Monologue narrator implied view
Unrestricted narration (Omniscient narration) : viewers know more, see and hear more than any of the characters can
Restricted narration: the narration is restricted to what one character knows, so the views don’t see or hear anything that this character can’t see and hear(Bordwell ; Thompson）.
Monologue narration is often used to make satirical contrast past and present. Inevitably, this contrast implying that fate, Joe's monologue is more Objectivity which can concealing the information and create curiosity & surprise to audience(Bordwell ; Thompson).
Obviously the "Sunset Blvd" using the Unrestricted narration. According to Joe's narration, audience began to follow the unsuccessful Hollywood screenwriter back to life before he died six months ago. His plays not to be optimistic, his apartment is rented, his luxury car is collateral debt, and he did not know the money come from next meal; but from a good car, he was unable to live his fantasy is to have a big house with a swimming pool.
Most of audience and Joe, is a man, a group strive to win the comfortable life in middle class. Moreover, "the role of the novel, the narrator and the reader is clear separate, but the film, the audience recognized the camera, so often confused with the role of the narrator.
When audience agree with Joe in a "normal" vision to looked at Norma's life, a baby monkey coffin makes us shudder, audience and Joe Like unexpectedly slowly explore this old woman who living on sunset Boulevard .
Sound and picture(narrative film music)
Combination of sound and picture is the most important element to created the time and space in film, Under normal circumstances, paragraphs of sound is longer than a single lens, It provide greater possibilities on time and space, like sound of footstep or different kind of music are a sure presage of all that has since followed(Gorbman 1987).
According to the Book " Unheard melodies : narrative film music "Music and sound are important in the narrative cinema. In Sunset Blvd's clip violin is main background music it sound melodious, deep and loneliness. the wind music bring the fast rhythm of movie for example the part of racing. without the pictures audience even can knows what happened by listen to voice and music.
Conclusion
Film is the art walk between the real and imaginary images. It's a challenge the audience to interpret the image. people commented that "Sunset Blvd" are too ruthless because it breaking the image of Hollywood superstar who cover the hypothetical illusion of light and shadow. Hollywood never stop created the dream for ordinary man, but Joe tell the story, tell the ultimate fate of death and implies sadness and helplessness with Norma, gorgeous costumes and arrogant attitude became the mirror of our world, the Narrative as a Formal System are perfectly match with the scene of Sunset
Blvd.
Reference list
Bordwell,D & Thompson,K 2008,“ Film art : an introduction ,Narrative as a formal system”, Boston : McGraw Hill, P73-109
Cohen, A-L&Shavalian, E& Rube, M 2015, “The Power of the Picture: How Narrative Film Captures Attention and Disrupts Goal Pursuit”，PloS one, 2015, Vol.10(12), pp.e0144493
Gorbman, C 1987, Unheard melodies : narrative film music ,London : Bloomington : British Film Institute ; Indiana University Press,