Bryan Singer’s “The Usual Suspects”: The Case of a Narrative Lie
Abstract
Ostaszewski makes an analysis of the term of a narrative lie on the basis of Bryan Singer’s movie The Usual Suspects. The lie was to consist in a breach of the reliability principle in a presentation of events by a narrator, which may boil down to a false use of film conventions, which twists viewers’ reception habits. Singer constantly applies the strategy of disorientation in his movie, preventing viewers from reconstructing a coherent and logical story. Thereby, The Usual Suspects deconstructs the very narrative way of the functioning of a fictional world, and reveals that there is no truth in fiction.
Keywords:
Bryan Singer, narrative, narratologyReferences
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Authors
Jacek Ostaszewskikwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
Pracownik naukowo-dydaktyczny Instytutu Sztuk Audiowizualnych UJ. Autor książek: Film i poznanie. Wprowadzenie do kognitywnej teorii filmu (1999) i Rozumienie opowiadania filmowego (1999).
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Copyright (c) 2004 Jacek Ostaszewski
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