Narrative

                                                                        Narrative

In today's lesson we were introduced to a technique producers use to retell a story, this is known as narrative. Moreover, we looked at various individuals who have theories which apply for most narratives. Roland Barthes was a French theorist and discovered that narratives have three codes, action, symbolic and enigma codes. This breaks down into what happens in the narrative, what symbols appear and what effect does this have on the viewer. Tzvetan Todorov, a Bulgarian-French philosopher, noticed how a situation changes when the equilibrium is disturbed. Claude Levi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and his theory is that our perspective of the world is due to many binary opposites. Finally, Vladimir Propp studied Russian tales and he came to the conclusion that every narrative contains eight broad characters: the hero, the villain, the doner, the dispatcher, a false hero, the helper, the princess and the father.


                                                                  Up Opening Scene

This particular scene from Disney Pixar's Up is a narrative of the relationship between the two main characters of the film, Carl and Ellie. The opening scene shows the newly wed couple move into a relatively run-down house and they then decorate the house together. Immediately, the producer uses various binary opposites (Levi Strauss) to show the start of the adventure within the relationship between a male and a female, however in this situation it shows love rather than conflict. In addition, the producer uses two of Barthes' codes, the first being an action code of the couple decorating the house. When the couple finish decorating the house the audience will ask the question 'what will they do now?', this is part of Barthes' enigma code. Not only do we notice how Barthes' codes are shown in the opening fourty seconds of the scene, we also see how the narrative moves forward as they have completed decorating the house so that another factor must enter their journey as husband and wife.

The clouds in the sky are symbolic codes found in Barthes' theory on narrative. For example, the cloud that looks a lot like a baby signifies how the relationship is moving forward so they start to experience the want for children just like any other conventional couple. There is a crossover scene where the couple are shown decorating what looks like a child's room however then they are seen in a room both looking distraught as they hear some devastating news that they are unable to have children. In this crossover scene, we see that the theory of Todorov is introduced as the current equilibrium of a couple who are full of life is immensely disrupted by the fact that they are unable to produce new life into their wonderful adventure. The producer really captures this scene with real sadness when the music is vastly slowed to signify a tragic moment. Secondly, the room changes from a colourful children's bedroom to a lifeless hospital waiting room with a sense of dejection and sorrow. This is a binary opposite because the entire narrative turns from joy and excitement to outright disappointment in a brief moment.

The next scene begins with Carl handing Ellie a book called 'Mon Livre d'Aventure' (Barthes' action code). This action allows for the narrative to move on as we then see Ellie painting a picture of the couple's next step in their adventure however they need to start saving money. Todorov's equilibrium experiences yet another disturbance when Carl's tyre bursts on his car. This means that the money they had saved had to be invested in a new car tyre. We also see how the couple's misfortune escalates further when Carl suffers from a broken leg meaning their savings become worthless for a second time. These incidents are symbols that are subliminally telling the viewers that the couple will never reach their goal in life as they are constantly interrupted.

The narrative continues with a series of quickfire scenes of Carl's collection of ties, this shows how the story speeds up because we then see Carl and Ellie with grey hair and wrinkles on their faces. It is at this stage where Levi-Strauss' opposite of old & young suggests that the narrative is coming to an end. Carl decides to surprise Ellie with tickets to their favourite place but Ellie suffers with illness so they cannot go. In the final few scenes, we see how Carl's life becomes lonely again as he sits alone at Ellie's funeral with a balloon in his life. The balloon is a symbol suggesting how the only thing he has now is his lifelong passion for balloons.