9. Classical Narration The Hollywood Example In fictional filmmaking, one mode of narration has achieved predominance. Whether we call it mainstream, dominant, or classical cinema, we intuitively recognize an ordinär}', easily comprehensible movie when we see it. Our survey of narrational modes can properly start with this classical tradition, since it relies on the strongest schemata and the most prevalent extrinsic norms. Our example will be the most historically influential classicism: Hollywood studio filmmaking of the years 1917 to i960. The concepts developed so far in this book allow us to analyze classical Hollywood narration with considerable precision. We do not need to fall back on cliches like "transparency," "seamlessness," "invisibility," "concealment of production," or "discours posing as histoire." We can define classical narration as a particular configurationof normal-ize^_op_tjpps for representing the fabula and for manipulating the possibilities of syuzhet and style. This approach will also enable us to suggest a more dynamic account of the spectator's role.1 i: !"■ á íode of mance. . domi- ehensi- art with e most uentiaJ jncepts jn with .rency," •sing as íormal- Jities of vnamic ft«"'—i'. M ~jU CtJ' .' 4 .-----------/ -' ' -JE« ' ■i- Canonic Narration '' ' The classical Hollywood film presents psychologically de-■ ?*" *-''^ '^'H- fined individuals who struggle to solve a clear-cut problem or to attain specific goals. In the course of this struggle, the characters enter into conflict.\vith others or with external circumstances. The story ends with a decisive victory or defeat, a resolution of the problem and a clear achievement or nonachtevement of the goals. The principal causal agency is thus the character, a discriminated individual endowed with a consistent batch of evident traits, quaiitiesJ_and behaviors. Although the cinema inherits many conventions of portrayal from theater and literature, the character types of melodrama and popular fiction get fleshed out by the addition of unique motifs, habits, or behavioral tics. In parallel fashion, the ^tar system has as one of its functions the creation of a rough character prototype for each star vyiiichjs then adjusted to the particular needs__ofthe role, The most "specified" character is usually the protagonist, who becomes the principal causal agent, the target of any narra-tional restriction, and the chief object of audience identification. These features of the syuzhet will come as no surprise, though already there are Important differences from other narrational modes (e.g., the comparative absence pfcpnsist-ent and gpal;Oriented characters in articinema.naxration). "~t)f all modes, the classical one conforms most closely to the ".canonic story" which story-comprehension researchers posit as normal for our culture. In fabula terms, the reliance upon character-centered causality, and she definition, pfdje . action aslh^ä&émptTo achieve a goal are both salienr . features of the canonic format? At thelevelof the-syuzhet. the classical film respects the canonic pattern of establishing an initiaTTtäte_o£affairs-which getsviolated and which must then be set right. Indeed, Hollywood screenplay-writing manuals have long insisted on a formula which has been revived in recent structural analysis: the plot consists of an und]s^urbed stage^.the disturbance jhe struggle, and the . eEmination of the disturbance.1 Such a syuzhet pattern is OíěTnheritančěnot of some monolithic construct called the "novelistic" but of specific historical forms: the well-m; play, the popular romance, and. crucially, the la nineteenth-century short story.1 The characters' causal teractions are thus to a great extent functions of such arching syuzhet/fabula patterns. In classical fabula construction, ^ausality'. is the unifying principle. Analogies betweenčhäíäcters. setting and situations are certainly present, but at the denotati level any parallelism is subordinated to the movement. cause and effect.5 Spatial configurations are motivated.; realism (a newspaper office must contain desks, typewrit phones) and. chiefly, by cojniJosiügn4-^5£essUy_^the and typewriter will be used to write causally significant stories; the phones form crucial .links among characy Causality also motivates temporal principles of org; the syuzhet represents the order, frequency, ar^d duration fabula events in ways which bring out the salient cau relations. This process is especially evident in a device higř characteristic of classical narration—íhe^igacllme,. A de line can be measured by calendars (Around the W'oi in Eighty Days), by clocks (High Noon), by stipul ("You've got a week but not a minute longer"), or simply] cues that time is running out (the last-minute rescue).' the climax of a classical film is often a deadline shows tí structural power of defining dramatic duration as the takes to achieve or fail to achieve a goal. Usually the classical syuzhet presents a double Y sJnjc.tur£,^tvyii4>loLJlines: one involving..beteresexut mance (boy/girl, husband/wife), the other_Une_ another sphere—work, war, a mission or quest, other-i) sprial relationships. Each line will possess a goal, ohsj :■ and a climax. In Wild and Woolly (1917), the hero, Jeff;! ""two goals—to live a wild Western life and to court Nell, t woman of his dreams. The plot can be complicated by st lines, such as countervailing goals (the people of bit Creek want Jeff to get them a railroad spur, a crooked agent wants to pull a robbery) or multiple romancesJäB Footlight Parade and Meet Me in St. Louis). In most cij the romance sphere and the other sphere of action are c >5ö Unci but interdependent. The plot may close off one line before the other, but often the two lines coincide at the climax: resolving one triggers the resolution of the other. In His Girl Friday, the reprieve of Earl Williams precedes the reconciliation of Walter and Hildy, but it is also the condition of the couple's reunion. The syuzhet is always broken up into segments.. In the j silent era, the typical Hollywood film would contain between ■ nine and eighteen sequences; in the sound era. between 'fourteen and thirty-five (with postwar films tending to have more sequences). Speaking roughly, there are only two types of Hollywood segments: "montage sejquences^com-promising Metz's third, fourth, and eighth syntagmatic types) and "scenes" (Metz's fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth types).6 Hollywood narration clearly demarcates its scenes j lby neoclassical criteria-—unity of time (continuous or conšis-//tentiy intermittent duration;. space (a definable locale), and [l action (a distinct cause-effect'phase). The bounds of the sequence will be marked by some standardized punctuations (dissolve, fade, wipe, sound bridge).' Raymond Bellour points out that the classical segment tends also to define itself microcosrnically (through internal repetitions of style ■ or story material) and macrocosmically (by parallels with other segments of the same magnitude).8 We must also remember that each film establishes its own scale of segmentation. A syuzhet which concentrates on a single locale over a limited dramatic duration (e.g., the one-night-in-a-haunted-house film) may create segments by character entrances or exits, a theatrical liaison des scenes. In a film which spans decades and many locales, a series of dissolves from one small action to another will not necessarily constitute distinct sequence?. vta-w' The classical segment is not a sealed entity. Spatially and temporally it is ciosecí, bul causally it is open^TTworícšlo advance the causal progression and open up new developments.9 The pattern of this forward momentum is quite codified. The montage sequence tends to function as a transitional summary, condensing a single causal development, but the seene_of character action—the building block of classical Hollywood dramaturgy—is more intricately con- structed. Each _scene displays distinct phases. First comes the exposition, which specifies the time, place, and relevant characters—their spatial positions and their current states of mind (usually as a result of previous scenes). In the middle of the scene, characters act toward their goals: they struggle, make choices, make appointments, set deadlines, and plan future events. In the course of this, the classical scene continues or closes off cause-effect developments left dangling in prior scenes while also opening up new causal lines for future development. At leas! one line of action must be left suspended, in order to motivate the shifts to the next scene, which picks up the suspended line (often via a "dialogue hook"). Hence the famousCJlinearity^of classical construction—a trait not characteristic of Soviet montage films (which often refuse to demarcate scenes clearly) or of art-cinema narration (with its ambiguous interplay of subjectivity and objectivity). Here is a simple example. In The Kilters (1946), the insurance investigator Riordan has been hearing Lieutenant Lubinsky's account of Ole Anderson's early life. At the end of the scene. Lubinsky tells Riordan that they're burying Ole today. This dangling cause leads to the next scene, set in the cemetery. An establishing shot provides spatial exposition. While the clergyman intones the funeral oration. Riordan asks Lubinsky the identity of various mourners. The last, a solitary old man, is identified as "an old-time hoodlum named Charleston." Dissolve to a pool hall, with Charleston and Riordan at a table drinking and talking about Ole. During the burial scene, the Lubinsky line of inquiry is closed off and the Charleston line is initiated. When the scene halts, Charleston is left suspended, but he is picked up immediately UVjhg exposition of the next scene. Instead of a complex braiding of causal, ünes (as in the films of Rivette)oran abrupt breaking of them (as in Antonioni, Godard, or Bresson), the classical Hollywoodülm-spins them out in smooth, careful linearity. Something else contributes to this linearity. The mystery film, with its resolved enigma at the end, is only the most apparent instance of the C£iipleQcyo£rhe-clasjicalsvuzhet-tQ..-develop toward hill and adequate knowledge. Whether a «^■■•mip vrr-TiMUMwiu »—L. : phases. Firsi comes e, place, and relevant theircurrent stales of cenes). In the middle r goals: they struggle, t deadlines, and plan e classical scene continents left dangling new causal lines for of action must be left ifts to the next scene, often via a "dialogue of classical construc-oviet montage films nes clearly) or of art-.nterplay of subjectiv- J ' Jers (1946), theinsur hearing Lieutenant - early life. At the end of >..t they're burying Ole . next scene, setin the es spatial exposition, eral oration, Riordan "' mourners. The last, a -n old-time hoodlum hall, with Charleston Jking about Ole. Dur-of inquiry is closed off •'hen the scene halts, ;s picked up immedi-ne. Instead of a corn-films of Rivette) or an ..oni, Godard, or Bres-s them out in smooth. .inearity. The mystery end, is only the most — íe classical syuzhet to lowledge. Whether a ft-i$£ £r- ~> protagonist learns a moral lesson or only the spectator knows the whole story, the.classical film moves steadily toward _a_ growing awareness of absolute truth. f^-x-i- ~The linkage of causal lines musTéventually terminate. How to conclude the syuzhet? There are two ways of regarding the classical ending. We can see it as the crowning of the structure, the logical conclusion of the string of events, the ~flnai "effect of the initial cause, the revelation of the truth. Tfärviétf has some validity, not only in the light of the ti^ht construction that we frequency encounter in Hollywood films but also given the preuepts^of Hollywood screen writ-ing. Rule books tirelessly riemoanTÍie pressures for a happy ending and emphasize the need for a logical wrap-up. Still, there are enough instances of unmotivated or inadequate ^_j)lot resolutions to suggest a second hypothesis: that the classical ending is not all that structurally decisive,.bein- a more or less arbitrary readjustment of that'world knocked awry, in the previous eighty minutes. Parker Tyler suggests that Hollywood regards all endings as "purely cgnventonaL. formal, and often, like the charade, of an infantileTogic."'0 1 lere again we see the importance of the plot line involving heterosexual romance. It is significant that of one hundred randomly sampled Hollywood films, over sixty ended with a display of the united romantic couple—the cliche happy ending, often with a "clinch"—and many more could be said to end happily. Thus an extrinsic norm, the need to resolve the., plot in a way that yields "poetic justice." provides a structural constant, inserted with more or less motivation into its proper slot, the epilogue. In any narrative, as Meir Sternberg points out, when the syuzheťs end is strongly precast by convention, the compositional attention.falls on the retardation accompUsfyed by the nüddJe portions; the text will then "account for the necessary retardation in quasi-mimetic terms by placing the causesjor dejay_within the fictive world itself and turning the middle into the bulk of tjierepT55e*ňTéd action/]!' At times, however^the motivation fails, and ä" discordance between preceding causality and happy denouement may become noticeable as an ideological difficulty; such is the case with films like You Only Live Once, Suspicion, The Woman in the Window, and The Wrong Man." We ought, then, to be prepared for eithei skillful tying up of all loose ends or a more or less miraculmji appearance of what Brecht called bourgeois literatura mounted messenger. 'The mounted messenger guaranty you a truly undisturbed appreciation of even the most! tolerable conditions, so it is a sine qua non for a literát; whose sine qua non is that it leads nowhere."1J The classical ending may_he asoVe'spót in another resp^i Even-if the ending resolves the two principal causal some comparatively minor issues may still be left dans For example, the fates of secondary characters may go settled. In His Girl Friday, Earl Williams is reprieved, corrupt administration will be thrown out of office, and W| ter and Hildy are reunited, butwe never b*agq what happpj ^tp Molly MaUoy, who jumped outa window to distract Tí reporters, t We "know only that she wasÜÜve after the~č One could argue that in the resolution of the main prot we forget minor matters, but this.is only a partial tion. Our forgetting is promotedJxy-thedevjce-ofxlosingi film with an epilogue, a brief celebration of the stable achieved by the main characters. Wot-Ofily-doěsíhe^pi reinforce the tendency toward a happy ending; it also: connotative motifs that haverřínIU^ou^out.the film,. Girl Friday closes on.a brief.epilogue, of Walter-and üiT calling the newspaper office.to..announce tbeirrerm They learn that a strike has started in Albany, and Wa proposes stopping off to cover it on their honeymoon. TJ plot twist announces a repetition of what happened on tri; first honeymoon and recalls that Hildy was going to Bruce and live in Albany. As the couple leave, Hildy carryjj her suitcase, Walter suggests that Bruce might put theimi The neat recurrence of these motifs gives the. narratioi strong unity; when such details are so tightly b; together,. Molly Malloy'sjate is moreJiKeíáabe-overl jjerhaps instead of "closure" it would be- better to sp.c "closure effect." or even, if the strain of resohed and u: solved issues seems strong, of "pseudoclosure.'^At the of extrinsic norms, though, the most coherent possibles logue remains the standard to be aimed at. Commonplaces like "transparency" and "in visi bili ty'".S lOO II W I Vllll.ll>. ... w _ on the whole unhelpful in specifying the narrational properties of the classical film. Very generally, we can say that classical narration tends to be omniscient, highly communicative, and only moderately self-conscious. TJiat is. the narration knows more than all the characters, conceals rel-atively little (chiefly "what will happen next';), and seldom acknowIedges.its.Qwn address lathe audience. JJut we must qualify this characterization in two respects. First, generic factors often create variations upon these precepts. A detective film will be quite restricted in its range of knowledge and highly suppressive in concealing causal information. A melodrama like In This Our Life can be slightly more self-conscious than The Big Sleep, especially in its use of acting and music. A musical will contain codified moments of self-consciousness (e.g., when characters sing directly out at the viewer). Second, the temporal progression of the syuzhet makes narrational properties fluctuate across the film, and these fluctuations too are codified. Typically, the opening and closing of the film are the most self-conscious, omniscient, and communicative passages. The credit sequence and the first few shots usually bear traceifof an overt narration. Once the action has started, however, the narration becomes more covert, letting the characters and their interaction take over the transmission of information. Overt narrational activity returns at certain conventional moments: the beginnings and endings of scenes (e.g., establishing shots, shots of signs, camera movements out from or in to significant objects, symbolic dissolves), and summary passages known as "montage sequences." Auhe very close of the syuzhet, the narration may again acknowledge its awareness of the audience (nondiegetic music reappears, characters look to the camera or close a door in our face), its omniscience (e.g., the camera retreats to a long shot), and its communicativeness (now we know all). Classical narration is thus not equally "invisible" in every type of film or throughout any one film. The communicativeness oj..c^lassjcal narration is evident in the way that_the syuzhet_handles gaps. If lime is skipped over, a montage sequence or a bit of character dialogue informs us; if a cause is missing, we will typically be in- formed that something isn't there. And gaps will seldom be permanent. "In the beginning of the motion picture," writes one scenarist, "we don't know anything. During the course i of the story, information is accumulated, until at the end we know everything."1* Again, these principles can be ťnitígated; by generic motivation. A mystery might suppress a gap (e.g., the opening of Mildred Pierce), a fantasy might leave a cause still questionable at the end (e.g.. The Enchanted Cottage'). In this respect. Citizen Kane remains somewhat "unclassi-cal": the narration supplies the answer to the "Rosebud" mystery, but the central traits of Kane's character remain partly undetermined, and no generic motivation justifies this. The syuzhet'^construction of time powerfully shapes the fluctuating overtness of narration. When the syuzhet adheres tOjc]irgi)oIogKa^rder and omits the causally uninv port ant. period s -of time, the narration becomes highly cohv mumcativeand unselfconscious. On the other hand," wh^Ta montage sequence compresses a political campaign, a murder trial, or the effects of Prohibition into moments, the narration becomes overtly omniscient. A flashback can ' quickly and covertly fill a causal gap. It^qndarj£y can be achieved without violating the fabula world if the narration represents each story event several times in the syuzhet, through one enactment and several recounüngs in character dialogue. Qtydline^ neatly let the syuzhet unselfconsciously respect iKe^urational limits that the fabula world sets for its action. When it is necessary to suggest repeated or habitual actions, the montage sequence will again do nicely, as Sartre noted when he praised Citizen Kane's montages for achieving the equivalent of the "frequentative" tense: "He made his wife sing in every theatre in America."15 When the syuzhet uses a newspaper headline to cover gaps of time, we recognize both the narration's omniscience and its relatively low profile. (The public record is less self-conscious than an intertitle "coming straight from" the narration.) More generally, classical narration reveals its discretion by posing as an editorial intelligence that selects certain stretches of time for full-scale treatment (the scenes), pares down others a little, presents others in highly compressed fashion (the __- : tid gaps will seldom be motion picture," writes :ng. During the course red. until at the end we ciples can be mitigated .ht suppress a gap(e.g., asy might leave acause e Enchanted Cottage). s somewhat "unclassi-wer to the "Rosebud" .ne's character remain ic motivation justifies 2 powerfully shapes the .. When the syuzhet nits the causally unim-.1 becomes highly com-the other hand, when a itical campaign, a mur-on into moments, the eni. A flashback can p. Redundancy can be i world if the narration times in the syuzhet, recountings in charac-he syuzhet unselfcon-5 that the fabula world y to suggest repeated or ice will again do nicely, .£?i Kane's montages for juentative" tense: "He i America."19 When the j cover gaps of time, we ,'ience and its relatively self-conscious than an íarration.) More gener-cretion by posing as an rtain stretches of time , pares down others a npressed fashion (the : montage sequences), and simply scissors out events that are inconsequential. When fabula duration is expanded, it is-' done through crosscutting, as we have seen in our consid-v. eration of The Birth of a Nation (p. 84). Overall narrational qualities also get manifested in the film's manipuiatiQri.p.LsRace. Figures are adjusted for mo3-erate self-consciousness by angling the bodies more or less fron tally but avoiding to-camera gazes (except, of course, in optical point-of-view passages). That ho causally significant cues in a scene are left unknown testifies to the communicativeness of the narration. Most important is the tendency of the classical film to render nurrational omniscience as spa: ~~ ow?upresg7icgwJf the narration plays^dojIvnTts Rnpvvl- ge of upcoming events, it does not hesitate to reveal its ability tocJaange yigwsat.will by cutting within a scene and_ crosscutting between various locales. Writing in 1935, a critic claims that the camera is omniscient in that it "stimulates, through correct choice of subject matter and set-up. the sense within the percipient of 'being at the most vital part of the experience—at the most advantageous point of perception' throughout the picture."17 Whereas Miklós__. Jancsó's long takes create spatial patterns that refuse omnipresence and thus drastically restrict the spectator's knowledge of story information, classical omnipresence makes the. cognitive schema we call "the camera" into an ideal invisible.. observer, freed from the contingencies of space and time But discreetly confining itself to codified patterns for the sake of story intelligibility. y]/:^.J By virtueofits haj^liiagjj^ac_e.anil time, classical, narration makes the fabula .world-An internally consistent con-s.třjTCT iňi.0' w h icťn^AWň~šeem slďsťep TVöm~th Manipulation; ot rnišeTěn-scěiie (figure 'behavior, lighting, setting, cos^umeXereates^n-^^ filmic event, which becomes the tangible slop.' world framed. anäxecödeiL&om..without^ This framing and recording tends to be taken as the narration itself, which can in turn he. more or less overt, more or less "intrusive" upon the posited homogeneity of the story world. Classical narration thus depends upon the notion of the irmsiole.observer.'a Bazin. for instance, portrays the classical scene-3s~ex!s'ung inde- q u all t V pendently of narration, as if j>aa stage.,B The same . nkmed by the notion of "concealment of productio •fabula seems not to.have been_constmctefojCä have preexisted its narrational representatioa (In. tion, in some sense! It often did: for major films of the f and thereafter, Hollywood set designers created toy within which model cameras, actors, and lighting, could be placed to predetermine filming procedures: This- -invisible-obseryeť' narration is. itselLpfteri effaced.-for stylistic causesthat I shall examine short! we can already see that classical narration quickly cues construct story logic (causality, parallelisms), ürne space in ways that make the events "before the camera principal source of information. For example, it is 0 that H.oU\;woocL narratives^are -highly redundant, but: effect is achieved principally by patterns attributable story world. Following Susan Suleiman's taxonomy,* can see that the narration assigns the same traits and fjj dons to each character on her or his appearance; difli characters present the same interpretive commentary same character or situation; similar events involve characters; and so on. Information is for the most j peated by characters' dialogue or demeanor. There some redundancy between narrational commentary an jýoted fabula action, as when silent film expository int convey, crucial information, or when_nondiegetic_mu pleonastic with the action (e.g., "Here Comes the Brií tn This Our Life). But, in general, the narration is so Structed that characters and their behavior produceS reiterate the necessary story data. (The Soviety montage ema makes much stronger use of redundancies betw narrational commentary and fabula action.) Retardaci operates in analogous fashion: the construction of the fabulais delated.principally by inserted lines of äctiön^s as causally relevant subplots, interpolated_ejjme.dy.i)i:sJ music^Lnjamhers (rather than by narrational digression; the sort found in the "God and Country" sequence of ber). Similarly, causal gaps in the fabula are usually sign; by character actions (e. g., the discovery of clues in deteGffi films). The viewer concentrates on coosjrycjjngibe,fj :jI"Ji if «V^W* \- '--■'. ' not on asking why the narration is representing the fabula in this particular way—a question more typical of art-cinema narration. The .priority of causality within an integral fabula world commits classical narration to unambiguous presentation. Whereas art-cinema narration can blur the lines separating objective diegetic reality, characters' mental states, and inserted narrational commentary, the classical film asks us to assume clear distinctions among these states. When the classical film restricts knowledge to a character, as in most of The Big Sleep and Murder i% Sweet, there is nonetheless a firm borderline between subjective and objective depiction. Of course the narration can set traps for us, as in Possessed, when a murder that appears to be objective is revealed to have been subjective (a generically motivated switch, incidentally); but the noaxis revealed immediately and un-, equivocally. The classical flashback is revealing in this connection. Its presence is almost invariably motivated subjectively, since a character's recollection triggers the enacted representation of a prior event. But the range of knowledge in the flashback portion is often not identical with that of the character doing the remembering. jUs common for the flashback to show us more than the character can know (e.g., scenes in which she or he is not present). An amusing example occurs in Ten North Frederick. The bulk of the film is presented as the daughter's flashback, but at the end of the syuzhet. back in the present, she learns for the first ume information we had encountered in "her" flashback! Classi-cal flashbacks are typically "objective": character memory is ( a pretext for a nonchroriological syuzhet arrangement. Similarly, optically subjective shots become anchored in an objective context. One writer notes that a point-of-view shot"! "must be motivated by, and definitely linked to, the objective scenes [shots] that precede and follow iL™ This is one. source of the power of the invisible-observer effect; the camera seems always to include character subjectivity -WJtJUna.broader and definite objectivity. ŕ Classical Style Even if the naive spectator takes the style of the classical Hollywood film to be invisible or seamless, this is not much critical help. What makes the style so self-effacing? The question cannot be completely answered until we consider the spectator's activity, but we may start with Yuri Tynianov's suggestion: "Pointing to the 'restraint' or 'naturalism' of the style in the case of some film or some director is not the same as sweeping away the role of style. Quite simply, there are a variety of styles and they have various roles, according to their relationship to the development of the syuzhet."13 Three general propositions, then. , 1. On the whole, classical narratign t reg íísfi/m[technique as a vehicle for the syuzfiet's transmission qj^faBül'äiji-brmation. O: all modes of narration, the classical is mus! oncerned to moiiy^e^stvl^omrwsjt^onally. as a function of yuzhet patterning. Considerthe very notion of what we now call a shot. For decades. Hollywood practice called a shot a "scene," thus conflating a material stylistic unit with adram-aturgical one. In classical filmmaking, the overriding principle is to make every instantiation of technique obedient to the character's transmission of fabula information, with the result that bodies and faces become the focal points of attention. Film techniques are, patterned to fit the causal structure of the classical scene (exposition, closing off of an old causal factor, introduction of new causal factors, suspension of a new factor). The introductiorj_phase typically includes? shot which establishes the characters in space and time. As the characters interact, the scene is broken Up lnWcTÓwr : views of action and reaction, while setting, lighting, music. í composition, and camera movement enharice the process of: goal formulation, struggle, and decision. The scene usually ! closes on a portion of the space—a facial reaction, a significant object—that provides a transition to the next scene. While it is true that sometimes a classical film's style \^becomes "excessive," decoratjvely supplementing denota* tivéjy^uzhgí.tíemänds^lhe use of technique must be mini-nuuTymotivated by the cFaractera'_ínterac.tions..."Exce^sjJ' j such'ffwe find in Minnelli or Sirk, is often initially j üsüfiec' by generic convention. The same holds true for even thi ( m he style of the classical unless, this is not much .e so self-effacing? The wered until we consider may start with Yuri i the 'restraint* or 'natu-e film or some director is :he role of style. Quite ä and they have various p to the development of isitions, then, -on treats Jilm technique , ismission of fabula in->n, the classical is most ;tionally, as a function of -y notion of what we now practice called a shot a :ylistic unit with a dram-:g, the overriding princi-f technique obedient to Ja information, with the che focal points of atten-u to fit the causal struc-)n, closing off of an old usal factors, suspension iase typically includes a rs in space and time. As s broken up into closer setting, lighting, music, enhance the process of >ion. The scene usually acial reaction, a signifi-:on to the next scene, a classical film's style supplementing denota-chnique must be mini-interactions. "Excess,'' . s often initially justified lolds true for even the most eccentric stylists in Hollywood, Busby Berkeley and v?^, Jôšef von Sternberg téačh ofw_honi required a core of generic \ *)' motivation (musical fantasy and. exotic romance, respectively) for his experiments. _,,„ 2. In classical Tiarration,(stylejtypicaUy encourages the spectator to[construct a coh^m^onsistent timeandjipaee for the fabula action. Many other narrational norms value disorienting the spectator, albeit for different purposes. Only classical narration favors a style which strives for utmost denotative clarity from moment to moment. Each scene's temporal relation to its predecessor will be signaled early and unequivocally (by intertitles, conventional cues, a line of dialogue). Lighting must pick out figure from ground; color must define planes; in each shot, the center of story' interest will be near the center of the frame. Sound recording is perfected so as to allow for maximum clarity of dialogue. X Camera movements aim to create an unambiguous, voluminous space. "In dollying," remarks Allan Dwan, "as a rule we find it's a good idea to pass things___We always noticed that if we dollied past a tree, it became solid and round, instead of I flat."24 Hollywood makes much use of the anticipatory com- i position or camera movement, leaving space in the frame for t the action or tracking so as to prepare for another character's ! entrance. Compare Godard's tendency to make framing í wholly subservient to the actor's immediate movement with | this comment of Raoul Walsh's: "There is only one way in (which to shoot a scene, and that's the way which shows the )audience what's happening next."15 Classical editing aims at imaking each shot the logical outcome of its predecessor and at reorienting the spectator through repeated setups. Momentary disorientation is permissible only if motivated he hallucinatory murder in Possessed that at reališucäH; first appears to have objectivejyjxcurred ^justified retrospectively by the protagonist's increasing madness. Discon-tmuous editing, as in Slávko Vorkapichs montage sequence depicting the earthquake in San Francisco, gets motivated by the chaos of the action depicted. Stylistic disorientation, in short, is permissible when it conveys disorienting story situations. 3. Classical style consists of a strictly limited number of particular technical devices organized into.a stable para- digm and ranked probabilistically according_to_syuzht mamŕšrThff stylistic conve"ntiöns~ör**HöUywood narraf ranging from shot composition to sound mixing, are tuitively recognizable to most viewers. This is because j style deploys a limited number of devices and these deyj are regulated as alternative depictive options, Lighting of i a simple example. A scene may be lit "high-key" or li; key."' There is three-point lighting (key, fill, and backlifi ing on figure, plus background lighting) versus sml son rce_ lighting. The cinematographer also has sevej degrees of diffusion available. Now, in the abstraST choices are equiprobable, but in a given context, one alte tive is more likely than its mates. In a comedy.,, hjgt Ugh ting is more probable; a. cjark .street wUl realistically i vate single-source lighting; the close-up OF a woman JÍ more heavily diffused than that of aman. The "invisibifi A the classical style in Hollywood relies not only on r. ( codified stylistic devices but also upon their codified '.{ions in context _---.. A similarly restricted paradigm controls the-frammgpli human, figure. Most often, a character will be iramedj tween plan américain (the knees-up framing)andjnt close-up (the chest-up framing); the angle will be strž on, at shoulder or chin level. The framing is less likely an extreme long shot or an extreme close-up. a hi angle. And a bird's eye view or a view from straighiijej A very improbable and would require compositional or£g !motiväQöii"(e.g., as an Optical point of view^^^j ' dance ensemble in a musical)7 nvic«t^^Ucit^čodifiedjníoíUles is the system. continuity .editing. The_r_eliance upon an_i .orients the spectator to the space, and the subseqi ting presents clear paradigmatic choices among kinds of "matches." That these are weighted pi tically is shown by the fact that most Hollywood scenej with_e§tablishing_shots, break^ thešpačFinto^ linked by eyeline matches and/or shot/reverse she return to mo-re distant views pnjy when characterj ' oc_the.entry_of a newxharacter_requireg-reoriented.j\n entire s«ne^thouum_£sJ unlikely but permissible (especially if stock or locatk age or special effects are employed); mismatched screen direction and inconsistently angled eyelines are less likely; perceptible jump cuts and unmotivated cutaways are flatly forbidden. This paradigmatic aspect makes the classical style, for all its "rules," not a timeless formula or recipe but a historically constrained set of more or less likely options." These three factors go some way to explaining why the classical Hollywood style passes relatively unnoticed. Each film will recombine familiar devices within fairly predictable" pattems~and according to the demands^of the syuzhet. The spectator will amost never be^TTTós's; to grasp a stylistic feature because he or she is oriented in time and space and because stylistic figures will be interpretable in the light of a paradigm.. - . When we consider the relation of syuzhet and style, we can say that the classical film is characterized by its obedience to a set of extrinsic norms^hich govern both syuzhet. construction and stylistic fiatteniiiiĽ. The classical cinema does not encourage the film to cultivate idiosyncratic intrinsic norms; lsiyJe_and-syu_zhet_seidorn enjoy prominence. A -Jilrn^spnncipal innovations occur at the level of the fabula— i.e., "new stories." Of course, syuzhet devices and stylistic features have changed over time. But the fundamental prin-V cjples of syuzhet^construction (preeminence ot^causality^ /\goal-oriented protagonist, deadlines, etc.) have remained in force since 1917. T'rí^ťäBuTťy'áňa^nuonnTťy of Hollywood narration yield one reason to call it classical, at least insofar as classicism in any art is traditionally characterized by obedience to extrinsic norms," The Classical Spectator The stability of syuzhet processes and stylistic configurations in the classical film should not make us treat the classical spectator as passive material for a totalizing machine. The spectator performs particular cognitive operations which arc noTess active Tor being habitual and familiar-The HoUywoocT fabula is the product of a series of particular schemata, hypotheses, and inferences. The spectator comes to a classical film very well prepared. The rough shape of syuzhet and fabula is likely to conform to1 the canonic story of an individual's goal-oriented, causally determined activity. The spectator knows the- most likel>\ stylistic figures and functions. He or she has internalized the scenic norm of exposition, development of old causa] line. and so forth. The viewer also knows the pertinent ways to motivate what is presented. ."Realistic" motivation, in this mode, consists of making connections reeognued as plausible by common opinion. (A man like this would naturally...) * Compositional motivation consists of picking out the important links of cause_to effect. The_rrwstjmpqrtant forms of -transtextual motivations re recognizing the recurrence of a 'Stár^^fiišoňäTrorn film to film and recognizing generic conventions.:"TJeneric motivation, as we have seen, has a particularly strong effect on narrational procedures. Finally, í artistic motivation—taking an element as being present for its own sake—is not unknown in the classical film. A moment of spectacle or technical virtuosity, a thrown-in musical number or comic interlude: the Hollywood cinema inter-, mittently welcomes the possibility of sheer self-absorption. Such moments.may benignly reflexive, "baring the device" °f the narration's own work, as when in Angek over Broadway a destitute playwright reflects. "Our present plot problem Is money." On the basis pfsuch schemata the viewer projects hypoth- " eses. Hypotheses tend to be probable (validated at several points), sharply exclusive (rendered as either/or alternatives), and aimed at suspense (positing a future outcome). In Roaring Timber, a landowner enters a saloon in which our hero is sitting. The owner is looking for a tough foreman. Hypothesis; he will ask the hero to take the job. This hypothesis is probable, future-oriented, and exclusive (either the man will ask our hero or he won't). The viewer is helped in framing such hypotheses by several processes. Repetition reaffirms the data on which hypotheses should be'gŕounded. "State ever>' important fact three times," suggests scenarist Frances Marion, "for the play is lost if the audience fails to understand the premises on which it is based."2* The exposition of past fabula action will characteristically be placed within the early scenes of the syuzhet, thus supplying a firm basis for our hypothesis-forming. Except in a mystery film, the exposition neither sounds warning signals nor actively misleads us; the primacy effect is given full sway. Characters will be introduced in typical, behavior, while._the star sysíčni reaffirms first impressions. ("The moment you see WalterPidgeon in a film you know he could not do a mean or pettytning.,,B) Thedevice_of,tixe deacUine-asksJhe.vJ&werta^ construct forward-aiming, all-or-nothing causal hypotheses: -ill,r-- the protagonist will achieve the goal in time or he will nôtTÄncTIf information is unobtrusively "planted" early onT~" later hypotheses will become more probable by taking "insignificant" foreshadowing material for granted. This process holds at the stylistic level as well. The spectator constructs fabula time and space according to schemata, cues, and hypothesis-framing. Hollywood's extrinsic norms. with their fixed devices and paradigmatic organization, supply the viewer with firm expectations that can be measured against the concrete cues emitted by the film. In making sense of a scene's space, the spectator need not mentally replicate every detail of the space but only construct a rough relational map of the principal dramatic factors. Thus a "cheat cut" is easily ignored because the spectator's cognitive processes rank cues by their pertinence to constructing the ongoing causal chain of the fabula, and on this scale, the changes in speaker, camera position, and facial expression are more noteworthy than, say, a slight shift in hand positions."1 The same goes for temporal mismatches. tyTiat is rare in the classical film, then, is Henry James's "eroôkexl corridor?' the use of narration to.make.us jump to.. inyafiôr"concfusionsiLIhe,. avoidance of disorientation we saw at work in classical style holds true for syuzhet construction as well. £utu re-oriented ."suspense" hypotheses are J more important than past-oriented "curiosity" ones, anďštnj. ■ PŘ3Řis less important than either In Roaring Timber, imagine if the landowner had entered the bar seeking a tough foreman, offered the job to our hero, and he had replied in a fashion that showed he was not tough. Indeed, one purpose of foreshadowing and repetition is exactly to avoid surprises later on. Of course, if all hypotheses were steadily and immediately confirmed, the viewer would quickly lose interest. Several factors intervene to complicate the process, generally, schemata are by definition abstract prott structures, and procedures, and these neverj5rjeafy_alíl properties of the text Many long-range Hypotheses-" await confirmation. Retardation devices, being unpre" able to a great degree, can introduce objects of immJ attention as well as delay satisfaction of overall expec The primacy effect can be countered by a "recency which qualifies and perhaps even appears to negate 0" impression of a character or situation. Furthermoi structure of the Hollywood scene, which almost inv; ends with an unresolved issue, assures that an e centered hypothesis carries interest over to the n< quence. Finally, we should not underestimate the, rap]d rhythm in the classical-fillip-more than one tioner has stressed "the need to move the construction oß action along so quickly that the audience has no tj Ěsflect—or get bored. It is the task of classical narrat olicit strongly probable and exclusive hypotheses and! onfirm them while still maintaining variety In the cof working out of the action. Thf rlas^cal^stemJs_.nQ.t3implemindeii. Recal under normal exhibition circumstances the film vie rate of comprehension is absolutely controlled. The ciT of probable, exclusive, and suspense-oriented hypoth a way of adjusting dramaturgy to the demands of the vie? situation. The spectator need not rummage very far! into the film, since his or her expectations are aimed;1 future. Preliminary exposition locks schemata into quickly, and the all-or-nothing nature of most hypo allows rapid assimilation of information. Redundancy-attention on the issue of immediate moment, while jud| lacks of redundancy allow for minor surprises^later, classical narration manages the controlled pace of film; ing by asking the spectator to construe the syuzhet stylistic system in a single way: construct a denotatr vocal, integral fabula. ' By virtue of its centrality within international film! merce, Hollywood cinema has crucially influenced' other national cinemas. After 1917, the dominant foríŕT filmmaking abroad were deeply affected by the m 166 HISTORICAL MODES OF NARRATION storytelling presented by the American studios. Yet the Hollywood cinema cannot be identified with classicism tout court. The "classicism" of 1930s Italy or 1950s Poland may mobilize quite different narrational devices. (For instance, the happy ending seems more characteristic of Hollywood than of other classicisms.) But most of classical narration's principles and functions can "be considered congruent with those outlined here. A group of Parisian researchers has come to comparable, if preliminary, conclusions about French films of the 1930s." Noel Burch has shown that in the German cinema, a mastery of classical style is displayed as early as 1922. in Lang's Dr. Mabuse der Spieler." As a narrational mode, classicism clearly corresponds to the idea of an "ordinary film" in most cinema-consuming countries of - the-world. Seven Films. Eight Segments The many variants of classicism make any overall periodiza-tion of the mode very difficult. Even the history of Hollywood norms is notoriously hard to delineate. This is partly because significant periods in the history of studios or technology will not necessarily coincide with changes in stylistic or syuzhet processes. Broadly speaking, we could periodize classical Hollywood narration on two levels. With respect to procedures, we could trace changes within classical narrational paradigms, according to what options come into favor at certain periods. Here we should look not only for innovations but for normalization, majority or customary practice. Connecting scenes by dissolves is possible but rare in the silent cinema, yet it is the favored transition between 1929 and the late 1960s. With respect to narrational principles, we could study how classical films assume narrative causality, time, and space to be constructed. Spatial continuity within a scene can be achieved by selecting from several functionally equivalent techniques, but such continuity rests on broader principles too, such as the positing of the 180-degree line, or axis of action; and changes in this postulate can be traced across the Hollywood cinema. Also within the domain of principles are the fluctuations of broader narrational prop- erties. For instance, narration in the silent cinema tends to be somewhat more self-conscious than in the sound cinema, if only because of expository intertitles. Similarly, an insistent suppressiveness emerges in many films associated with the grouping known as film noir. No single film, or even a dozen films, can exhaustively characterize a narrational mode. Because particular devices vary across periods, and because norms tend to be organized paradigmatically, any film must choose only a few possibilities to actualize. Part 1 has already considered four classical Hollywood films in some detail: Rear Windoiv, The Big Sleep, Murder My Sweet, and In This Our Life. These have exemplified the viewer's role, the patterned fluctuations of narrational processes, and the effect of genre on narration. Rather than analyze yet another classical film in depth, we can more usefully broaden our scope to survey the breadth of the Hollywood paradigm and to map, however roughly, historical changes in syuzhet construction and stylistic composition. Let us, then, consider eight segments from seven films, arranged chronologically from 1917101957. The seven films represent different studios, various genres, a range of directorial renown (from Lubitsch and Hawks to John Emerson and Lloyd Bacon), and a spectrum of stylistic trends (early talkie, film noir. wide screen). The segments are also laid out in syuzhet sequence, as if this were all one macrofilm running from prologue and opening scene to climax and epilogue. Wild and Woolly (Artcraft. 1917) A prologue establishes the romance of the Old West and contrasts it with the West today. The story proper begins in the mansion of Collis J. Hillington, a railroad tycoon. His son Jeff is obsessed with the Old West: he has a tepee in his room, dresses cowboy style, and is an expert roper and pistol shot. At breakfast Hillington tells his buder. Judson, to fetch Jeff to leave for the office. After Jeff playfully ropes Judson to a chair, demonstrates his marksmanship, and rides Judson downstairs like a rodeo star. Jeff leaves with his father. The prologue introduces an omniscient and frankly com- heavily saturated symbolism that Parker Tyler calls the "pedantic" side of Hollywood.* The six sequences in Say It with Songs constitute a convenient anthology of most of the montage devices and functions that would dominate Hollywood narration after 1930. The chief absence is a strongly subjective montage, such as the delirious ones in Blues in the Night (1941). "In a film based on a psychological theme," one writer suggests in 1949, "montage is quite often used to portray the confused or abnormal state of mind of one of the characters."40 By the early 1930s, montage sequences became so common that we can say that the classical Hollywood film consisted of only two types of decoupage units: scenes and summaries." The montage sequences may become slightly foregrounded as deviations from the film's normal scenes, but their very difference is inevitably relocated as the principal alternative within the extrinsic norm. Someone like Slávko Vorkapich could make a career as a montage "specialist" by subjecting clichéd montage tropes to visual hyperbole: canted angles, slow and fast motion, diagrammatically bold compositions, snazzy wipes, and so forth. Always an overtly rhetorical moment, the montage sequence became codified as a likely site of spectacle and a self-conscious narrational gesture. His Girl Friday (Columbia, 1939) Reporter Hildy Johnson has agreed with her ex-husband and ex-editor, Walter Burns, to write one last article before she marries her fiance, Bruce Baldwin. The assignment involves interviewing Earl Williams, who awaits execution for shooting a policeman. Meanwhile, Walter schemes to thwart Hildy's marriage by having Bruce arrested on a trumped-up robbery charge. While Hildy has gone to get Bruce out of jail, her fellow reporters read the opening of her story, still in her typewriter carriage. Louis Marcorelles has called His Girl Friday "le film américain par excellence,"41 and indeed wherever one looks one finds evidence of pristine classicism: deadlines, narrational covertness, interdependent plotting of romance and nonromance lines." The scene I have picked out is of in- terest in two chief respects: its exemplary stylistic patterning and its frank "laying bare" of principles of classical causality. In the silent cinema, each piece of a scene's action would be filmed in a separate take, to be combined with other shots in the editing. With the multiple-camera shooting procedures of early talkies like Say It with Songs, however, one camera filmed the entire scene in long shot or medium long shot; this "master shot" provided a complete, synchronized sound record of the scene and allowed the editor to cut back to a reestablishing shot at any time. By 1933, multiple-camera shooting became rare, reserved for spectacle (a mammoth musical number) or unrepeatable actions (a fire, a car tumbling down a precipice). But the master shot hung on. It became conventional to film the entire scene once in establishing shot (the master shot) and then reshoot portions in medium shot and close-up. Some studios, directors, and producers adhered to this work plan quite rigidly: Darryl Zanuck was famous for insisting on having many different shots to juggle in the editing." While in certain respects the master shot scheme encouraged a more formulaic shooting and cutting, some directors, such as Howard Hawks, seem to have used it to allow decisions at the moment of filming. When Leigh Bracket! began to script The Big Sleep, he was told: "Just master scenes, do it all in master scenes."^ The style of His Girl Friday is an example of the complexity available within master shot procedures. The film's average shot duration (15 seconds) is quite long for its period, creating an intrinsic norm that is signaled in the very first scene, Hildy's visit to Walter's office. The shots also display a dense organization of characters within the frame. The scenes in the pressroom of the Criminal Courts Building are particularly striking in this regard. Compared with shots in Wild and Woolly, Lady Windermere's Fan, or Say It with Songs, a medium long shot around the card table in His Girl Friday, such as figure 9.54, packs its figures on various planes and in varying degrees of lighting. The shots use most of the screen space; even a small hole is a cue for us that a character will enter to fill the spot (figs. 955-9.56). The lateral pans across the action, initiated by the master shot camera of early talkies, has become a fluid reframing that I 9-5-1 9-55 9-56 ary stylistic patterning š of classical causality, a scene's action would bined with other shots mera shooting proce-• Songs, however, one ; shot or medium long mplete, synchronized : the editor to cut buck í- By »933, multiple-rved for spectacle (a eatable actions (a fire, the master shot hung ? entire scene once in _nd then reshoot poryme studios, directors, | -n quite rigidly: Darryl laving many different .n certain respects the re formulaic shooting Howard Hawks, seem e moment of filming. The Big Sleep, he was master scenes."48 ample of the complex-:ures. The film's aver-te long for its period, laled in the very first he shots also display a thin the frame. The J Courts Building are mpared with shots in J Fan, or Say It with card table in His Girl :s figures on various g. The shots use most is a cue for us that a igs. 9-55-9-56). The ~d by the master shot . fluid reframing that glides from one dense composition to the next. Accompanying this saturation of shot space is an emphasis on spreading the sources of sound across the frame. In figure 9.54, for instance, the dialogue is carried by figures dotted around the shot; conversation ricochets. This has an important con- $)*l - I «8ft sequence: since the long takes refuse to cue the spectatOT cuts, sound guides the viewer to look at one speaker, irL|| portion of the frame, then shift his/her attention to anoj spot. Of course, figure placement allows us to make so plausible hypotheses, so that in figure 9.54, the most inent figures (Hildy and McCue are highest in the framej most clearly lit) become the most probable sources of| cipal dialogue, while the chatter of the cardplayers beet secondary. This hierarchy of attention can be seen | more vividly when Molly Malloy, Earl Williams's trie confronts the reporters. In the scene that occupies us here, the reporters) gathered around Hildy's typewriter and Sanders readsg her story. I. The first shot begins with a characteristically pac] composition (fig. 9.57) while the camera tracks bacf establish the group (fig. 9.58). After Sanders has finiy reading, he straightens and remarks, "But 1 ask you gi can that girl write an interview?" The dialogue suma ricochet around the frame, from McCue (standing oniT right) to Bensiger (seated foreground left, turned away fft us) to Sanders (seated middle-ground right). Bensiger říj igo HISTORICAL MODES OF NARRATION 957 95$ 959 960 M 1 ■ u in disgust, and this motivates the camera's refraining to leave a bit of vacant space in the right middle ground (fig. 9.59). Sanders continues his comments, ending: "Now I give that marriage three months, and I'm laying three to one. Any takers?" Hildy's voice rings sharply from offscreen— "I'll take that bet"—and the men look right. 2. Viewed from a new angle, the space reserved for Hildy is filled as she strides in (figs. 9.60-9.61). Hildy chides the 9-61 g.6-2 963 ly from offscreen— right . e reserved for Hildy 1). Hildy chides the men and dials Walter at the Morning Post, using a phone that has been established long in advance. 3. A plan-américain of Bensiger, Sanders, and McCue (fig. 9.62). Sanders says she can't quit so easily. There is an *.»«■»* <..-. '.**£" evident "cheating" at this and the next cut: Sanders Is s close to McCue here that he should be visible in shots 2 anal 4. But the disparities pass unperceived because (a) in shots» and 4 he is on the left margin of the frame, and our attention; is concentrated on the right center, where Hildy is moving and speaking; and (fa) Sanders's relation to McCue is com sistent even if the distances are not, and as we saw ig Chapter 7. the spectator's spatial schemata are, with! limits, tolerant of variations in distance, especially if tha camera angle changes. 4. As (2). Hildy insists that she is quitting and phonej Walter. She tells him off. Her fixed posture throws any othe movement into relief, so the reporters' small grins and rai eyebrows emerge as a silent accompaniment to her jeremiad (fig- 9-63). A series of rapid reframings left and right makes Hildy the central carrier of narrative meaning. She grabs hej story, carries it to the phone, rips the article up, returns to gei her coat (fig. 9.64), dives for her purse, swings back to he desk, and, when the phone rings offscreen, strides back right to yank it out (fig. 9.65) and dump it in the very depihfl the frame (fig. g.66)^virtua]ly the only zone of the shot no ig^ HISTORICAL MODES OF NARRATION 9&Í 9-65 occupied by narrative information! The growing momentum of the shot depends on an accelerating number of spatial assumptions guided and reinforced by physical movement and dialogue. One point should be clear. It is not that His Girl Friday 966 "looks forward" to Orson Welles's use of deep-space compositions or sonic cues. Rather, we should say that these practices were somewhat uncommon but still permissible options within the extrinsic norms of the late 1930s, and Welles's work (like Wyleťs) exploited and amplified them in ways that would become influential later. It is a matter not of a drastic change in style but of the promotion of particular stylistic options to a more prominent position. The scene is of interest from another angle. From the outset of His Girl Friday, Earl Williams's killing of the policeman functions as a founding cause, triggering Walter's campaign to win Hildy back. But throughout the early scenes, there is a gap in the account of Williams's crime: what made him do it? Most of the "positive" characters assume that Earl went temporarily insane. Walter says that the "poor little guy" went berserk as a result of losing his job. One of the reporters tells Hildy that they do not believe that Williams knew what he was doing. Even Earl says he did not mean to kill the cop. To win payment from Walter, Hildy must write a story that supplies a plausible causal link. The reporters tell her that after Earl lost his job he began hanging . jse of deep-space corn-should say that these in but still permissible of the late 1930s, and i and amplified them in iter. It is a matter not of promotion of particular t position. other angle. From the Uliams's killing of the cause, triggering Wallt throughout the early it of Williams's crime: - "positive" characters isane. Walter says that result of losing his job. hey do not believe that en Earl says he did not nt from Walter, Hildy usible causal link. The s job he began hanging ML about the park, listening to rabble-rousers. Interviewing Earl, she asks him if he remembers anything the speakers said. Earl recalls a phrase: "Production for use." Hildy pounces on this. "Now, look. Earl. When you found yourself with that gun in your hand and that policeman coming at you, what did you think about? ... Could it have been 'production for use? ... What's a gun for, Earl?.. . Maybe that's why you used it.. .. Seems reasonable." Earl gratefully accepts this as what he had in mind. "Why, it's simple, isn't it?" "Very simple." Hildy answers softly. She now has a smooth account, at one end Earl's unemployment, at the other a dead policeman, with a series of causal links: jobless man hangs around park, hears a phrase, remembers the phrase, and acts upon his memory. It is this account that Sanders reads from Hildy's typescript: And so into this little tortured mind came the idea that that gun had been produced for use, and use it he did. But the state has a production-for-use plan, too. It has a gallows. And at 7 a.m., unless a miracle occurs, that gallows will be used to separate the soul of Earl Williams from his body. And out of Molly M alloy's life will go the one kindly soul she ever knew. Like a good classical storyteller, Hildy has filled the gap. She has also hooked one causal chain to another, a future-oriented one. She has satisfied curiosity but will not minimize suspense: Will Earl be executed? She stresses the deadline, 7 a.m. She introduces a romance subplot involving Molly. And she holds out the possibility of a miracle that may yet furnish a happy ending. In sum, Hildy's article is indeed what she calls it, a "story," a "yarn," and it duplicates, structurally and microcosmically, the conventions of classical syuzhet construction. The film, of course, insists that Hildy's yarn is only a pretext, like Earl himself. Walter uses Earl's plight to chivvy a corrupt administration and to lure HUdy back. Hildy uses Earl and the story to extract a nest egg from Walter. Hildy's disclosed cause, "production for use," is frankly displayed as her invention. Any other phrase which Earl supplied could have been twisted into an explanation of his cas' Hildy's story is never in fact printed; she tears il up.. psychological impulse is only something to motivate story realistically and compositionally, and by flaunting* the film's own narration lays bare, in a manner typic "artistic" motivation, the arbitrariness of classical caus generally. Such devices, as Earl would say, are produ be used. The Killers (Universal. 1946) In Brentwood, Ole the Swede is murdered by two unkň gunmen. This triggers an inquiry by insurance inves" Riordan. Interviewing Ole's acquaintances and tracin career, Riordan discloses that Ole took part in a $250. robbery and then cheated the gang by running offwi loot and with the boss's girlfriend, Kitty Collins. But' soon left Ole, and Ole settled down in Brentwood, app-penniless. In Philadelphia, Riordan meets Kitty Collins asks her to fill in the gaps. Who planned the robbery!; Ole in love with her? What impelled him to double-cnř gang? What happened to the money? And who ordei killed? A character in Michel Butor's Passing Time every detective story "superimposes two temporal; quences, the days of the inquiry which start at the ci the days of the drama which lead up to it."46 This rei especially appropriate,to The.Killers. Tbemurde hinge between the