For instance, when his imaginary niece runs through a bunch of pigeons in the park, you’d expect them to fly away – like normal birds would act like when being disturbed. Yet, here and there is some obvious evidence of his delusion. This way, it becomes difficult to differ between real events and things that only occur in Nash’s mind. But other than most of the films in this list, A Beautiful Mind does not necessarily fool the audience on purpose most viewers just tend to misinterpret certain cinematic codes at the first viewing.Īs the film switches a lot between objective and subjective perspective in a very floating and subtle way, the viewer often misses out the shift from the neutral perception to Nash’s perception. The biographical drama about the schizophrenic mathematician John Nash is an example of misdirection imposed by an unreliable narrator. Warning: Some of the film descriptions include spoilers, so you may leave out the ones you haven’t seen yet. Thereby, unreliable narration sometimes results in a plot twist which is an abrupt change of perspective that often involves a re-evaluation of the whole film. The most common forms of unreliable narration include a narrator that is either mad, non-trustworthy or limited in his or her viewpoint, a decomposition of the chronological order, multiple storylines and narrative loops or blurred borders between different states of consciousness. As in literature, such a role and character needs to be introduced from the start and must be kept consistent throughout the whole picture to avoid a break of stylistic unity.Unreliable narration strategies are not only a good opportunity for authors or directors to break with conventional plot patterns, they also encourage the recipient to rethink certain aspects of a book or a film.Īt some times this can become quite puzzling. The real finesse begins when the camera is assigned not only a role – observer, omniscient narrator – but is also assigned an attitude (curious, amused, anticipating, foreshadowing, etc.) And a character of its own (lyrical, critical, cynical, voyeuristic, etc.). But in most movies, the camera assumes a more omniscient point of view. If the story is told as one character’s story or “subjectively”, the camera plays the role of the first person observer, showing only scenes in which the main character participates. We call them objective (through the eyes of a third person observer) and subjective (through a specific first person character). Just like a narrator in literature, the camera can use two points of view that equal the first and third person. In a movie, the camera dramatizes the process of viewing the action and bring it on screen, allowing our eyes to see only what and how the “camera narrator” shows it to us.Ī film is “told”, but the story is shown by a camera narrator.
As in literature, such a role and character needs to be introduced from the start and must be kept consistent throughout the whole picture to avoid a break of stylistic unity. The real finesse begins when the camera is assigned not only a role – observer, omniscient narrator – but is is also assigned an attitude (curious, amused, anticipating, foreshadowing, etc.) And a character of its own (lyrical, critical, cynical, voyeuristic, etc.).
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