Lost Highway!

188 Studying Contemporary American Film

he develops a systematic theory and methodology of film narration. This theory is based on eight levels of narration, with a ‘sender’ and ^Creceiver’ on each level (see diagram on p. 87 of Narrative Comprehension and Film). Branigan remains neutral on the controversial issue of whether we can describe narration as a form of communication (p. 107-10), but it is elear that he goes beyond Bordwell by theorizing the role of narrators in films.

Branigan defines narration as ‘the overall regulation and distribution of knowledge which determines how and when the spectator acąuires knowledge [of narrative events]’ (Branigan 1992: 76). Whereas to study narrative is to find out what happens in a film, to study narration is to find out how spectators acąuire knowledge of the narrative. The film agent is a crucial component in this process of knowledge acąuisition.

For Branigan, a theory of film agents reąuires a fundamental distinction between historical authors, implied authors, narrators, characters, and focalizers. For the purposes of this section, we shall only focus on the latter three, sińce they are the most relevant in terms of methodology and textual analysis. Spectators comprehend characters as agents who exist on the level of narrative; the character is therefore an agent who directly experiences narrative events and who acts and is acted upon in the narrative world. A character whose experiences of the narrative world are then conveyed to spectators become focalizers. Narrators, on the other hand, do not exist in the narrative; they exist outside it on the level of narration. This means they have the ability to influence the shape and direction of the narrative.

One of the most important contributions Branigan makes to the study of film narration is his rigorous theory of focalization in film:

Focalization (reflection) involves a character neither speaking (narrating, reporting, communicating) nor acting (focusing, focused by), but rather actually experiencing something through seeing or hearing it. Focalization also extends to morę complex experiencing of objects: thinking, remembering, interpreting, wondering, fearing, believing, desiring, understanding, feeling guilt.

(p.101)

Branigan therefore distinguishes two types of focalization, each representing a different level of a character’s experiences: external focalization, which represents a character’s visual and aural awareness of narrative events (the spectator sees what the character sees, but not from the character’s position in the narrative; the spectator shares the character’s attention, rather than their experience); and internal focalization, which represents a characters private and subjective experiences, ranging from simple perception (optical vantage point) to deeper thoughts (dreams, hallucinations, memories).

The narrator is the third agent in film. For Branigan, a narrator by