Narrative: Tzvetan Todorov

The following essay is on two films, rather than a student's own work. However, the way in which Todorov's theories are applied will give you a good indication of how you should look at your own products:
A critical comparison of the narrative structure of "Star Wars" and "Un Chien Andalou"
Contributed by David Watts (12/01)

A narrative structure is what the audience follows when they watch a film. It helps them to understand the content of a film and comprehend the meanings intended by the filmmaker. Tzvetan Todorov formed the theory of the 'Classic Hollywood narrative'. He believed that a narrative came in three stages, opening with a form of equilibrium, thus getting disrupted and then the equilibrium later getting regained and either a new or the opening equilibrium is returned. This theory relates to many of Hollywood's mainstream cinema releases to date. George Lucas's 'Star wars a new hope' (1977) is a good example of this theory.

The audience identifies with 'Luke Skywalker's' narrative as he is the films central character and the audience is made to focus and sympathise with him. Luke's narrative opens with him in a state of equilibrium; he helps his Uncle and Auntie work on their farm. Then 'R2 D2' and 'C3P0' are introduced to the narrative and Luke Skywalker accidentally comes across the message from 'Princess Leia' that was installed in R2D2. This automatically puts Luke in a form of disequilibria. His narrative has been disrupted and the audience is encouraged to follow his sequence of events further as they gain interest in his situation. When the film ends, Luke has regained a new state of equilibrium. Regarding that of the sequel, 'Star Wars the empire strikes back', 'Star wars a new hope' is given a closed narrative of sorts and the audience are left feeling satisfied with the films narrative structure, they are given a sense of closure.

'Star wars a New Hope' has a linear narrative form, in which the film overall narrative goes straight from beginning to the end in a chronological order. The sequences of events are all related to each other via the use of cause and effect. Luke would never have found Princess Leia's message if it wasn't for him choosing to buy R2D2 over the other droids. This event took place and it then caused the effect of Luke going in search of 'Obi Wan Kenobi'. This then further caused many other effects to take place in the narrative such as the encounter with 'Han Solo'. This contrasts highly to that of Salvador Dali and Luis Buneul's 'Un chien Andalou' (1928).

The sequence of events in this short film all occur one after another, each holding no relationship to each other and not presenting a definitive cause and effect structure in the narrative. The film opens with a man sharpening a razor blade; this is placed next to shots of a woman having her eye widened. Then, as the man looks up to see the full moon get cut across by that of a dark cloud, a graphic match is used to represent the classic shocking imagery of the woman getting her eye slit open with the razor blade. This then cuts straight to the title screen of '8 years later'.


The two shots bare little relationship to each other, as the film progresses it becomes clear that 'Un chien andalou' does not appear to have a narrative that can be visibly read by the audience. There is no central character that presents the audience with a storyline to follow or gain interest in. All sequence of events appear random to each other, the woman whose eye is slit open is later seen in the film yet is not physically scarred. There is no explanation given or reference made back to the opening prologue. The man with the razor blade is never seen again throughout the rest of 'Un chien andalou' also. This proposes questions such as who is the man? Where is he? When is he? Did he just imagine a woman getting her eye slit open or did it really happen? If so, then why? All unanswered enigmas that are never exposed, thus going against Todorovs theory of the Classical Hollywood narrative.

All these plot sequences in the film are juxtaposed together though to create a dream like representation which is what Luis Buneal and Salvador Dali intended. The film was deliberately made to not give 'Any idea or image that might lend a rational explanation of any kind…" 'Star wars a new hope' varies to this as George Lucas's science fiction classic runs in a chronological order in sense of time and space. The audience is represented with a vague idea of where the narrative is placed and when, the entire sequence of events happens in a logical order. This manipulation of time and space differs in 'Un chien andalou'. For, 'Un chien andalou' is not given a specific time nor space to be set in. The title screen tells us that one plot sequence takes place '8 years later' to the other one yet the audience is not given an opening set time to begin with anyhow. Where is the following sequence of events 8 years from? This is, along with a number of other enigmas in 'Un chien andalou's' narrative, never revealed to the audience. All the information given is that certain events have happened 8 years later, at 3 in the morning, 16 years ago and in Spring. Yet none of these events resemble any linkage to each other, so still, no sense can be made from this narrative structure's sequence of events. This differs to 'Star wars a New Hope' as 'Un chien andalou' does not give the audience a clear sense of closure in the narrative. It is left open for continuity. Due to this approach the film goes against the Classical Hollywood narrative, there is no equilibrium that is disrupted to later regain a new equilibrium.

It goes against Todorovs theory and Vladimir Propp's theory, which stated that a film contains the same type of characters who perform the same function in the narrative. For example, this applies to 'Star wars a New Hope' as Luke acts as the narratives 'Hero'. Han Solo acts as 'The helper', he aids Luke. Obi Wan Kenobi acts as 'The donor' as he gives Luke his father's lightsaber, Darth Vador acts as 'The villian'. Many characters in 'Star wars a New Hope' apply to Propps theory and give important parts in the narrative structure.

Both films take radical different approaches to their narrative structure. 'Star wars a New Hope' follows all the conventions of theories by both Todorov and Propp and has a linear narrative. Its structure is simple and can be easily read. The film also features conventions of the science fiction genre that makes the film possible to categorize. These comparisons all contrast strongly to 'Un chien andalou'. The film goes against the manipulation of theories such as the Classical Hollywood and Propps character type functions. 'Un chien andalou' visually gives the audience a lot of information to read yet little narrative to follow in the plot. These make it increasingly difficult to categorize the film too as it holds no specific genre conventions to run by.

Bibliography


Studying film book
Nathan Abrams, Ian Bell and Jan Udris
Un chien andalou website
http://www.lib.berleley.edu/MRC/bunuel6.html
Un chien andalou website
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/12.cteq/chien.html