In the sense of the discussion on diegesis, the Dardennes' ``Le Fils (The Son)'' is a radically diegetic film, where virtually everything that is at issue in the film is on screen, occuring to the characters, and in extended patches of real time. Of course, the dramatic tragedy endured by Olivier and his ex-wife years before the film's present-day action is an off-screen, ``backstory'' event--non-diegetic. But it is in a very real way revived on screen, and psychologically re-lived by Olivier in the present, and in front of the camera. This is an essential key to the overwhelming power and resonance of ``Le Fils.''
Robert Koehler
----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">Mike Frank
To: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2003 7:08 AM
Subject: Re: what is diegesis?


hans is, of course, right on target in pointing out the viewer's
[or reader's] role in constructing the diegesis . . . and this is a
point of enormous significance to some narratological issues
 . . . simple example: the narration [images on screen] shows
the protagonist getting into his car in front of his home then --
through the narration device of the dissolve -- shows him
getting out of his car in front of police headquarters . . . we
automatically posit a journey from one to the other and
attribute certain characteristics to this journey

curiously, this means there are things that we actually
experience IN the text that are NOT part of the diegesis
[background music is the classic example] and things that
we do NOT experience in the text that ARE part of the
diegesis

still, none of this changes the definition of diegesis, which
remains everything in the depicted world that may in principle
be experienced by the characters

m

==================================


Hans Heydebreck <[log in to unmask]>
Sent by: Film-Philosophy Salon <[log in to unmask]>

05/09/2003 03:24 AM
Please respond to Film-Philosophy Salon

       
        To:        [log in to unmask]
        cc:        (bcc: Michael Frank/Faculty/Bentley)
        Subject:        Re: what is diegesis?



--- Mike Frank <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> in narratology "diegesis" is what happens IN the
> world
> of characters -- the stuff within the fiction -- as
> distinct
> from "narration" which is everything that serves as
> a tool
> to create and communicate that stuff

It might be helpful to understand diegesis not (only)
as the depicted world, but as the world the reader /
audience constructs from the material provided by the
narration. So the diegetic world is the result of
"filling in blanks" and re-arranging the order of time
to his experience (that time is linear).



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