WJECAS Film Studies Stuart Grenville-Price
The Effect of the Narrator A story’s effect is always influenced by the person who is telling it. In a film, there is often an all-seeing but anonymous narrator that the audience is not consciously aware of. A narrator like this, who you may think of as the scriptwriter or director, is outside the story looking in, can show events from different perspectives, and can penetrate into a character’s mind. Alternatively, the narrator can be within the story itself. Narrators within plots are found in many film noirs, especially those based on the novels of Raymond Chandler. Notable among these are Farewell My Lovely, in which the narrator is the world-weary detective Marlowe (played by Robert Mitchum in the 1975version of the tale), and Double Indemnity, scripted by Chandler but based on JamesM Cain’s hard-boiled classic, in which the narrator is a dying insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) who has been caught out by his own greed and lust for femme fatale par excellence Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck). Narrators like these are less knowledgeable and powerful than the omniscient narrator, but their stories can be more emotional and personal. Unreliable narrators can be found in films as varied as Little Big Man and Sunset Boulevard. In the former, Dustin Hoffman plays a compulsive liar who may or may not have been present at some of the great moments in American History. In the latter, the narrator is looking back on events from beyond the grave: the opening shows William Holden’s character dead in a swimming pool. A narrator’s story may be coloured by the distance in time between the event and the telling, becoming more nostalgic and reflective with distance, and more urgent and immediate with proximity.