Assignment 2: MEDIA AND AUDIENCE

A narrative Theoretical review on two films: “A separation” and “The Past” by Asghar Farhadi

Here you can see my presentation I’ve prepared in Prezi.

I have written the script of my presentation as well.

In this presentation I’m going to talk about narrative theory and apply this into two films as a kind of media text.

I’m going to talk about narratives definition, its elements and then I will introduce two important narrative theories, Prop and Todorov.

Narratives are some rules and strategies which make the story flows in a logical sequences. A narrative has tow parts: Story and Discourse. Story is about what happens and discourse is about how it happens.

One of the narrative theories is Propp’s. Propp looked at folk tales and saw some structures they shared in common. He found seven character types that move the story along. One character in the film or play can occupy several of his character roles or types of action.

The first of seven character types is the Hero

Then we have the villain who struggle against the hero

Then we have the Donor who prepare the hero or gives the hero some magical object

Then there is the Helper who helps the hero in the quest

The next character type is the Princess, is often sought for during the narrative

The False Hero who is perceived as good character in beginning but emerges as evil

The dispatcher, a character who sends the hero off in the quest

In this video I’m going to try to apply these character types into a film from an eastern country like Iran and the film I’m going to apply narrative theory into it is “A Separation”. In this case it may not fit to all character types but it may apply to some of them.

Let’s apply the first of character types, hero to our film, our hero is Nader who is trying to sort out the problems and discussions in the family.

The villain in this case is Simin, Nader’s wife, who is against Nader in the way he thinks or believes

The Donor is hero’s feelings and love for his family.

The helper in this case is Termeh, hero’s daughter who is more independent to him than her mother

The prince in this film is a better life and peace in the family.

The false hero in this case is Simin who tries to convince her daughter to leave her father behind and follows mother’s ambitions.

And for the dispatcher in this case we can consider Termeh.

The next narrative theory is Todorov. Todorov also saw underlying structures to narratives. He argued that stories all begin in “equilibrium” when all forces are in balance. Todorov’s narrative theory basically states that most story’s or plot lines follow the same pattern or path. He suggested conventional narrative structured in 5 stages.

1-These stages starts with equilibrium when everything is normal, the first part of the story will display a happy start, where the majority of characters are content and everything is as it should be.

2-Then the disruption of equilibrium a problem or some thing will disrupt the happiness.

3-Then recognition of main characters of the disruption, this part of the plot is when everyone realises the problem and it is chaos.

4-Then we have a part when there is an attempt to repair the disruption and restore the problem.

5-then the final parts of the plot where there is a reinstatement of the equilibrium where everything is back to normal.

Let’s apply these into another iranian film “The Past”

At the start of the film we see equilibrium when it seems everything is calm and peaceful and everyone is happy

Then there is the disruption when everything turns round to be in a way which we didn’t recognised at the start of the film, the disruption continues when there are a lot of fights and disagreements

A recognition of the disruption is happening when most of the characters understand there is some secretes between the family relationships

And when they recognise it they need to repair it. For that they attempt to tell their secrets and try to understand the situation they have got stock in

And finally there is a reinstatement of the Equilibrium where everything is back to normal and everyone in the family is content again

I hope you have found it helpful and thank you for listening to my presentation about narrative theory.

Evaluation:

This assignment was a good practice for me to learn how critical review-narrative theory in this case- works. It was a good practise for me, although I decided to apply this to Iranian films with different contextual area. As I have come from a different culture and different cinema I felt a big need to know more about foreign films specially English movies. At first I found it difficult to fit every single character types of Propp’s theory or stages in Todorov’s to my chosen film, after talking to our tutor David I found it quite easier to understand how a narrative theory works about a film like the ones I have presented. I will definitely watch more film and get more familiar to the films and critical review of them.

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