1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910814628903321

Autore

Kozloff Sarah

Titolo

Invisible storytellers : voice-over narration in American fiction film / / Sarah Kozloff

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley : , : University of California Press, , 1988

ISBN

1-282-35560-0

9786612355608

0-520-90966-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (178 pages) : illustrations

Disciplina

791.43/0973

Soggetti

Voice-overs

Motion picture plays, American - History and criticism

Motion pictures - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes filmography (p. 141-153).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-160) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. The Prejudices against Voice-Over Narration -- 2. Ancestors, Influences, and Development -- 3. First-Person Narrators -- 4. Third-Person Narrators -- 5. Irony in Voice-Over Films -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Filmography -- Bibliography of Works Cited -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

"Let me tell you a story," each film seems to offer silently as its opening frames hit the screen. But sometimes the film finds a voice-an off-screen narrator-for all or part of the story. From Wuthering Heights and Double Indemnity to Annie Hall and Platoon, voice-over narration has been an integral part of American movies.Through examples from films such as How Green Was My Valley, All About Eve, The Naked City, and Barry Lyndon, Sarah Kozloff examines and analyzes voice-over narration. She refutes the assumptions that words should only play a minimal role in film, that "showing" is superior to "telling," or that the technique is inescapably authoritarian (the "voice of god"). She questions the common conception that voice-over is a literary technique by tracing its origins in the silent era and by highlighting the influence of radio, documentaries, and television. She explores how



first-person or third-person narration really affects a film, in terms of genre conventions, viewer identification, time and nostalgia, subjectivity, and reliability. In conclusion she argues that voice-over increases film's potential for intimacy and sophisticated irony.