This whole issue is extremely problematic because it
assumes that there are two easily defined categories of narration--reliable and
unreliable. This distinction, if one were to deconstruct it, assumes that
reliability depends on veracity, on the validity of some facts, while things can
be assumed to be unreliable if the facts prove wrong. But how reliable is any
scene or even shot in a film. What if the music contradicts the tone of the
image--the music is happy and bouncy while the image is that of a depressed
tired man. Does that mean that the music is mocking the character, that
some narrative-consciousness is forcing us through some image-sound montage
contrast to disregard the pain of the character? Which is the reliable fact
here--that the man is sad or that his sdaness is not genuine, mocked by the
narrator.
The choice of any shot,
which then leaves out alternative shots or angles, renders the image unreliable.
The choice of shots, close-ups, camera movements, are all made by an external
controling narrator, one that wants us to see the story in a particular way,
that shapes our understanding of events, that moves the camera or skips across
time. It seems then that all narration is essentially, by its very nature,
by the very fact that some facts are included while others are not, all facts
are unreliable.
It seems that there is really
no way of assessing the reliability of shot, image or sequence.
Reliability is a very unreliable concept.
Ron
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003 2:07
PM
Subject: Re: Unreliable Narrators in Film
. . . ooops
>>We were deceived into
believing that Marian was the central character,
right . . . if there is any unreliable narration in
the film, that's where it occurs
>>but after her death, no character can be positioned in the
center again.
i'm not sure
why not
>>So does Norman take
center stage?
perhaps . .
. and many critics see norman as the hero [not
merely the protagonist] of the film . . . the moral complexity
that
makes hitchcock so fascinating shows
itself here . . but though
this is a good question it doesn't bear at all on the very
different matter of unreliable
narration
