Narrative analysis on film

Narrative analysis on film 

Narrative: a spoken or written account of connected events; a story.

Narration: the act or process of telling a story or describing what happens.

Todorov produced a theory in 1969 which he believed could be applied to any film.He believed that all films followed the same narrative.This is found in many different media forms : e.g films and video games.

Also he believed that the primary function of a narrative was to solve a problem, the characters should pass through a series of stages of a linear narrative where events follow a chronological order.

1.A state of equilibrium: Everything in the film is normal.

In the movie taken a father drops off his 18 year old daughter with her friend in the Los Angles airport, the two girls are excited for their holiday in Paris.

2.A disruption of the equilibrium by some action: normaility gets destroyed  

The two girls arrive in Paris, and accept an offer to ride with a strange man to their apartment.In this scene a shot of the man talking on the phone is shown.The man talks about the two young girls and where they are staying , this shows the normality getting destroyed.As the man may be causing danger to the girls.

3.Recongnition of the problem:Character recognise the problem

While one of the girls is on the phone with her father, she sees her friend getting kidnapped and tells her father.

4.Attempt to repair the problem: The characters try to fix the problem, sometimes the plan to repair goes wrong.

The father is a former CIA operative, he sets off to Paris to find his kidnapped daughter. 

5.A return or restoration of a new equilibrium : everything goes back to normal or a new equilibrium is created .

The father eventually finds his daughter and returns her home.