Chapter 3: Narration in Film & Architecture

One of the main aspects of lm theory is that related to the narrative lm, perhaps, most commonly the classic Hollywood genre. Narration of a different kind is also employed in non-ction lm such as in documentary; narrative denotes the means by which the message of the lm is imparted to the audience. The structures of narrative used in the ction lm are largely borrowed from literature, drama, poetry and politics. Non-ction lm is similarly rooted in other disciplines, being akin journalism or non-ction literature. The main concern of narratology in lm is to determine the means of narration further, rather than the substance of what it is that is narrated. There are some arguments for the development of a narrative in architecture also; but this is perhaps more difcult, and of a much different form from that of the more naturally narrative forms; literature, lm, painting. The theory of lm narrative applied to architecture, however, may yield some results in allowing us to both understand the narrative of a given piece of architecture, and also to insert more accurately a narrative into the buildings which we design. Narration involves many operations and considerations, from the personality/ impersonality of the narrator, to the pro-lmic event, which is the situation of the lms creation, to the structuralist syuzhet and fabula. The concept of a message in a lm implies the notion of there being a sender. This is taken to be the narrator. An issue for any narrative theory of lm or architecture would have to be; who is the narrator? This may vary. An act of subversion against the original designed wishes of the architect by the user implies their role as narrator. The use of a building as strictly prescribed by the designer implies their role as narrator; as sender of the message.
Despite the claims that lm critics make about spectator positions, there is no passivity here: villagers effectively author the lms they watch. They decline to take up a particular position in relation to the lm they are not enmeshed by anyones gaze. Instead, it is they who do the structuring. When a villager sees a Rambo lm, he does not become positioned by a gaze structured through overwrought masculine signiers and racist stereotypes of the Vietnamese. Instead, his look reframes the lm as being about rascals (the Papua New Guinean name for violent young bandits who do great damage but who are becoming steeped in a kind of heroic lore throughout the country), and about how a tough old woman rescues her limp and ineffectual husband (Rambo) from imprisonment by sneaking into rascal encampments and blasting their helicopters out of the sky. Don Kulick and Margaret Wilson, Rambos Wife Saves the Day, Anthropology of Media, p275

The pro-lmic event is that which allows a lm to be made, the assemblage of all the relevant elements which are employed to make lms. The Pro-Filmic theory presented by Gunning suggests that the choices made in terms of lighting, set design, camera movements and so on are of primary importance to the narrative due to the deliberateness of their choosing, and through the meaning which they communicate to the audience. 1. Physical material present of scene prior to actual lming. 2. The images as enframed. 3. The editing process. Additional to these levels would be the viewing conditions, which vary from the expected norm in interesting ways. Various cultures use narrators for lms, for example, and early documentary lms were made to be shown either as looped poster lms for trade fairs and exhibitions; or as llers for before the feature lms. The ways in which spectators may modify lms is more fully explored in the next chapter.
Prior to the 1970s the cinema, in parallel with traditional Tongan entertainment, was usually a several-hour event with many things going on in addition to the movie. People sat in distinct groups and paid attention to the movie in varying degrees of intensity, entertained by the wit of a narrators comments rather than by a faithful rendition of the dialogue.

There is an often-told story about a narrator who upon nishing his tale with a ourish discovered to his embarrasment that the projectionist had one more reel to show. As Veehala, a leading native authority on Tongan tradition, explained to me, People would ask, Who is the interpreter? rst, What is the lm? second. Elizabeth Hahn, The Tongan Tradition of Going to the Movies, Anthropology of Media pp263-264

These three levels work in concert to create the means by which the story is told, and are hence, the constituent parts of the cinematic narrative. These three elements could be seen to relate back to the architectural debate; the rst level could be seen to be the context of the building; its backdrop, its setting, and place within the world; the diegesis. The second level is the actual enclosure of the spare space; the building itself relates in this manner to the framing of a scene by a lm camera; the contained space of the building or the lm. The third level could provide the potential departure or the conformity to the architects wishes as to how a building is used; the editor of a lm having more control over the lm than the architect over their building; but neither has full control over how their works are perceived by their respective audiences. Thus, there is a pro-architectural event which allows us to interpret space; having a similar three levels of context & building, actual path taken, and programme. To understand the mechanics of narrative in a more precise manner, certain terminology must be picked up to signify the different roles of different parts of the narrative. The notions of discours and histoire are used to categorise narration. Discours is a personal narration; where we are presented with one persons view. Histoire is an event narrative, where we observe upon events much more as ourselves, rather than through another characters views. This shows itself through the choice of shots used in the lm. Shots that serve to render the perception of the story world are regarded as being histoire; whereas those which have the input of an author are said to be discours in their nature. The complex shot/ reverse shot described later in this chapter is an example of identication with multiple characters, and is, hence a histoire shot in most circumstances. A tracking shot following a character, or a pan, describing an arc of vision, are more in line with the discours narration. The narrator is, of course, important to any theory of narration. The narrator has a great deal of control over the ow of narrative, and may be dealt with through a number of means and strategies. The issue of whether the narrator is present is important; a narrator may be present onscreen, addressing the audience directly, or may be an offscreen presence, usually that of the editor, who may manipulate which images are seen in what sequence. The narrator is usually considered in terms of the following aspects of competence, performance, mandate and sanction. Competence: The knowledge to relate the story. Performance: Ability to relate the story. Mandate: Designation as the agent responsible for storytelling. Sanction: Authentication/ to establish the facts about the ctional world. The narrator need not necessarily possess all of these qualities, but their position towards them is telling upon the type of narration offered. Those things in lm such as the actors stance, the mise-en-scene, the location are not taken as the work of the narrator, and are instead taken to be the facts of the fabula rst, and under the inuence of the narrator second. Frequently, the narrator is presented as an impersonal narrator; they are not themselves present or involved in the action. This theory allows for direct confrontation rather than through the conduit of a character-narrator who is not always reliable. There is then no need for sanction/mandate.

The impersonal narrator does not create a world for the viewer in lm, but simply reports upon it; the intention is to remove the necessity for reection upon the mode of narration, but to place the emphasis upon events. Can architecture be said to operate under an impersonal narrator? The circumstances are important here. This relates to the buildings position regarding preferred readings, as the experience of space is entirely down to who experiences it and under what conditions. Consider the differences between Walter Benjamins experiences of cities such as Berlin, Paris and Moscow, with what had been happening in Europe during the tense pre-war and war periods; and the experiences of an other, who had different reasons for being present; and a different position. A lm like Chris Markers essay Sans Soleil shows the specicity of the narrators experience. In this lm, a travelogue created through combining footage of Iceland, Japan, Africa and Paris; Marker seeks, through his correspondence, to share with us his experience and fascination with event captured there.
I am radically opposed to the way Eisenstein used the frame to codify intellectual formulae. My own method of conveying experience to the audience is quite different. Of course it has to be said that Eisenstein wasnt trying to convey his own experience to anyone, he wanted to put across ideas, pure and simply; but for me that sort of cinema is utterly inimical. Moreover Eisensteins montage dictum, as I see it, contradicts the very basis of the unique process whereby a lm affects an audience. It deprives the person watching of that prerogative of lm, which has to do with what distinguishes its impact on his consciousness from that of literature or philosophy: namely the opportunity to live through what is happening on the screen as it if were his own life, to take over, as deeply personal and his own, the experience imprinted in time upon the screen, relating his own life to what is being shown. Tarkovsky P183

An enunciator is a hybrid of extra-diegetic narrator and implied author. This functions to validate and to sanction this version of the story. A story is always from a point of view, one version of events as opposed to another is presented at any given time. Even in histoire dominated narratives. Who, then, is the narrator of space? Is it the architect or the user? The terms of discours and histoire inform this to an extent; the personal narration having variations and clouded by personal perceptions is that of the user of the building. The histoire, the event-driven narrative is the realm of the architect. The concept of event-driven narratives is explored somewhat by Tschumi, in his Event Cities book, with its cross/trans/dis- programming theories. This is something of a reversal of the audiences role from that of lm. As active producers of meaning, the audience is more involved in histoire narration, less so than discours, which is someone elses report to them. In architecture, a discours reading is centred upon the user, whereas the histoire is the generalisations made by the architect of the users as a body of people. This technique, when applied to lm allows for classications to be made between different types of lmic narrators, ranging from the invisible narration of classic Hollywood cinema to the idiosyncratic European cinema, such as that of Jean-Luc Godard. Architects narratives could also be categorised thus. The theories of structuralism and semiotics inform narrative theory greatly. Film was subjected to much the same treatments as literature and drama in relation to the linguistic analogy. The Russian Formalists were one of the rst groups to consider this aspect to lm, preferring to look at the means of narration rather than the narrated. From their theories comes the division of the narrative into the Syuzhet and the Fabula.
In the ction lm, narration is the process whereby the lms syuzhet and style interact in the course of cueing and channelling the spectators construction of the fabula David Bordwell, Narrative in the Fiction Film.

The syuzhet could be said to be the plot of the narrative; in that the same syuzhet could occur in a lm, a play, a novel. Could it occur in architecture? The syuzhet is independent of the medium, and describes the pattern of the actual story. The fabula in this theory is the story-world as created; the means by which the syuzhet is exposed to the audience. The means by which the fabula is imparted

to the audience is the important factor in narrative lm theory. There is a tendency to ignore the basic structures of the syuzhet itself in these theories, but we shall explore this facet later, as the justications for ignoring it in lm do not necessarily apply here. The style of a narration in this context refers solely to which cinematic devices are employed; this in cludes shot type, edits, transitions, and so on. David Bordwell asserts in Narration in the Fiction Film, that the style is wholly ingredient to the medium. There are, similarly, elements of architecture, which are wholly ingredient to the medium; thresholds, fenestration, form, materials, space and event. These are the means by which architecture may build its narratives. Film narrative may be carried by shot composition. This opposes the view that editing is the only tool for the narration (as opposed to monstration) of the lm. Such representational tools as lighting, image, texture, colour, sound, music, voice-over, and so on may be used to provide commentary as well as present the ctional world. In the architectonics of the edit; the author is split between being the user and the architect; depending on how prescriptive the building is and how it used; but some level of the architectural narrative remains in this; through the factors of the space, lighting acoustic conditions and so on.
In Kurosawas version of Macbeth (Throne of Blood) we nd a perfect example. In the scene where Macbeth is lost in the forest, a lesser director would have the actors stumbling around in the fog in search of the right direction, bumping into trees. And what does the genius Kurosawa do? He nds a place with a distinctive, memorable tree. The horsemen go round in a circle, three times, so that the sight of the tree eventually makes it clear that they keep going past the same spot. The horsemen themselves dont realise that they long ago lost their way. In his treatment of space Kurosawa here displays the most subtle approach, expressing himself without the slightest hint of mannerism or pretentiousness. For what could be simpler than setting the camera and following the camera around three times? Tarkovsky p110

There are a number of principles which relate the syuzhet to the fabula, and which help to dene the relative positions of these two terms in narrative theory. 1. Event, and Narrative Logic. The perceiver will dene some phenomena as events, forming connections and relations between these events. These connections are usually of the cause/ effect model, and are hence said to be causal. Some schools of lm may act against this causality deliberately, however, as a breakage or denial of the link between the Syuzhet and Fabula. As such, events may be autonomous of one another, perhaps appearing as chance occurrences or entirely arbitrary events. A denial of causality is a hallmark of the arthouse lm, and may be used in more mainstream as a retardatory device, as explained below. The syuzhet can act to block events through retardation; this is the means by which story events which it serves the story to occlude the viewer from, such as the developing details of a suspense story; are kept from the viewer until such a time as the story will reveal them. Retardation prevents a situation of totality, instead allowing the story to unfold in a controlled manner, building the expectations of the audience, and operating to either reinforce or to surprise through use of this expectation. Every syuzhet employs the strategy of impedance/ retardation to postpone the fabula in some way. This allows the story to develop over time. Generally, the end of the story, for example (or how we arrive there, as in the Usual Suspects, for example) is kept from the viewer. The controlled construction of the fabula by retarding certain syuzhet events is the means by which most narratives are constructed, rather than attempting to achieve a simultaneous presentation of all events of the time and space of syuzhet and fabula; this may perhaps be the means which painting aspires to have under certain circumstances. An excellent example of this occurs in Memento (2001) in which the fabula is created and recreated according to the protagonists psychologucal condition; with which he cannot make new memories. The use of temporal strategies in this lm is incredibly complex and tightly edited to allow the spectator into the condition of the hero, experienceing the frustrations of repeated events and routines.

Another variable for the narrative is its communicativeness. The manipulation of this variable is what determines how much of a given characters point of view we, the viewer are privy to. How communicative is a given character? How much do they want to tell us? How much control have they over what they want to tell us? Obviously, buildings have an element of communicativeness also. That this is a function of narrative in lm is telling upon how we can use it in architecture. 2. Time. The medium of lm can communicate in two ways with regard to temporal tense. A lm may engage the viewer through report, by recounting given events, and also by presenting events as a direct representation, supposedly as it happens. Kurosawas short lm collection, Dreams is an exercise in temporal strategies for lm. Some episodes of the lm explore immediate time; that of the now, whereas others look into the nature of memory, and how it can haunt the army captain; the time of confusion and being lost in the snowstorm; or even the seasonal time of the fruit orchard episode. This use of tense has some mirror on the experience of architecture; but which operates in different ways. The experience of architecture as we use it is the direct representation; and the memory of a building which we have been to is the reporting mode; recounting. The strategy employed by Daniel Libeskind in establishing his work for the Jewish Museum in Berlin is a good example here. Libeskind looked for traces; to express the temporal absence of the Berlin Jews in a spatial form. Monstration: The rigorously synchronous simultaneous narration in lm showing present events as they happen. This relates to our immediate use of a building as we experience it, but our memory is of a more narrative nature. Monstration and narration (editing) are combined in the manner of a lamination in order to produce the story-world; the diegesis, the fabula. It is unusual for a lm to be purely one or the other; the two combine to grant different ways of perceiving events throughout the lm. Monstration seeks to separate the camera as the monstrator and the editor as narrator. The camera is the apparatus of the synchronous narration; is our eye on proceedings, and the editing is marked by the method as being different, and clearly narrated from elsewhere. Monstration differs from mimetic narration in that mimetic narration offers no such separation; the mimetic narrator is both camera and editor, the pattern imitating a story being told verbally or recalled in memory. They are, however, very similar. Mimesis is a term for imitative narration. Such issues have bearing upon the temporal mode of a lm, as it determines how a tale is to be recounted. In mimetic lm, the narrative is not experienced as language, but as a surrogate world; the fabula. The narrator in lm has the privilege over time; the narrator alone has this power; as such, the narrator is equivalent to the author of the lm. x says y as opposed to y is the case non-mimetic mimetic narration monstration The dening characteristic of narration as opposed to monstration is this temporal gap. The temporal gap in architecture is a debatable concept; but the nature of egress from one place to another may be one factor in the determination of this. Temporality expresses itself through editing in the tense of a given scene. There are various ways in which a scenes placement in time can inuence the narrative.

The tense is, of course, the sequence in which events are recounted. In relation to architecture, this can relate in a number of ways. We experience different tenses in monstrated time, of course, in the realm of architecture. The manipulations of tense may be a function of the architecture itself; ltered through our perceptions of it. Certain techniques, such as a ash-forward, may be enacted through permeable space affording views of adjacent or distant spaces. The reveal of a buildings context from within is a manipulation of the tense in which we experience it.
In so-called primitive societies, there is a certain kind of heterotopia which I would describe as that of crisis; it comprises privileged or sacred or forbidden places that are reserved for the individual who nds himself in a state of crisi with respect to the society or the environment in which he lives Michel Foucault; Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias, Rethinking Architecture

Anachronies are shots of the type of analepses (ashback) and prolepses (ash forward). These can be described in lm as internal or external, this has obvious relation to the architectural anachronies outlined above. Internal: External: lling in a gap in the primary narrative. lling in diegetic information.

Deviations from straight chronology in lm are unusual (especially prolepses)- as such, they are normally clearly marked by music, voice-over, period detail or other indicators. Duration is also an important factor when dealing with temporal factors. Ellipsis, for example has time passing in narrative but not in discourse (actual lm)- the editing out of unimportant events, used to form connections in jump-cuts. Events may be represented by their absence using ellipsis at its extremes, such as in the lms of Robert Bresson. The principal elements of the plot will be completely elided with events represented in their absence (a technique picked by Hollywoods horror genre as a way of showing just enough to build suspense). A building with no reference towards other spaces outside or inside produces a very deliberately different one to those which use anachronies. Ellipsis, unlike other enunciative systems, such as montage, hides its mark of enunciation, making the spectator feel as though it is they who are making the connections themselves. As such it can be said to be a discours masquerading as histoire, allowing the spectator to take possession; enhancing their identication. Godard uses ellipsis to a greater extent, with the technique of the jump-cut emerging from it; the ellipsis becomes a fully edged authoring tool. An architectural ellipsis or jump-cut would have to manage a similar operation. The means by which architecture elides the event is by landmark; the journey from one place to another negotiated with constant reference to a number of landmarks along the way; these landmarks operate to condense a longer journey; we both perceive and recall the landmarks before the journey in between. This is nothing new, being a part of established urban theories, what the theory of ellipsis adds to this is an examination of the quality of that journey; the aspect of audience participation, of editing spaces to avoid certain events, all adds to this urban theory a certain dimension, a closer look at the effects which it has. The descriptive pause, such as the establishing shot, often serves to pause the narrative in order to provide greater detail about a setting; the fabula is given primacy over the narrative for a time. They still operate on a narrative level, however; as they build dramatic expectations. The simple equivalent of the descriptive pause in architecture would be the framed, constructed view onto to the surrounding landscape; this serves to place us in context (fabula/ diegesis) and also as a part of the buildings narrative. Also, the building approach can serve in this manner, especially outside of the urban situation. The emblematic quality of the descriptive shot allows it to be translated into an image of a building; be it striking signage, unusual form or colour, or a unique detail.

The scene is generally a long single-take sequence; the story-time and the discourse time are of equal value; and are concurrent. These are used to underline the most signicant events of a lm. Their contrast with other scenes provides the value of the technique. Architectural scenes are those spaces which are large, having large distances to traverse between entrances, for example. The event aspect must be underlined, of course; a long corridor may not appear as a scene in the architectural realm unless it bears some signicance; such as being an important journey, having a conversation during it, or whatever. Tschumi refers to this as vectored space; such as that of his department store project shown here. Isochrony is a technique used by the likes of Warhol in which they are largely built up of long-take scenes, and are shown unfolding as events would, deliberately and with a leisurely fashion. This is in order to challenge our patterns of perception, and to reconsider the idea of the pace of the lm. Architecturally and lmically similar to the scene; but to a greater extreme, the aspect of event not so important; extended use of meaningless spaces with little event input would have a similar effect. Andrey Tarkovsky uses this technique extensively, allowing shots to determine the pacing of the editing.
Time, imprinted in the frame, dictates the particular editing principle; and the pieces that wont edit that cant be properly joined are those which record a radically different kind of time. One cannot, for instance, put actual time together with conceptual time, any more than one can join water pipes of different diameter. The consistency of the time that runs through the shot, its intensity or sloppiness, could be called time-pressure: then editing can be seen as the assembly of the pieces on the basis of the time pressure within them. Tarkovsky p117

The summary condenses a large stretch of storyline into a brief, abridged discourse. This is often used to render a series of events in a reasonably succinct fashion. Often seen in the condensation of crosscountry journeys into scenes of train tracks, turning wheels, etc. The summary is similar to ellipsis, but it enunciates itself, not involving the audience so much, as they make an active leap in ellipsis, it is done for them here, and presented as such. The frequency aspect of time requires some exploration also; the number of times an event is repeated, and the ways in which this is done have obvious implications for how we perceive both lm and architecture. The narrative purposes of such repetitions (or lack of such) are also of interest. The repeating form in frequency is used for specic effect in lm; and hence stands out when it is employed. The repetition of an event may show it from various points of view. Examples of repeating form are frequently to be found in Hollywoods courtroom dramas, where events are examined many times through different points of view which we know to be subjective. The repeating form must be diegetically motivated; be a part of the requirements of the story, and will usually involve a number of narrators at different points. The repeating form suggests the differences that others would nd in the experience of a single space; ve people (or the same person on ve different occasions) would have ve subtly different versions of being in a space. Rashomon, Kurosawas breakthrough lm into the Western market, is a masterful example of this strategy, retelling the same story through the eyes of a number of the participants of a trial; showing up in moth gross and subtle scales; the commonality and inconsistency in their stories. The opposite of this is the Iterative or Frequentive mode. These modes are the representation of multiple similar events by the showing of one typical occurrence of such an event. Such scenes may then incorporate the difference that this particular time has; the extra-ordinary event that also occurs. Also used is the pseudo-iterative; a scene which serves to show the uniqueness of even the most commonplace occurrence. In many ways, our experiences of the built environment are in this mode; repeated uses of a space renders the duration of our experience to be iterative. The nal, and most common event in lm is the Singulative; that which occurs once. This event in non-typical, and makes up most of the interest of the narrative.

These notions of narrative and narration build towards a picture architecturally, of dealing with architectural production and experience in a different way. Familiarity with buildings is considered here as an important concept; as are the events which happen there. Events in lm can have dual aspects, being simultaneously presented as both typical and unique circumstances. Exploring a new place for the rst time tends to employ more in the way of analepses; especially if this building is intended for visitors rather than long term use. Thus, familiarity and contextuality are linked to the temporal aspect of lm. 3. Space. Fabula events are represented as occurring in a spatial frame of reference, however abstract this may be, given the nature of the cinematic screen. The syuzhet suggests fabula events which construct this space, the fabula being the story world, and the syuzhet being the plot which generates events in the fabula. The lm has its space constructed by these events; any space not required by the syuzhet will not be described by the fabula. In order to validate the Syuzhet; science-ction and fantasy lms in particular; but also period drama; will employ greater levels of detail and back-story to the fabula. The impression of crowds with their own motivations outside of that of the Syuzhet events makes the entire narrative more believable. The use of merchandising can also enhance this further; giving the audience an excess of information which is meaningless to the actual plot of the lm. Space is also subject to retardation and impedance; space may be revealed as we need to see it, before, or after, each to different effect. Narration and space is a complex subject which is of great importance to cinema and to this study of lm in relation to architecture. The constructivist theories of narration are returned to once again by Bordwell, after a brief note on the perspectivist theory, which places great stock in the stimulus as producing a perception of a world. The constructivist view put forward by Karl Popper, amongst others; is exclusive of this, and operates with somewhat more complexity. The initial observation of constructivist theory asserts the opposite of perspectival theory; that the stimulus is, in itself, insufcient to dictate a perceptual experience. Rather, the constructivists see perception as an inferential process which reworks the stimuli; a dynamic view of perception. This view of the operation of perception affords the viewer with greater input into the meaning of that which is presented to them. The dynamic view of perception itself is something which architecture can use directly; an understanding of how a given view is understood is of great importance to the designers of buildings. Constructivist theory tells us that we use codes, cues for spatial depth such as lines receding to vanishing points, various depths of colour and texture, transparency and so on in order to understand spaces. These codes and cues are not given; they are taken from our previous experiences; these previous encounters are what helps us to understand that which is put in front of us. In lm, the viewer must lose the perception of the two-dimensional screen, and actively search out a world behind/beyond/in- that screen. The concept of a cognitive map grows out of this. In lm, this map is created from the stimulus available, the space as it unfolds on screen. The cognitive map is the way in which the viewer understands the spatial relations of the lm. These relations may be aided or frustrated by means of editing, as is required by the lm. This map would seem to be related to the notions of imagability from Kevin Lynchs urban theory. systems: Syuzhet Fabula

 Narration: Style Excess

Fabula

The diagram given above, from Bordwell attempts to map the relations of syuzhet and fabula to one another and also to style; the excess refers to a narrative character dened by Roland Barthes, also known as the third meaning or obtuse meaning. It is described as a third meaning, beyond denotation and connotation; it is the perceptual, but not narrational or stylistic elements. This may include the lms production design, for instance, or a decorative style in architecture; it is an excess, surplus to the meaning of the narrative structure.
The obtuse meaning is not in the language-system (even that of symbols). Take away the obtuse meaning and communication and signication remain, still circulate, still come through: without it, I can still state and read. No more, however, it is to be located in language use. It may be that there is a certain constant in Eisensteinian obtuse meaning, but in that case it is already a thematic language, an idiolect, this idiolect being provisional (simply decided by a critic writing on SME). Obtuse meanings are to be found not everywhere (the signier is rare, a future gure) but somewhere: in other authors of lms (perhaps), in a certain manner of reading life and so reality itself (the word is simply used here in opposition to the deliberately ctive). In image XVI from Ordinary Fascism (by Mikhail Romm), a documentary image, I can easily read an obvious image, that of fascism (aesthetics and symbolics of power, the theatrical hunt), but I can also read an obtuse meaning: the (again) disguised, blond silliness of the young quiver-bearer, the abbiness of his hands and mouth (I cannot manage to describe, only to designate location), Goerings thick nails, his trashy ring (this is already on the brink of obvious meaning, like the treacly platitude of the imbecile smile of the bespectacled man in the background - visibly an arse-licker). Roland Barthes, The Third Meaning.

How do these terms relate to our understanding of architectural space? Syuzhet: our use of a building; be it as it was designed for or against that purpose. Fabula: The building environment as created. Style: translating shots and edits to architecture produces the idea of the style as the spatial organisation of the building; the means by which one traverses it, and so on. Excess: The visual element of the building; the style of architecture; ornamentation or lack thereof. There is a balance in lm of just how much information the syuzhet gives us of the fabula. This may be described as being a balance between being rareed or overloaded. The mystery/ detective genre, for example, is traditionally overloaded with additional syuzhet information; some of which must be discarded (the red herring or Hitchcocks McGufn) and some of which must be elaborated upon if the viewer is to beat the detective to the conclusion of the syuzhet. The gaps in the fabula are used in a number of ways; examples of which are given in Bordwell. A fabula gap may be employed for simplicitys sake- to the rendering of a given part of the story concisely and succinctly; however, such gaps may also be used to engender suspense. This is the theory of exposition- how much fabula information over how long? The shot/reverse shot is a convention used to a great extent in the classical Hollywood style. The shot has a number of readings, one of which is related to narrative theory. The shot/ reverse shot is a setup used in conversational scenes, as described below. Put simply, the sequence consists of two shots. 1. X looks offscreen. 2. Y looks offscreen in opposite direction to X. The shot is more complex than that, but it will sufce as an initial explanation. Shot/reverse shot cutting operates to engender the situation of suture in the spectator; that is that the viewer feels that they are fully a part of the action. The sequence allows the direction of the lm to show how each of the participants of a conversation, for example, react to what the other has said. Eyelines are usually maintained for the shot to remain effective. The narration is played down by this

shot, as it shows multiple points of view, giving the spectator the feeling that scenographic space is fully accounted for. As such, the space is not explored, not retarded in any way, but there for the viewer to see, or to accept that it is there. Suture may be foregrounded deliberately by aunting the oblique camera angles. If the establishing shot is not present, or by celebrating the rhythm of the shot/ reverse shot. This would make the viewer very much aware of how they are being placed within the action. There are a number of alternatives to sutured cinema; for example, the fetishising of framing effects and camera positions. Shifts in camera position that suture closes off may be used. How suture incorporates into the architectural eld has been touched upon in another set of notes; nding the architectonic equivalent of the shot/ reverse shot would be an important move forward; allowing the use or denial of this pertinent theory. This is unlikely, however, due to the differences between lm and architecture. The spectator will rarely (if at all) nd themselves in a position where they have such a complete view of a space virtually simultaneously. The identication with the two actors on screen is a major part of the effect of shot/ reverse shot. Referring to my chapter on spectatorship theory, of which identication is a part, it would seem to be the case that the shot/ reverse shot relies again upon familiarity, this time with the actual physical position occupied by another. Since conversations and dramatic moments are not constructed by architecture, we are left with the spatial congurations to consider; the shot/reverse shot allows for a greater expositon of the space occupied by the crosscutting between two or more points of view. Scenographic space is a sensible follow-on from this; how is a scene constructed for us to understand on what is essentially a at screen? Scenographic space is constructed from three types of cue: 1. Shot space 2. Editing space (Montage space) 3. Sonic space Shot Space: the space of the shot is that which is most immediately cinematic; the on-screen space. This operates with the various types of perspective, employing the visual cues of each system in order to develop the scenographic space. Overlapping contours give a sense of near and far. Texture comes forward; smooth surfaces recede. Atmospheric perspective renders the hazy as distant; superimposed translucent materials also recede the object which they cover. Familiar size is a cue for space; an object such as a human body is of a given size; giving us certain expectations. Light and shade helps us; lighting models objects; backlighting reinforces gure/ ground differentials. Light and shade can help throw volumes into denition, or keep them indistinct. Colour is also an important spatial cue, as is perspective, be it of one or two point variety, a synthetic (curved perspective created by certain lenses) or even a non-scientic system. Figure movement is one of the greatest cues of space in cinema; as it helps to dene the limits of a given space. (See example of use of the body in space in THX1138, for example) The monocular movement parallax describes the movement of the camera; also a powerful cue for scenographic space. This refers to camera movement, but not zoom shots. Shot space cues dene the actual visual space as experienced; as such, these cues are very similar to how we understand the immediate experience of architectural space. The editing cues are much more to do with transitions from one space to another. Edited space can cover great distances, or conceal smaller ones. It can serve to clarify or confuse the space of the lm. Editing, by its nature, removes things from the lm; this removal may be for the effect of creating relations, cutting out unnecessary scenes, or even to occlude relations. Editing cues us to the fact that there has been a transition, the type of cut may (not always) give us clues as to the exact temporal and spatial situation on either side of the edit. The concept of montage is a complex

and important one, which has its own chapter in this work, the implications and uses of it are beyond the scope of this chapter. Sonic space may be constructed much as shot space; sound is considered to have its own laws of perspective. This relates to the positions of the microphone and the noise source. For example, the voice in lm is usually regarded as the primary sound cue; and in many instances, the voice is heard with clarity despite the fact that the shot space depicts a long shot of the gures speaking. This paradox of sound/ vision requires there to be a theory of how we structure the hierarchy of sound/ vision cues. If we can hear the speakers clearly, we assume closeness, and take the long shot as being a convenience, and tend to ignore it. The tendency for this form of sound editing is denied altogetherby others, who use it more directly as an authoring element. Films like Robert Altmans Short Cuts, which features has a lot of background noise and several simultaneous conversations and speakers; with no privilege to a certain stream of the sound, forcing the spectator into being more attentive and further promoting the non-causal nature of his narration. Sonic space is effectively created in other ways by George Lucas THX1138 and Godards Alphaville. Combined with text, dials and readings; the noise and ltered speech creates a space of the Other to represent the machinery of oppressive totalitarian regimes. Offscreen space also contributes to the scenographic space. Offscreen space can be of two types; diegetic and non-diegetic. Diegetic offscreen space is that offscreen space which is still a part of the ctional world of the lm. This space consists of assumptions made by the viewer as to what exists outside of the frame edges. This space is only called upon when assumptions about it need to be made. The nondiegetic space includes the common theoretical device of the camera. The camera, rather than being a physical recording machine, is seen as an offscreen narrator which chooses to put certain material on display, in whichever way it does. Through examples, Bordwell shows how, in constructing cues for scenographic space, lm style contributes to viewing activities and narrational processes. He asserts that any device may be used narrationally in lm, not privileging certain techniques. Certain narrational styles have become dominant according to Bordwell; these include the following; Classical Hollywood narration; artcinema narration; historical-materialist narration; parametric narration and the specic example of Jean-Luc Godards narration. Now having some tools for critique of the means of narration, I shall have to further illustrate the commonality with architecture in this eld of lm study; narration comes in many forms, and with different reasons. Space in lm can be said to unfold within the narrative according to its requirements. If this is the same within architecture, then it is use, or even Tschumis event which denes our architectural spaces. The analogies for the lmic style, such as spatial editing, scenic cues, and so one will contribute to the events conjured by spaces; understanding and controlling this are two very different matters. Tschumis statements that architecture is best (or only) understood at its extremes is of narrative interest. In his Advertisements for Architecture Tschumi posits viewpoints such as to really appreciate architecture, you may even need to commit a murder. These extreme actions may help to dene the limits of architecture as those of experience; so that to appreciate a place fully, you must have the greatest, most extreme experiences there. This notion of event carries over into later works. The inuence of cinema is present in these statements; for cinema has a tradition of extreme uses of space; to, as Tschumi puts it, transgress spaces; to work counter to their programmatic use; or state; see also the poster of Corbusiers Villa Savoye in a state of decay; Tschumi comments that;
The most architectural thing about this building is the state of decay in which it is. Architecture only survives where it negates the form that society expects of it. Where it negates itself by transgressing the limits that history has set for it.

The notion of transgression is primary to this; space in lm is transgressed by event of one form or another; the ways in which space becomes memorable through lm is the way in which it is transgressed; even subtly by the cameras very presence. Architecture may also be representative of memory; provide a memory in itself. This is the ambition of projects such as Libeskinds extension to the Berlin Museum for the Holocaust. Or rather as an absence of memory as in ellipsis. In lm, there are also issues of lm as memory; where lm provides a false memory for the participants/ audience. {Such is the case with early documentary lm for
Italian Americans in New York, the subject of Giuliana Brunos essay City Views: the voyage of lm images in the Cinematic City edited by D. Clarke.}

The notion of architecture as memory is introduced in Rowe and Koetters Collage Cities, citing Francis Yates reading of the gothic cathedral as a mnemonic device, as a teaching aid. The notion of theatres of prophecy and of memory; buildings which serve as both a false memory or as an agent for prophecy. This dichotomy can be observed to exist within one building, as it does within their users. These buildings existed within sacred geometries which signied the various numbers held as important by the church, and had decorations which were designed to evoke the stories of the faith. A good worked example of this is contained in Hedjuks project for a Christ Chapel as presented in his Pewter Wings Golden Horns, Stone Veils book. The stations of the cross are contained as a part of this chapel; the mnemonics of certain tableaux from the passion of Christ are painted for prayers to be said at each one, the church served in the past to supplement or replace the written narrative of the bible and gospel stories. Such narrative is closely tied to ritual. Another example may be found in Eisensteins Montage and Architecture. In this, he describes a subversion of this technique as a subtle manipulation of decoration and position by Bernini in the column supports of the canopy in St Peters. He used this to tell a story of one of the popes nephews fell in love with and had a child by a pupil of Bernini; but the child was rejected by the pope on behalf of his nephew, and Bernini sought to display this in some way, by scenes which portray a womans face in the stages of childbirth, and a childs head over the crest of the papal tiara. There is a version of the meaning of this which is in keeping with the church, and various other meanings as well. Narration in lm is an accepted concept. The theories of narration in lm consider the means by which narration is achieved; such theory considers the narrator, the narrated and the means of narration. The purpose of narration is to impart something to the audience, be that ction or documentary. Architecture may also be required to communicate to its audience. All architecture seeks to make itself legible in terms of its spatial arrangement; corridors and staircases seek to be well exposed and easy to use, the building type is often exposed by the layout and image of the exterior. Some buildings are of symbolic importance, great public or private works, which hope to communicate something about their purpose to the audience and users. This may be a case of scale and ornament in many cases; the institutions of the established churches, for example, have examples of highly narrative nature, acting as a mnemonic for the stories of their bibles and gospels. A building need not achieve this necessarily through applied ornament. The excitement of buildings such as Mies van der Rohes Barcelona pavilion is their narrative. This narrative is both an acquired one; the place in architectural history that they now have, and that of their original purpose, in this example, as a breakthrough in an exciting new way for architecture to be conceived. This is expressed in the buildings fabric, through our shot types, montage, colour and contrast, and all the other tools of narration.