Buckland-Warren-Puzzle-Films-Complex-Storytelling-Contemporary-Cinema

58 Warren BucklandFred’s optical point-of-view (pov) shot. In other words, within hisrecounted dream we have a pov shot.• Fred in hallway (there is an ellipsis, since he have moved locationbetween cuts).• Hallway. Again, this is a pov shot.• Fred.• Hallway and red curtain, and bedroom (coded as Fred’s pov).Here we have a repetition of the red curtain, but this time it is coded asFred’s pov. Whereas previously the shot could be read as a transitional shot,which means that it is non-focalized (objective, or belonging to the narrator),here Fred has now appropriated this image, as it is focalized aroundhis vision and is part of his recounted dream.With Fred still recounting or narrating the dream in voiceover, thecamera quickly moves toward Renee, and she screams. Fred then “wakes up”– but this seems to be part of the dream. (This is the conclusion we reachedin the “Bordwellian” analysis of this scene.) In Branigan’s terms, is this imageof Fred waking up an internally focalized (depth) image (that is, partof the recounted dream), or has Fred stopped recounting the dream?There are insufficient (or conflicting) data in the image to enable us to decideone way or the other. The voiceover has ended, and the film has returnedto Fred and Renee in bed, the place where Fred began narrating thedream. This suggests that Fred has stopped narrating the dream. However,there is no continuity between this shot of Renee and Fred in bed andthe shot of Fred beginning to narrate the dream. This is discontinuous becauseboth of them are now asleep, and Fred is waking up from the dream. Hethen sees the mystery man’s face imposed over Renee’s face. This meansthat he is not only narrating the dream to Renee, but is also telling herthat he woke up and did not recognize her. The film is inherently ambiguousabout which description is correct. Furthermore, there are no othercues in the film indicating that Fred stops narrating the dream. If thesecond description is correct, it means that the dream remains openended– we don’t know when and where it ends.The second video (first shown in scene 7) also deserves closer scrutiny.As Renee and Fred watch the second video, Renee turns to Fred and callshis name. Fred looks at the TV screen. Cut to a shot of the hallway. Thisis a complex shot to describe. Firstly, it is Fred’s pov shot as representedin his dream. But another narrative agent has also appropriated it – thistime the agent who has made the video (the mystery man). But as Fred