Classic and Modern film focalization: information structures in the history of narrative film

Abstract In narrative films, viewers extract information about the plot either from reading the characters’ mental states or through assumptions about the intentions of the implicit author of the work. This reading can be supported by inferences about the subjects’ behaviours or through the representations of the characters’ stream of consciousness. This text examines the relationship between the mentioned variable of the mental state and the filmic style – Classic or Modern. It uses the Internet Movie Data Base, pointing to concepts that refer to the subjective construction of a character’s consciousness stream, such as Voice Over, Point-of-view hot, or Flashback. The results and their methodological limitations are framed within theoretical debates about the Focalization and Information Structure of a fiction plot. Classic Cinema uses behaviour to infer the characters’ mental states, while Modern Cinema considers the possibility of audio-visual representation for such streams of consciousness. The “objective” discourse of “zero focalization” best fits the inferences about behaviour employed in Classic Cinema, while Modern Cinema adapts to the subjectivity expressed by “internal focalization”. As further investigation, it would be convenient to discover the relationship between the styles of Cinema, Classic or Modern, and their potential to develop the theory of mind.

摘要 在叙事电影中，观众获取剧情信息的途径主要有两种：一是通过解读角色的心理状态，二是基于对作品隐含作者意图的推定。这类解读可依托对角色行为的推理，或是通过呈现角色的意识流来获得支撑。本文探讨了心理状态这一前述变量与电影风格——古典派或现代派——之间的关联。研究采用互联网电影数据库（Internet Movie Data Base），聚焦于指向角色意识流主观建构的相关概念，例如旁白（Voice Over）、视点镜头（原表述为Point-of-view hot，疑为笔误，推测应为Point-of-view shot）与闪回（Flashback）。本研究的结果与方法论局限均被置于关于虚构叙事聚焦（Focalization）与信息结构的理论论辩框架之中。古典电影通过行为推理来推断角色的心理状态，而现代电影则可为这类意识流提供视听呈现的可能性。“零聚焦（zero focalization）”的“客观”话语最契合古典电影中依托行为展开的推理方式，而现代电影则适配“内聚焦”所表达的主观性。作为后续研究方向，厘清电影风格（古典或现代）与心理理论（Theory of Mind）发展潜力之间的关联将颇具研究价值。