Table Of ContentSeeing Fictions in Film
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Seeing Fictions in Film
The Epistemology of Movies
George M. Wilson
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Contents
ListofFigures vi
Acknowledgments vii
Part I. Introductory Chapters
GeneralIntroduction 3
1.NarrativeandNarration:SomeRudiments 12
Part II. Narratives and Narration
2.LeGrandImagierStepsOut:OnthePrimitiveBasisofFilmNarration 29
3.TheImaginedSeeingThesis 52
4.LeGrandImagierinReview 78
Part III. Narrators: In Literature and Film
5.ElusiveNarratorsinLiterature 109
6.ElusiveNarratorsinFilm 126
Part IV. Some Strategies of Film Narration: Point of View
7.TransparencyandTwistinNarrativeFictionFilm 143
8.TransfigurationandSelf-ConsciousNarration:OnVon
Sternberg’sLastFilmswithDietrich 166
9.LoveandBullshitinSantaRosa:PasticheinTheManWhoWasn’tThere 194
Bibliography 215
Index 219
List of Figures
1. TheWickedWitchsummonsherwingedmonkeys 5
2. Ana’sreflectionintheriverchangesintoanimageofthemonster 37
3. Ming’sminionlooksontheSpace-o-scope 49
4. Heseesstrangegoings-onatthepaganstatue 49
5. ThemurderermeetsElsieBechmannbyakiosk 58
6. Hebuysheraballoonasapresent 58
7. Theballoonistangledintelephonewires 59
8. HumphreyBogartinTheBigSleep 64
9. RobertMontgomeryinTheLadyintheLake 65
10. DickPowellinMurder,MySweet 65
11. OpeningofPsycho—thePhoenixskyline 93
12. OpeningofPsycho—thehotelroomwindow 93
13. Balthassarwandersamongthesheep 133
14. Balthassarliesdownbesidethesheeptodie 133
15. ProfessorWanleyisdyingofpoison 157
16. ProfessorWanleyawakensinhisclub 158
17. JackandTylerDurdenathomeonPaperStreet 160
18. TylereruptsintoJack’ssubliminalconsciousness 162
19. LionelAtwill(surrogateforvonSternberg)burstsintotheroom 175
20. AveiledCatherinecontemplateshermedal 182
21. Sophiaisinspectedasshefirstappearsincourt 187
22. Peterisstrangledinfrontofacross 190
23. FreddyRiedenschneideroratesinaconeoflight 199
24. EdandDorisatpeaceathome 207
25. Ed‘sees’aspacecrafthoveringabovetheprison 210
Acknowledgments
Ihaveworkedontheseissuesforaverylongtime,andIhavespokenonthesetopics
more often than I can easily enumerate. Several of these chapters are based on essays
readatdifferentvenues,andIreceivedcriticalsuggestionsfromvariouscommentators.
DavidHillswastheeditorofthespecialissueinwhich“LeGrandImagierStepsOut”
(Chapter 2) appeared, and I am deeply grateful to David for his marvelously detailed
commentaryontheessay.AversionofwhathassplitandevolvedintoChapters5and6
was first presented at the 2005 Oberlin Colloquium, and I would like to thank the
participants, especially my commentator, Tom Wartenberg. I also received helpful
suggestionsandcriticismsfromNoëlCarroll,AmyMullin,andKatherineThompson-
Jones. “Transparency and Twist” (Chapter 7) was read at the 2004 meetings of the
AmericanSocietyforAestheticsinHoustonandatdepartmentalcolloquiaatboththe
UniversityofSouthernCaliforniaandtheUniversityofCaliforniaatRiverside.Itwas
also read at a conference in honor of Kendall Walton that was arranged at the
University of Leeds. David Davies was my insightful commentator on that occasion.
AmongtheotherpeoplewhosecommentswereespeciallyhelpfultomeareWilliam
Bracken, John Martin Fisher, Janet Levin, Katalin Makkai, Dana Polan, Michael
Renov,andGideonYaffe.
Inaddition,IreadseveraldifferentversionsofChapter8toanumberofaudiences:
theConferenceonStyleandMeaningattheUniversityofReading;theConference
onFilmandCognitiveScience,heldattheUniversity ofCopenhageninMay2000;
theMeetingsoftheAmericanSocietyforAestheticsinOctober2000;theHumanities
InstituteatNorthwesternUniversity;JohnsHopkinsUniversity;OhioStateUniversi-
ty; and the University of Southern California. I thank all of these audiences for their
commentsandsuggestions.IrememberwithgratitudethesagesuggestionsfromDavid
Bordwell, Marshall Cohen, Karen Hanson, Diana Raffman, William Taschek, and,
once again, my USC colleague Gideon Yaffe. Chapter 9, on The Man Who Wasn’t
There,wasoriginallywrittenforaWorkshoponFilm,Philosophy,andFictionthatwas
supportedbyanAchievementGrantfromtheMellonFoundationthatwasawardedto
SusanWolf,anditwasSusanwhoorganizedthemeetingsofthisgroup.Thepaperhas
alsobeengivenasatalkatdepartmentalcolloquiaatPrinceton,UCSantaBarbara,UC
Irvine, and the University of Utah. It was given as the Claire Miller Lecture at the
ChapelHillPhilosophycolloquiumattheUniversityofNorthCarolina,asanInvited
Lecture to the Center for 21st Century Studies at the University of Wisconsin at
Milwaukee,asapubliclectureatTrinityCollegeinSanAntonio,asoneofasequence
oflecturesat theArizonaQuarterly Symposiumat theUniversity of Arizona, and asa
lectureataMini-conferenceonFilmandPhilosophyatStanfordUniversity.Ideeply
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
appreciate the invitations that gave rise to these talks and lectures, and I thank the
various audiences for all the helpful comments that they supplied. The resulting
chapters have been hugely improved by these interventions. I was also much helped
with support and good advice by Peter Momtchiloff and Eleanor Collins at Oxford
UniversityPress.
It has been the greatest pleasure I have had in pursuing these questions, that the
pursuithasaffordedmethepossibilityoftalkingthemoverwithsomanygoodfriends
andrelatives.AllofthepeopleIlistbelowhavegivenmeadviceandsuggestionsand
critical support on numerous occasions. Among these valued friends, I want to
mention as especially important, Ed Branigan, Greg Currie, Berys Gaut, Chris Grau,
Andrew Kania, Paisley Livingston, Ed McCann, Richard Moran, Victor Perkins,
RobertPippin,DouglasPye,SamShpall,MichaelSmith,MurraySmith,KenWalton,
Tom Wartenberg, Susan White, and Susan Wolf. Berys, Chris, and Sam all studied
withmeatdifferentinstitutionsunderdifferentarrangements,buteachofthemmakes
mefeelthatsomeofmyteachinghasmadeapositivecontribution,especiallywhenitis
reflectedintheirimportantwork.VictorandDougcontactedmefromEnglandashort
timeaftertheappearanceofmyfirstbookonfilm.Theirencouragementwascrucialto
mycontinuinginmydoggedpursuitofthetheoryofnarrationinthecinemaevenin
the face of some initial discouragement. Somewhat later I came to know Gilberto
Perezwhosefriendshiphasmeantagreatdealtome.
Finally, my family has been an incredible resource to me—both in scholarly ways
and in more basic emotional ways. My daughter Flannery and my son Gareth have
grown uptohave notableinterestsinfilm,andthere have beennumerousconversa-
tionsinwhichtheyhavestartledmeandtherebyaidedmewithsomeinsightfulremark
orquestionaboutmovies.MybrotherMarkhassupportedmyinterestinfilmfromits
inception, and that support has continued over the years until the present. I greatly
appreciated his energy and interest in helping me find images that could serve as
illustrations or as designs for the cover art. Some of his marvelous discoveries were
reallyinspired.Butnoonehascomeclosetocontributingmorethanmywife,Karen.
Shehashelpedmeinmoredifferentwaysthananyone,andineachofthewaysthatshe
has helped me she has given me more help than anyone else. She has been my
collaborator on this volume and,moreimportantly,she hascollaborated withme on
the vagaries of our lives. However, in both instances, I alone am responsible for
whateverflawsanderrorsmayremain.
PART I
Introductory Chapters
