Bernd Leiendecker (2015): «They Only See What They Want to See.» Geschichte des unzuverlässigen E... more Bernd Leiendecker (2015): «They Only See What They Want to See.» Geschichte des unzuverlässigen Erzählens im Spielfilm. Marburg: Schüren.
Durch Filme wie Fight Club oder The Sixth Sense ist unzuverlässiges Erzählen zur Jahrtausendwende in der Filmwissenschaft ebenso in den Blickpunkt gerückt wie beim Publikum. In diesem Zusammenhang bleibt jedoch häufig verborgen, dass unzuverlässiges Erzählen im Spielfilm fast so alt ist wie das Kino selbst. Geschichte des unzuverlässigen Erzählens im Spielfilm liefert eine filmhistorische Untersuchung des Phänomens erzählerischer Unzuverlässigkeit anhand von mehr als 200 relevanten Filmen aus der Zeit zwischen 1895 und 2000. Diese Untersuchung zeigt auf, dass unzuverlässiges Erzählen auf einer geringen Zahl von Erzählmustern basiert, welche im Laufe der Zeit Veränderungen unterworfen sind. Ein zweiter Analyseschritt weist nach, dass Form und Häufigkeit von unzuverlässigem Erzählen sowohl durch Innovationen in der filmischen Aufführungs- und Auswertungspraxis als auch durch gesamtgesellschaftliche Faktoren beeinflusst werden. Im Anhang erfolgt eine systematisierte Auflistung relevanter Filmbeispiele mit Verweisen auf ihre Behandlung in der weiteren Forschungsliteratur.
(Dis)Positionen Fernsehen & Film. (Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftliches Kolloquium, Bd. 27)., Jul 2016
Bernd Leiendecker (2016): «Girls are what you sleep with after the game, not what you coach durin... more Bernd Leiendecker (2016): «Girls are what you sleep with after the game, not what you coach during the game» - Die stereotype Geschlechterordnung des Baseballfilms und ihre verdeckte Affirmation in Bull Durham und Trouble with the Curve. In: Miriam Drewes et al. (Hg.): (Dis)Positionen Fernsehen & Film. (Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftliches Kolloquium, Bd. 27). Marburg: Schüren. S.248-254.
Bernd Leiendecker (2016): And Then There Were... Two? The Motif of Faking Your Own Death in And T... more Bernd Leiendecker (2016): And Then There Were... Two? The Motif of Faking Your Own Death in And Then There Were None. In: Judith Kretzschmar/Sebastian Stoppe/Susanne Vollberg (Hg.): Hercule Poirot trifft Miss Marple. Agatha Christie intermedial. (MedienRausch, Bd. 7). Darmstadt: Büchner. S.93-107.
An- und Aussichten (Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftliches Kolloquium, Bd. 26).
Bernd Leiendecker (2016): Pulpo Fiction. WM-Krakenorakel Paul im medialen Kontext. In: Philipp Bl... more Bernd Leiendecker (2016): Pulpo Fiction. WM-Krakenorakel Paul im medialen Kontext. In: Philipp Blum/Monika Weiß (Hg.): An- und Aussichten (Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftliches Kolloquium, Bd. 26). Marburg: Schüren. S.177-191.
Bernd Leiendecker (2014): The Media Specifics of Mad Unreliable Narration in Audiovisual Media. I... more Bernd Leiendecker (2014): The Media Specifics of Mad Unreliable Narration in Audiovisual Media. In: Nathalie Jaëck et. al. (eds.): Les narrateurs fous / Mad Narrators. Pessac: Maison des Sciences de l'Homme de Aquitaine. S.437-451.
Bernd Leiendecker (2013): (K)Ein Slasher-Film. Publikumsmanipulation in Fred Walton's April Fool'... more Bernd Leiendecker (2013): (K)Ein Slasher-Film. Publikumsmanipulation in Fred Walton's April Fool's Day. In: Cinema #58: Manipulation. Schweizer Filmjahrbuch. Marburg: Schüren. S.10-20.
"Bernd Leiendecker (2013) Unzuverlässiges Erzählen als Mittel der Komik in How I Met Your Mother.... more "Bernd Leiendecker (2013) Unzuverlässiges Erzählen als Mittel der Komik in How I Met Your Mother. In: Susanne Eichner/Lothar Mikos/Rainer Winter (Hg.): Transnationale Serienkultur: Theorie, Ästhetik, Narration und Rezeption neuer Fernsehserien. Wiesbaden: Springer Vs. S.233-246.
(Dis)Orienting Media and Narrative Mazes, Dec 2012
Bernd Leiendecker (2013): Leaving the Narrative Maze. The Plot Twist as a Device of Re-orientatio... more Bernd Leiendecker (2013): Leaving the Narrative Maze. The Plot Twist as a Device of Re-orientation. In: Julia Eckel et al. (eds.): (Dis)Orienting Media and Narrative Mazes. Bielefeld: transcript. p.257-272.
Revisionen – Relektüren – Perspektiven. (Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftliches Kolloquium, Bd. 23)., Nov 2012
Bernd Leiendecker (2012): Auf dem Weg zu einer Definition des Begriffs ‚unzuverlässiges Erzählen‘... more Bernd Leiendecker (2012): Auf dem Weg zu einer Definition des Begriffs ‚unzuverlässiges Erzählen‘. In: Simon Frisch/Tim Raupach (Hg.): Revisionen – Relektüren – Perspektiven. (Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftliches Kolloquium, Bd. 23). Marburg: Schüren. S.211-224.
Im Moment des' Mehr': Mediale Prozesse …, Oct 2012
Bernd Leiendecker (2012) Zur Geschichte des unzuverlässigen Erzählens im Film. In: Peter M. Spang... more Bernd Leiendecker (2012) Zur Geschichte des unzuverlässigen Erzählens im Film. In: Peter M. Spangenberg/Bianca Westermann (Hg.): Im Moment des 'Mehr'. Mediale Prozesse jenseits des Funktionalen. Münster: Lit. S.53-74.
Dawn of an Evil Millennium. Horror/Kultur im neuen Jahrtausend., 2011
Bernd Leiendecker (2011): “Sie wird sich irgendwann den Tatsachen stellen müssen.” Dead End und d... more Bernd Leiendecker (2011): “Sie wird sich irgendwann den Tatsachen stellen müssen.” Dead End und der unbewusste Tod als Manifestation erzählerischer Unzuverlässigkeit. In: Jörg van Bebber (Hg.): Dawn of an Evil Millennium. Horror/Kultur im neuen Jahrtausend. Darmstadt: Büchner. S.111-116.
From duckface selfies or mirror selfies to more obscure variations like cat beard selfies, many s... more From duckface selfies or mirror selfies to more obscure variations like cat beard selfies, many selfies seem to fit a particular subcategory. Hence it seems logical to borrow a term from other media and analyze if and how selfies constitute genres. Applying film genre theory to selfies, one is faced with challenges that may lead to a better understanding of what selfies are and why they are categorized at all.
Film theory postulates that genrefication is important for production, marketing and reception purposes. Most selfies, however, are not made for financial profit and their production and reception typically is free. Thus, many of the usual reasons for genrefication do not seem to apply. Nevertheless, there seems to be a process of genrefication at work: Many websites collect selfies from one genre only and users knowingly emulate other selfies and place their own selfie in a certain category via hashtags.
But why do users willingly submit themselves to genre rules although the term selfie seems to carry an implicit promise of individuality? Answering this question may lead to a better understanding of the practise of taking and circulating selfies as well as the concept of the self that selfies evoke.
In the context of unreliable narration, Film Studies often analyzes films that do not feature a c... more In the context of unreliable narration, Film Studies often analyzes films that do not feature a character narrator. Nevertheless, there is one type of mimetically unreliable narration that simply cannot do without such a character narrator: the lying flashback as used in a variety of films from Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari to The Usual Suspects. In those cases a character narrates things to a diegetic audience that are supposed to have already happened. This leads to a flashback that shows the events exactly the way the character narrates them. Ultimately, however, it turns out that the depicted events did not happen at all or that the truth differs significantly from what has been shown. This may be due to misperceptions of the narrating character or – more often – due to his deliberate lies.
One of the most common reasons given to explain the lying flashbacks is the madness of the narrating characters. After seeming rather stable throughout the film, they turn out to be mad. Most often they are pathologically insane criminals, but there are also a few cases of narrators who are madly in love in a more metaphorical sense of the word madness. This presentation aims to explain this apparent requirement of insanity as the justification for lying flashbacks in film. This justification strategy seems to be directly tied to the specific mode of storytelling encouraged by the medium film. My hypothesis will be demonstrated by comparing lying narrators in film to TV's lying narrators who, as it turns out, are usually quite sane.
Bernd Leiendecker (2015): «They Only See What They Want to See.» Geschichte des unzuverlässigen E... more Bernd Leiendecker (2015): «They Only See What They Want to See.» Geschichte des unzuverlässigen Erzählens im Spielfilm. Marburg: Schüren.
Durch Filme wie Fight Club oder The Sixth Sense ist unzuverlässiges Erzählen zur Jahrtausendwende in der Filmwissenschaft ebenso in den Blickpunkt gerückt wie beim Publikum. In diesem Zusammenhang bleibt jedoch häufig verborgen, dass unzuverlässiges Erzählen im Spielfilm fast so alt ist wie das Kino selbst. Geschichte des unzuverlässigen Erzählens im Spielfilm liefert eine filmhistorische Untersuchung des Phänomens erzählerischer Unzuverlässigkeit anhand von mehr als 200 relevanten Filmen aus der Zeit zwischen 1895 und 2000. Diese Untersuchung zeigt auf, dass unzuverlässiges Erzählen auf einer geringen Zahl von Erzählmustern basiert, welche im Laufe der Zeit Veränderungen unterworfen sind. Ein zweiter Analyseschritt weist nach, dass Form und Häufigkeit von unzuverlässigem Erzählen sowohl durch Innovationen in der filmischen Aufführungs- und Auswertungspraxis als auch durch gesamtgesellschaftliche Faktoren beeinflusst werden. Im Anhang erfolgt eine systematisierte Auflistung relevanter Filmbeispiele mit Verweisen auf ihre Behandlung in der weiteren Forschungsliteratur.
(Dis)Positionen Fernsehen & Film. (Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftliches Kolloquium, Bd. 27)., Jul 2016
Bernd Leiendecker (2016): «Girls are what you sleep with after the game, not what you coach durin... more Bernd Leiendecker (2016): «Girls are what you sleep with after the game, not what you coach during the game» - Die stereotype Geschlechterordnung des Baseballfilms und ihre verdeckte Affirmation in Bull Durham und Trouble with the Curve. In: Miriam Drewes et al. (Hg.): (Dis)Positionen Fernsehen & Film. (Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftliches Kolloquium, Bd. 27). Marburg: Schüren. S.248-254.
Bernd Leiendecker (2016): And Then There Were... Two? The Motif of Faking Your Own Death in And T... more Bernd Leiendecker (2016): And Then There Were... Two? The Motif of Faking Your Own Death in And Then There Were None. In: Judith Kretzschmar/Sebastian Stoppe/Susanne Vollberg (Hg.): Hercule Poirot trifft Miss Marple. Agatha Christie intermedial. (MedienRausch, Bd. 7). Darmstadt: Büchner. S.93-107.
An- und Aussichten (Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftliches Kolloquium, Bd. 26).
Bernd Leiendecker (2016): Pulpo Fiction. WM-Krakenorakel Paul im medialen Kontext. In: Philipp Bl... more Bernd Leiendecker (2016): Pulpo Fiction. WM-Krakenorakel Paul im medialen Kontext. In: Philipp Blum/Monika Weiß (Hg.): An- und Aussichten (Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftliches Kolloquium, Bd. 26). Marburg: Schüren. S.177-191.
Bernd Leiendecker (2014): The Media Specifics of Mad Unreliable Narration in Audiovisual Media. I... more Bernd Leiendecker (2014): The Media Specifics of Mad Unreliable Narration in Audiovisual Media. In: Nathalie Jaëck et. al. (eds.): Les narrateurs fous / Mad Narrators. Pessac: Maison des Sciences de l'Homme de Aquitaine. S.437-451.
Bernd Leiendecker (2013): (K)Ein Slasher-Film. Publikumsmanipulation in Fred Walton's April Fool'... more Bernd Leiendecker (2013): (K)Ein Slasher-Film. Publikumsmanipulation in Fred Walton's April Fool's Day. In: Cinema #58: Manipulation. Schweizer Filmjahrbuch. Marburg: Schüren. S.10-20.
"Bernd Leiendecker (2013) Unzuverlässiges Erzählen als Mittel der Komik in How I Met Your Mother.... more "Bernd Leiendecker (2013) Unzuverlässiges Erzählen als Mittel der Komik in How I Met Your Mother. In: Susanne Eichner/Lothar Mikos/Rainer Winter (Hg.): Transnationale Serienkultur: Theorie, Ästhetik, Narration und Rezeption neuer Fernsehserien. Wiesbaden: Springer Vs. S.233-246.
(Dis)Orienting Media and Narrative Mazes, Dec 2012
Bernd Leiendecker (2013): Leaving the Narrative Maze. The Plot Twist as a Device of Re-orientatio... more Bernd Leiendecker (2013): Leaving the Narrative Maze. The Plot Twist as a Device of Re-orientation. In: Julia Eckel et al. (eds.): (Dis)Orienting Media and Narrative Mazes. Bielefeld: transcript. p.257-272.
Revisionen – Relektüren – Perspektiven. (Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftliches Kolloquium, Bd. 23)., Nov 2012
Bernd Leiendecker (2012): Auf dem Weg zu einer Definition des Begriffs ‚unzuverlässiges Erzählen‘... more Bernd Leiendecker (2012): Auf dem Weg zu einer Definition des Begriffs ‚unzuverlässiges Erzählen‘. In: Simon Frisch/Tim Raupach (Hg.): Revisionen – Relektüren – Perspektiven. (Film- und Fernsehwissenschaftliches Kolloquium, Bd. 23). Marburg: Schüren. S.211-224.
Im Moment des' Mehr': Mediale Prozesse …, Oct 2012
Bernd Leiendecker (2012) Zur Geschichte des unzuverlässigen Erzählens im Film. In: Peter M. Spang... more Bernd Leiendecker (2012) Zur Geschichte des unzuverlässigen Erzählens im Film. In: Peter M. Spangenberg/Bianca Westermann (Hg.): Im Moment des 'Mehr'. Mediale Prozesse jenseits des Funktionalen. Münster: Lit. S.53-74.
Dawn of an Evil Millennium. Horror/Kultur im neuen Jahrtausend., 2011
Bernd Leiendecker (2011): “Sie wird sich irgendwann den Tatsachen stellen müssen.” Dead End und d... more Bernd Leiendecker (2011): “Sie wird sich irgendwann den Tatsachen stellen müssen.” Dead End und der unbewusste Tod als Manifestation erzählerischer Unzuverlässigkeit. In: Jörg van Bebber (Hg.): Dawn of an Evil Millennium. Horror/Kultur im neuen Jahrtausend. Darmstadt: Büchner. S.111-116.
From duckface selfies or mirror selfies to more obscure variations like cat beard selfies, many s... more From duckface selfies or mirror selfies to more obscure variations like cat beard selfies, many selfies seem to fit a particular subcategory. Hence it seems logical to borrow a term from other media and analyze if and how selfies constitute genres. Applying film genre theory to selfies, one is faced with challenges that may lead to a better understanding of what selfies are and why they are categorized at all.
Film theory postulates that genrefication is important for production, marketing and reception purposes. Most selfies, however, are not made for financial profit and their production and reception typically is free. Thus, many of the usual reasons for genrefication do not seem to apply. Nevertheless, there seems to be a process of genrefication at work: Many websites collect selfies from one genre only and users knowingly emulate other selfies and place their own selfie in a certain category via hashtags.
But why do users willingly submit themselves to genre rules although the term selfie seems to carry an implicit promise of individuality? Answering this question may lead to a better understanding of the practise of taking and circulating selfies as well as the concept of the self that selfies evoke.
In the context of unreliable narration, Film Studies often analyzes films that do not feature a c... more In the context of unreliable narration, Film Studies often analyzes films that do not feature a character narrator. Nevertheless, there is one type of mimetically unreliable narration that simply cannot do without such a character narrator: the lying flashback as used in a variety of films from Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari to The Usual Suspects. In those cases a character narrates things to a diegetic audience that are supposed to have already happened. This leads to a flashback that shows the events exactly the way the character narrates them. Ultimately, however, it turns out that the depicted events did not happen at all or that the truth differs significantly from what has been shown. This may be due to misperceptions of the narrating character or – more often – due to his deliberate lies.
One of the most common reasons given to explain the lying flashbacks is the madness of the narrating characters. After seeming rather stable throughout the film, they turn out to be mad. Most often they are pathologically insane criminals, but there are also a few cases of narrators who are madly in love in a more metaphorical sense of the word madness. This presentation aims to explain this apparent requirement of insanity as the justification for lying flashbacks in film. This justification strategy seems to be directly tied to the specific mode of storytelling encouraged by the medium film. My hypothesis will be demonstrated by comparing lying narrators in film to TV's lying narrators who, as it turns out, are usually quite sane.
One of the more common ways to lure an audience into the narrative maze of a film, factually unre... more One of the more common ways to lure an audience into the narrative maze of a film, factually unreliable narration has become more and more prevalent in the last two decades as a narrative device and as a topic of research for film scholars. However, most of the scientific attention has been focused on how unreliability is created. Its resolution, which usually occurs shortly before the end of a film, has been analyzed considerably less. This resolution is usually called a plot twist even though one might argue that the term epistemological twist is more exact.
Obviously, the plot twist designates a key moment in the narrative maze of unreliable narration. In its most common form, it offers a way out of the narrative maze that has been constructed up to that point. The mysterious and confusing events that have been presented so far are explained and henceforth the film usually follows a very classical pattern of narration, which can be likened to a straight line rather than a maze.
In order to achieve re-orientation, the plot twist can employ a variety of strategies and storytelling devices which a) underline its importance for the overall film and b) establish what "really" happened, at least to a certain extent. The aim of this presentation is to analyze how these devices are put to use and how their use changes with when the overall complexity of the unreliable narration increases.
As a medium which transmits information via two separate channels – image and sound – film can
e... more As a medium which transmits information via two separate channels – image and sound – film can
exploit the relationship between those channels in many different ways. One area in which this
relationship is frequently exploited is unreliable narration. Here, the voice of a voice-over narrator is
separated from the image of his/her body by time and space or by a different level of diegesis. Thus
contradictions between image and voice-over can be observed as well as downright lies which are
supported by the visual channel or which lead the audience to a flawed understanding of what is seen.
While film scholars have classified all of these phenomena as unreliable narration, it is often suppressed
that they are quite different in their techniques and effects. By critically examining different techniques
the presentation wants to offer a first step to a more thorough understanding of the relationship(s)
between voice-over and unreliable narration.
The last twenty years have seen a dramatic increase in films that feature inconsistent textual in... more The last twenty years have seen a dramatic increase in films that feature inconsistent textual information that the viewer resolves by interpreting parts of the film as unreliable narration meaning that these parts did not present the truth about the fictional world. Research about these films is usually limited to the study of individual cases or the comparison of a small number of films.
The point of my presentation is to demonstrate that in spite of the ever-growing number of examples, almost all the films can be organised into a rather small number of categories drawn from the content of the unreliable narration. For each category it is possible to describe a modus operandi. Furthermore, each category has its own genre restrictions and offers particular narrative advantages. But most significantly the films in many categories are under a constant pressure for innovation in order to keep deceiving the viewers successfully.
For a TV-sitcom, How I Met Your Mother offers a high degree of narrative complexity. Not only doe... more For a TV-sitcom, How I Met Your Mother offers a high degree of narrative complexity. Not only does it routinely feature larger story arcs than the traditional sitcom, it also uses a complicated flashback structure generated by several voice-over narrators. The point of my presentation, however, will be that it also employs unreliable narration repeatedly as a source of humor.
Even though Ted, the main voice-over narrator, seems to be an omnicient narrator at first sight, it turns out that he oftens distors facts because he doesn’t remember them correctly or because he doesn’t want to set a bad example for his kids who are the diegetic audience of his story. But while those distortions are always marked right away, different characters within Ted’s gigantic flashback also routinely tell stories as flashbacks-within-the-flashback. These stories are also true most of the time, but every once in a while one of these flashbacks turns out to be unreliable because it has represented a lie or misperceived version of the events.
In general, this kind of unreliable flashback is nothing extraordinary. It has been used in such classic films as Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari (D 1920) or Stage Fright (UK 1950) as well as in more recent films like The Usual Suspects (USA 1995) or Basic (USA 2003). The main difference between those examples and How I Met Your Mother is that the device of the unreliable flashback, usually restricted to thrillers and detective films, is used as a houmorous device.
It seems to me that the possibility of a humorously lying flashback is the direct result of the serial structure of How I Met Your Mother. Only after the characters have been firmly established, it is possible to have them lie to the audience without jeopardizing their popularity. Due to the familiarity with the protagonists it also is often possible to notice that something suspicious within the flashback, for example, when a character’s actions are at odds with his established personality. Furthermore, the true version of the events usually represents the more desirable outcome from the spectator’s point of view and is thus easier to accept than it is the case in detective movies where the lying person normally is a criminal trying to mislead the investigators. Alternatively, the true version may simply be the more believable one which is also a difference to the examples from the films cited above.
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Durch Filme wie Fight Club oder The Sixth Sense ist unzuverlässiges Erzählen zur Jahrtausendwende in der Filmwissenschaft ebenso in den Blickpunkt gerückt wie beim Publikum. In diesem Zusammenhang bleibt jedoch häufig verborgen, dass unzuverlässiges Erzählen im Spielfilm fast so alt ist wie das Kino selbst. Geschichte des unzuverlässigen Erzählens im Spielfilm liefert eine filmhistorische Untersuchung des Phänomens erzählerischer Unzuverlässigkeit anhand von mehr als 200 relevanten Filmen aus der Zeit zwischen 1895 und 2000. Diese Untersuchung zeigt auf, dass unzuverlässiges Erzählen auf einer geringen Zahl von Erzählmustern basiert, welche im Laufe der Zeit Veränderungen unterworfen sind. Ein zweiter Analyseschritt weist nach, dass Form und Häufigkeit von unzuverlässigem Erzählen sowohl durch Innovationen in der filmischen Aufführungs- und Auswertungspraxis als auch durch gesamtgesellschaftliche Faktoren beeinflusst werden. Im Anhang erfolgt eine systematisierte Auflistung relevanter Filmbeispiele mit Verweisen auf ihre Behandlung in der weiteren Forschungsliteratur.
Edited Volumes
Articles
http://www.lcdpu.fr/livre/?GCOI=27000100637500
http://www.schueren-verlag.de/programm/titel/359--manipulation.html
http://www.springer.com/new+%26+forthcoming+titles+%28default%29/book/978-3-531-17868-4"
http://www.transcript-verlag.de/ts2338/ts2338.php
http://www.schueren-verlag.de/programm/titel/342--revisionen-relektueren-perspektiven.html
http://www.litwebshop.de/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=10126
http://www.buechner-verlag.de/index.php/programm/van-bebber
Conference Presentations
Film theory postulates that genrefication is important for production, marketing and reception purposes. Most selfies, however, are not made for financial profit and their production and reception typically is free. Thus, many of the usual reasons for genrefication do not seem to apply. Nevertheless, there seems to be a process of genrefication at work: Many websites collect selfies from one genre only and users knowingly emulate other selfies and place their own selfie in a certain category via hashtags.
But why do users willingly submit themselves to genre rules although the term selfie seems to carry an implicit promise of individuality? Answering this question may lead to a better understanding of the practise of taking and circulating selfies as well as the concept of the self that selfies evoke.
One of the most common reasons given to explain the lying flashbacks is the madness of the narrating characters. After seeming rather stable throughout the film, they turn out to be mad. Most often they are pathologically insane criminals, but there are also a few cases of narrators who are madly in love in a more metaphorical sense of the word madness. This presentation aims to explain this apparent requirement of insanity as the justification for lying flashbacks in film. This justification strategy seems to be directly tied to the specific mode of storytelling encouraged by the medium film. My hypothesis will be demonstrated by comparing lying narrators in film to TV's lying narrators who, as it turns out, are usually quite sane.
Durch Filme wie Fight Club oder The Sixth Sense ist unzuverlässiges Erzählen zur Jahrtausendwende in der Filmwissenschaft ebenso in den Blickpunkt gerückt wie beim Publikum. In diesem Zusammenhang bleibt jedoch häufig verborgen, dass unzuverlässiges Erzählen im Spielfilm fast so alt ist wie das Kino selbst. Geschichte des unzuverlässigen Erzählens im Spielfilm liefert eine filmhistorische Untersuchung des Phänomens erzählerischer Unzuverlässigkeit anhand von mehr als 200 relevanten Filmen aus der Zeit zwischen 1895 und 2000. Diese Untersuchung zeigt auf, dass unzuverlässiges Erzählen auf einer geringen Zahl von Erzählmustern basiert, welche im Laufe der Zeit Veränderungen unterworfen sind. Ein zweiter Analyseschritt weist nach, dass Form und Häufigkeit von unzuverlässigem Erzählen sowohl durch Innovationen in der filmischen Aufführungs- und Auswertungspraxis als auch durch gesamtgesellschaftliche Faktoren beeinflusst werden. Im Anhang erfolgt eine systematisierte Auflistung relevanter Filmbeispiele mit Verweisen auf ihre Behandlung in der weiteren Forschungsliteratur.
http://www.lcdpu.fr/livre/?GCOI=27000100637500
http://www.schueren-verlag.de/programm/titel/359--manipulation.html
http://www.springer.com/new+%26+forthcoming+titles+%28default%29/book/978-3-531-17868-4"
http://www.transcript-verlag.de/ts2338/ts2338.php
http://www.schueren-verlag.de/programm/titel/342--revisionen-relektueren-perspektiven.html
http://www.litwebshop.de/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=10126
http://www.buechner-verlag.de/index.php/programm/van-bebber
Film theory postulates that genrefication is important for production, marketing and reception purposes. Most selfies, however, are not made for financial profit and their production and reception typically is free. Thus, many of the usual reasons for genrefication do not seem to apply. Nevertheless, there seems to be a process of genrefication at work: Many websites collect selfies from one genre only and users knowingly emulate other selfies and place their own selfie in a certain category via hashtags.
But why do users willingly submit themselves to genre rules although the term selfie seems to carry an implicit promise of individuality? Answering this question may lead to a better understanding of the practise of taking and circulating selfies as well as the concept of the self that selfies evoke.
One of the most common reasons given to explain the lying flashbacks is the madness of the narrating characters. After seeming rather stable throughout the film, they turn out to be mad. Most often they are pathologically insane criminals, but there are also a few cases of narrators who are madly in love in a more metaphorical sense of the word madness. This presentation aims to explain this apparent requirement of insanity as the justification for lying flashbacks in film. This justification strategy seems to be directly tied to the specific mode of storytelling encouraged by the medium film. My hypothesis will be demonstrated by comparing lying narrators in film to TV's lying narrators who, as it turns out, are usually quite sane.
Obviously, the plot twist designates a key moment in the narrative maze of unreliable narration. In its most common form, it offers a way out of the narrative maze that has been constructed up to that point. The mysterious and confusing events that have been presented so far are explained and henceforth the film usually follows a very classical pattern of narration, which can be likened to a straight line rather than a maze.
In order to achieve re-orientation, the plot twist can employ a variety of strategies and storytelling devices which a) underline its importance for the overall film and b) establish what "really" happened, at least to a certain extent. The aim of this presentation is to analyze how these devices are put to use and how their use changes with when the overall complexity of the unreliable narration increases.
exploit the relationship between those channels in many different ways. One area in which this
relationship is frequently exploited is unreliable narration. Here, the voice of a voice-over narrator is
separated from the image of his/her body by time and space or by a different level of diegesis. Thus
contradictions between image and voice-over can be observed as well as downright lies which are
supported by the visual channel or which lead the audience to a flawed understanding of what is seen.
While film scholars have classified all of these phenomena as unreliable narration, it is often suppressed
that they are quite different in their techniques and effects. By critically examining different techniques
the presentation wants to offer a first step to a more thorough understanding of the relationship(s)
between voice-over and unreliable narration.
The point of my presentation is to demonstrate that in spite of the ever-growing number of examples, almost all the films can be organised into a rather small number of categories drawn from the content of the unreliable narration. For each category it is possible to describe a modus operandi. Furthermore, each category has its own genre restrictions and offers particular narrative advantages. But most significantly the films in many categories are under a constant pressure for innovation in order to keep deceiving the viewers successfully.
Even though Ted, the main voice-over narrator, seems to be an omnicient narrator at first sight, it turns out that he oftens distors facts because he doesn’t remember them correctly or because he doesn’t want to set a bad example for his kids who are the diegetic audience of his story. But while those distortions are always marked right away, different characters within Ted’s gigantic flashback also routinely tell stories as flashbacks-within-the-flashback. These stories are also true most of the time, but every once in a while one of these flashbacks turns out to be unreliable because it has represented a lie or misperceived version of the events.
In general, this kind of unreliable flashback is nothing extraordinary. It has been used in such classic films as Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari (D 1920) or Stage Fright (UK 1950) as well as in more recent films like The Usual Suspects (USA 1995) or Basic (USA 2003). The main difference between those examples and How I Met Your Mother is that the device of the unreliable flashback, usually restricted to thrillers and detective films, is used as a houmorous device.
It seems to me that the possibility of a humorously lying flashback is the direct result of the serial structure of How I Met Your Mother. Only after the characters have been firmly established, it is possible to have them lie to the audience without jeopardizing their popularity. Due to the familiarity with the protagonists it also is often possible to notice that something suspicious within the flashback, for example, when a character’s actions are at odds with his established personality. Furthermore, the true version of the events usually represents the more desirable outcome from the spectator’s point of view and is thus easier to accept than it is the case in detective movies where the lying person normally is a criminal trying to mislead the investigators. Alternatively, the true version may simply be the more believable one which is also a difference to the examples from the films cited above.