to endure a brutal game of cat and mouse played by
a pair of psychotic young men. After they take a
young family hostage, the attackers goad their vic-
tims to wager on their own survival. When their
prey try to refuse the bet, one of the attackers
turns to confront the audience with a string of
questions: “I mean, what do you think? Do you
think they stand a chance? You’re on their side,
aren’t you? Who are you betting on, huh?” By
breaking the fourth wall in this way, Haneke forces
the audience to acknowledge our participation in
the violence. The filmmaker implies that, in watch-
ing this senseless cruelty, we’re complicit in it.
Sometimes the voice-over narrator isn’t even
someone in the movie. Voice-over narration can
also be expressed by a voice imposed from outside
of the narrative. Standing at a remove from the
action allows this third-person narratorto pro-
vide information not accessible to a narrator who is
also a participant in the story. Like the author of
the story, the third-person narrator knows all and
can thus provide objective context to any situation.
Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums(2001)
opens with a third-person voice-over relating the
history of a family of eccentric geniuses delivered
in the dispassionate tone of a documentary
reporter. But even this seemingly remote narrator
(voiced by Alec Baldwin) provides more than just
information. The deadpan delivery layers a sort of
literary seriousness over an extended series of
comic scenes detailing the family’s brilliant suc-
cesses and staggering failures. Later, the third-
person narrator interjects to let us into a
character’s head at a crucial narrative moment.
Royal Tenenbaum, a manipulative con man, has
wormed his way back into his estranged family by
pretending to be dying of cancer. When he is
caught in the lie, his non-apology is predictably
slick: “Look, I know I’m going to be the bad guy on
this one, but I just want to say that the last six days
have been the best six days of probably my whole
life.” As the words leave his lips, he pauses as if
momentarily confused. The third-person narrator
speaks up to illuminate the situation: “Immediately
after making this statement, Royal realized that it
was true.” All this goes to show that movies can use
a number of possible narrators—even combina-
tions of narrators. Likewise, movies employ more
than one approach to narration.
Narration can be omniscient, meaning it knows
all and can tell us whatever it wants us to know.
Omniscient narration has unrestrictedaccess to all
aspects of the narrative. It can provide anycharac-
ter’s experiences and perceptions, as well as infor-
mation that nocharacter knows. An omniscient
camera shows the audience whatever it needs to in
order to best tell the story.
An espionage thriller like Notorious involves
deception, double crosses, and mixed motives. To
fully exploit the intrigue, the camera narrator must
show us what is going on with multiple characters
and situations. We watch Alicia uncover evidence
in the wine cellar proving her husband’s Nazi plot-
ting while he hosts a party in oblivious bliss
upstairs. We see him plot her death after he learns
she’s an American spy. We writhe with frustration
watching her fellow agent (and love interest) blameMultiple narrators in Stranger Than FictionIn Marc
Fo rste r ’s Stranger than Fiction(2006; screenwriter: Zack
Helm), the third-person narrator doesn’t just help tellthe
story——it becomes a player in the narrative itself. Harold
Crick (Will Farrell) hears the voice-over narrating his own
story and learns that his character is slated for an imminent
demise. His goal of finding the source of the narration and
changing his own tragic ending forms the basis of the rest of
the story. As the story progresses, we meet the depressed
novelist crafting Harold’s destiny. Does knowing the
character who wrote it make the narration first person, or is
the novel’s text a third-person narrator that exists apart from
the novelist character? Or is it narration at all if a character
can hear it? Participating in these inconsistencies is part of
the fun——and playful strangeness——of Stranger Than Fiction.WHAT IS NARRATIVE? 125