A full understanding and appreciation of narrative film, George Wilson argues, requires a concept of point of view necessarily distinct from, yet comparable to, contemporary theories of point of view in prose fiction. Now available in paperback, Narration in Light lays the foundations for a new account of cinematic point of view. Focusing on the special ways in which a film controls the access of its viewers to the events that constitute its narrative, Wilson offers close viewings of five classic Hollywood movies: You Only Live Once, North by Northwest, Letter from an Unknown Woman, The Devil Is a Woman, and Rebel without a Cause. His enlightening and entertaining interpretations reveal surprising power and complexity in popular, major-studio films. Their point-of-view strategies allow them to present both obvious and oblique perspectives on their subjects, providing subtle critiques of ideology within conventional drama and narrative.
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Film, Perception, and Point of View
Chapter 2. Fritz Lang's You Only Live Once
Chapter 3. Coherence and Transparency in Classical Narrative Film
Chapter 4. Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest
Chapter 5. Some modes of Nonomniscience
Chapter 6. Max Ophuls' Letter from an Unknown Woman
Chapter 7. On Narrators and Narration in Film
Chapter 8. Josef von Sternberg's The Devil Is a Woman
Chapter 9. Nicholas Ray's Rebel without a Cause
Chapter 10. Morals for Method
Notes
Index
