Narration in the fiction film: Perspective and Point of view in selected sequences of the movie Twelve Monkeys

Narration in the fiction film - Perspective and Point Of View in selected sequences of the Movie Twelve Monkeys

In this essay I want to discuss the perspective and Piont of view in fiction film. For this genre it is important to make up a new terminology and categorization for the borders between “who sees” and “who talks” vanish in film. I also have to include film- specific media like Camera, sound and setting to this discussion. For this reason the classic theories by Bal, Genette or Rimmon- Kenan can only be used as background-information and - knowledge. This essay will talk about two different scenes of the fictional movie “Twelve Monkeys” by XXX. I will use both old and new terms and theories to make clear the advantages and disadvantages of the interpretation and categorization of the fiction film.

First scene - 1990

First I want to talk about the scene where Cole and Railly meet for the first time. In that sequece Catherine Railly walks down a hallway in a prison, a policeman at her side. As they reach the cell where James Cole is sitting on the floor, they find him tied on hands and feet. Catherine goes into the cell to talk to him, askes him some questions about him and where he comes from, also wants to know what year it is and wheather this is present or future.

To make the spectators feel the scene, to get them into it, and to let them know where the location actually is, the first part of this scene shows the perspective of the prisoners, also it is their point of view. The camera is located near to the floor where most of the people are sitting. The cells are very crowded, it is dark, only some pale light comes in from a window behind the prisoners. This light symbolizes the “good” world, that is outside of the prison and has not much influence on life inside. Most of the men in the cells look insane or at least full with drugs. The spectator sees the prison through the eyes of the prisoners, feels the cold and smells the ugly smell of the other people. It is not a perception through the eyes of the prisoners, but our focus is limited to the consciousness of the men. Space in this scene is constructed mostly by sound: we hear Railly and the policeman talk in the foreground, the prisoners shouts and noises are softer in the background. Very obvious is also how the space is edited - although we don’t see a wall behind the camera, we know that there is one, and with this knowledge we create a threedimensional scene.

After the sequence with the prisoners, Catherine and the policeman walk straight toward Cole’s cell. As they walk, the camera is located almost at the height of their heads. We see both their faces, the background noises vanish. The spectator is forced to listen exactly to their words while the are marching in the cameras direction. That is because the conversation is now very important for the story. The camera represents an invisible observer, the lense is the spectators eye.

Now Railly stands in front of a door. She looks through a little window in it and sees Cole for the first time, still talking to the cop. It is now her point of view, but it changes between internal and external focalization. From behind the little window we see light, it is warm and shiny but also very small. This is the moment where Catherine and James meet. The light is a metaphor for the love between them and the hope this relationship brings. After a moment they walk into the room behind the door and Catherine goes into the cell.

James Cole is focalized and focalizing. Railly sits down on the floor to communicate with James. The whole cell is dark and dirty, only on Cole the warm light still shines. This is first of all again the metaphor but also creates space: Lighter and warmer colors seem to be closer than cold ones. That lets Cole seem to be closer to the spectator than Railly.

At the beginning of ther conversation the camera is again the invisible observer, then the focalization is seen from within on both Railly and Cole. The camera switches back and forth while they are talking. We don’t see through his eyes at all, the perspective is a look over Cole’s shoulder to see Railly, but when the focus is on Cole, we see through Catherine’s eyes. He is in an inferior position. Sometimes also the camera jumps behind the cell - sees the scene external. There we loose the contact to the characters, feelings are not so obvious anymore.

Second scene - 1990

The next scene I want to discuss is the one where the Psychiatrists including Catherine Railly make a parsonality-check on James Cole to make sure if he has to stay in the Psychiatry.

In the first part of this sequence the camera goes a circle around the big room where the examination takes place. The camera is the invisible observer. The people seem to be far away from the camera, because the light from their backs makes them look indistinct and unreal. When James jumps up from his chair, the camera makes an over-shoulder shot from the psychiatrists. They are focalizing, but Cole is focalized. Than the guards stop Cole from going farther towards the Doctors.

For a short moment we see Catherine, and although this is an External focalization, we see what she feels, she is focalized from within. In this shot we notice for the first time that her green cardigan stands in contrast toeverything else being white and shiny in this room. The green symbolizes hope. Hope for Cole because she is the one who will later help and understand him. Hope for herself because she will be freed and loved by Cole. After that we also see the head of the group for a moment. He is focalized in the same way as she was before.

When Cole draws the sign of the Twelve Monkeys at the doctor’s desk we again have an invisible observer, who seems to stand right next to one of the guards behind James. It is much like an over-shoulder shot, but we don`t perceive what Cole feels or thinks. We see all of the psychiatrists behind the desk. The camera makes a cut and appears to look into Cole’s face from a little bit above him. He is now sitting in the chair again, which is much closer to the men in front of him this time. James tries to tell

the whole story about the virus and the future. The psychiatrists ask him questions - Cole answers. While this happens, the camera switches its shots between James and the group. The schene is zero-focalized, where Cole is seen through the Psychiatrists eyes and they are seen from the outside of the story. The reason why it was filmed like that is, that Cole is not reliable for the other people in the room. They think of him as a mentally disturbed person and for that he is inferior to them.

In the conversation Cole can persuade the doctors to let him make the phonecall to the voicemail from the future. For this phonecall the whole sequence of the movie is interrupted by a small scene where the lady that Cole is actually calling is shown. I won’t talk about it in this text because it is not directly related to the perspective or point of view in the described scene.

After the phonecall we see Cole and Railly in the foreground, the psychatrists far away in the background. Inbetween of both are the guards. Cole and Railly talk about the phonecall, we see them both together in one picture, they are shown from under their faces by an omniscient narrator.

To conclude, it can be said that the fiction film is undervalued by many critics. If you watch feature films closely you find many symbols and metaphors. You find complex structures which, as well as in prose, are worth analysing it. I should add that interpretation of fiction film is very complicated because of a lack of terminology. It is difficult to make the classical terms fit the new genre film. That is because film has more dimensions than literature. Analysing a film one has to deal with music, camera, light and many other new categories. In this essay I tried to combine new and old terms and topics to show that it is even possible to discuss a Hollywood-movie that, on first sight, might appear as an interesting, but not very deep film. What film needs now is just a fitting language that all critics can agree on and work with.

Bibliography

Bal, Mieke. Narratology. Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997

Bordwell, David. Narration in the Fiction Film. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985.

Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Genette, Gérard. Die Erz ä hlung. München: Fink, 1994.

Martinez, Mathias, and Michael Scheffel. Einf ü hrung in Die Erz ä hltheorie. München: Beck, 1999.

Rimmon-Kenan, Shlomith. Narrative Fiction - Contemporary Poetics. London: Routledge, 1989.

Stanzel, Franz K. Theorie Des Erz ä hlens. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1982.