I’ve recently joined the film club at our local cinema and this week we were treated to Gabriel Axel’s Babette’s Feast from 1987. A wonderful Danish film which in its restraint, lack of melodrama and gentle humour reminded me of several modern classics from Denmark such as Italian for beginners. Have Danish films always been like this?
One aspect of the film jarred though: the use of an omniscient narrator. “Show don’t tell” I thought to myself. I thought of Vicky Cristina Barcelona where the narrator was even more obtrusive.
In films as in novels, there can be two kinds of narrators.
A first person narrator: either the central character or someone else who appears in the film. Taxi Driver for example. This usually works rather well as one gets an insight into the character.
There’s also the omniscient, God-like narrator, as in Babette as in Vicky Cristina. Far less likely to work in my opinion.
The Big Lebowski offered an interesting variation on this. The disembodied voice we’ve been hearing throughout the film actually makes an appearance as a character of sorts at the end of the film.
AW Cinephiles, I’d like to hear about other films which use a narrator. The good, the bad, the ugly and the interesting. The more obscure and unusual, the better.
Well, The Railway children springs to mind, Jenny Agutter as Bobbie.
Babette’s Feast is a delightful film. I first saw it on a BBC2 ‘theme’ day of programmes about food. BF was one of the films, and ‘Tampopo’ was another. Equally delightful, and utterly bonkers, concerning one woman’s search for the perfect bowl of noodles, with various digressions. If you liked Babette, KFD, and haven’t seen Tampopo, I think you’ll like it.
Sorry, this doesn’t answer your original post . . .
Film Noir of the ’40s would not be the same without the narrator. Think of all those Bogart films where he is both chief protagonist and (un)reliable narrator
Thanks GCU. Sounds great.
A few diversions here and there always brighten up a thread.
How right you are Steerpike.
A first person narrator does give a real intensity. And if it’s an unreliable narrator, all the better!
Million Dollar Baby – Morgan Freeman narrates the story of his friend Clint and his protege Hilary Swank – love that movie. A funny thing – I know it is in color but I always thing of it as being in black and white. Go figure.
Thanks Ger. That’s another interesting variation on the first person narrator theme. Rather than it being the central character, it is someone close to him who tells the story.
If you are trying to write a screenplay for a novel with a very distinctive first person narrator, you are inevitably going to lose a lot if you don’t use a narrator in the film. The Great Gatsby comes to mind. I’ve not seen the latest adaptation so I don’t know whether they used one.
Blade Runner. The studio insisted on a Harrison Ford voiceover for the theatrical release and we got some sub Sam Spade, world weary nonsense. The later director’s and Final Cut editions dispensed with it, and the film is much better without it.
Good example Wheldrake
I wonder what the studio’s reasons were.
That the plot was too complex?
That the audience would get a closer relationship with the HF character?
I actually like both versions. With narration it’s like Humphrey Bogart in space.
I was trying to find a list of movies using a narrator.
One I just remembered was Lasse Hallström’s wonderful My life as a Dog.
Here’s a list of 10 good ones to be getting on with.
http://thescriptlab.com/features/the-lists/1014-top-10-voice-overs-in-film?showall=
Talking about film noir, here is an oddity: a film where you see everything through the protagonists’s eyes.
http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2009/12/lady-in-lake-1947.html