When people watch films, they may take for granted that the experience they are having is a direct result of the way the film’s story is being told. Because film is a narrative medium, there is always some kind of narrator pulling the strings. Whether it’s a character in the film, the screenwriter, or the director, someone is always manipulating the audience. That manipulation is the plot, or the particular arrangement of the film’s main story events. Some people assume that plot and story are the same thing but think about a film like The Usual Suspects or Pulp Fiction. These films have a non-linear narrative structure and thus the plot is much different than the story. If we saw whole “story” of The Usual Suspects play out chronologically, there would be no suspense or surprise, which is why the film’s “plot” rearranges story events out of order. A spectator can have a completely different and altogether more satisfying experience with a film simply because its story events are organized in an unconventional manner. The film I am going to focus on that brilliantly illustrates this cinematic principle is Pedro Almodóvar’s Talk to Her. With careful examination of how plot manipulates story, it becomes possible to understand why exactly this film has the effect that it does.
Talk to Her is a film about four individuals whose lives intertwine through a sequence of events that span a period of about five years. What is interesting about Talk to Her is that its story is quite simple, yet the film itself is narrated in a very complex way. The basic drama consists of a series of conversations between characters struggling with their own personal hopes, fears, and desires. Although the film is constructed in a complex way, it is not done so haphazardly. By examining the way in which this story is told, it becomes clear that every liberty the plot takes regarding the story functions to manipulate the spectator’s level of knowledge throughout the film. This manipulation occurs in several ways. By rearranging story events, the plot forces the spectator to reevaluate his or her knowledge about certain characters and events. Repetition of story events is employed as a way of refreshing the spectator’s knowledge enabling him or her to realize the narrative significance of those events in relation to others. The plot also manipulates the spectator’s knowledge by omitting or skipping important story events via the ellipsis. Finally, manipulating the story can serve as a means of generating specific feelings in the spectator toward characters as a means of achieving the film’s main objective.
Story Order vs. Plot Order
A plot can take many liberties when rendering the events of the story most often as a means of creating narrational gaps. In Talk to Her, narrational gaps result from the way the plot tells Benigno’s story and the way it tells Marco’s story. Levels of knowledge regarding story events change as the spectator is given different amounts of narrative information about each character. Marco’s entire relationship with Lydia and its history unfold chronologically allowing the spectator to experience events in Marco’s life as he experiences them. With Benigno it is just the opposite. The spectator is very unclear about he and Alicia’s history since the plot does not provide this information until later in the film.
With Benigno and Alicia, we move from the present to the past in order to comprehend the nature of their relationship. In Scene 2, we see pictures of Alicia in Benigno’s apartment which suggests that they are close, yet it is unclear how Benigno came to be Alicia’s caretaker, what caused Alicia’s coma, and why Benigno has such strong feelings for her. These questions go unanswered throughout Acts III and V, but Benigno’s affection toward Alicia suggests that their relationship extends beyond that of patient and nurse. With Marco and Lydia it is just the opposite. Their meeting, relationship, and Lydia’s accident are played out chronologically from the beginning with the exception of Act VIII which recalls the events of and leading up to the encounter that takes place between Marco and Lydia in Scene 16.
Act V becomes a very important one in the film because it marks a shift in the spectator’s knowledge. Up until this point, the spectator knows much more about Marco’s life than Benigno’s life, specifically in regards to Lydia and Alicia. Yet prior to Act V, there was no narrative motivation for Benigno to recall his history with Alicia. The only other people with whom he interacted were already aware of Alicia’s condition and her relationship to Benigno. Bordwell explains, “The flashback is usually motivated psychologically, as character recollection. The narration motivates the presentation of the flashback realistically, letting us eavesdrop of the character’s memory.” In Scene 26, Marco and Benigno meet in the hospital, a friendship quickly grows between them, and it is Benigno’s trust in Marco that causes him to disclose the details of his past regarding Alicia. This disclosure occurs through a flashback that finally reveals the history between Benigno and Alicia. The spectator is now aware of the fact that Benigno and Alicia are practically strangers and with this new knowledge, the spectator can more accurately judge Benigno’s character. Benigno’s tenderness and affection toward Alicia from this point on are subject to scrutiny due to the nature of his feelings for her.
Acts I-IV go back and forth between Marco’s story line and Benigno’s story line and in Act V we see the merging of these two lines. Although the two characters are dealing with a similar set of circumstances when they meet, the spectator’s knowledge regarding the two characters is very different. Marco’s emotional state is accounted for because he and Lydia’s story has already been told. Through Benigno’s flashback, his character is fleshed out more and this enables the spectator is judge Benigno’s character more accurately.
Narration and Repetition
When Bordwell discusses the function of shuffling story order, he points out that doing so forces the viewer to evaluate material in the light of new information about prior events. An example of this in Talk to Her involves the scene in the car between Marco and Lydia on the day of Lydia’s accident. The first time, in Scene 16, we don’t see the entire conversation or anything that has led up to it. Lydia appears distraught and tells Marco that they have to talk after the fight and it is uncertain what is on her mind.
The encounter is repeated in Scene 50 through flashback, but this time the entire conversation is played out. Lydia and Marco have just attended the wedding of Marco’s ex-girlfriend, Angela. In the car, Marco discusses his feelings regarding Angela and this prompts Lydia to tell Marco that they have to talk after her fight. We then return to the present to a scene between Nino and Marco in which Nino explains to Marco that he and Lydia had rekindled their romance a month prior to the fight and she was going to tell Marco after the fight. Having just seen the exchange between Marco and Lydia in the car, the spectator is now able to use Nino’s revelations to clarify Lydia’s feelings of apprehension. The reiteration of the scene is important because without it, the spectator would not see the significance of one scene’s relationship to another. Lydia’s anguish in Scene 16 is essential but without repetition might likely be forgotten. By bringing it up again in Scene 50, and following it with Nino’s disclosure to Marco, the spectator is able to link Marco’s pain to Lydia’s pain and this makes their break from one another all the more devastating.
The Function of Ellipses
In addition to rearrangement and repetition, the plot can also manipulate the story by way of an ellipsis. David Bordwell writes in Narration and the Fiction Film, “If an omitted span contains significant information, the ellipsis can create a suppressive narration that shapes our hypothesis-forming activity.” This is true of the ellipsis that occurs from Scene 59 to Scene 60. In Scene 59, Benigno is accused of raping and impregnating Alicia. The scene creates a very strong curiosity in the spectator about what will happen to Benigno and Alicia as a result of this incident. The plot moves forward eight months in time from Scene 59 to Scene 60, and the spectator is left with several questions. Did Benigno go to prison for the rape? Did Alicia have the child? Did Alicia ever wake from her coma? Marco has been away for these eight months so he cannot answer the questions. However, in Scene 61, when Marco discovers that Benigno is in prison, his curiosity provides the motivation for having these questioned answered throughout the rest of the film. Because Benigno was imprisoned and forbidden to see Alicia or speak with anyone at the hospital, Benigno is in a similar position as Marco and the spectator. He does not know what happened to Alicia anymore than we do. Since Benigno was the spectator’s link to Alicia, expectations regarding her fate are intensified. Marco’s discovery of Alicia in the dance studio in Scene 69 is one of the most shocking and dramatic moments of the film, and this is because of the way the plot is constructed. Because the narration has been restricted to Benigno and Marco, and Benigno and Marco were absent from Alicia’s life in those eight months, there was no narrative motivation for presenting those eight months of her life in the plot. Consequently, that information was withheld from the plot until something motivated its revelation. The ellipsis in Talk to Her is not an arbitrary liberty taken by the plot. It serves to create a curiosity in the spectator about a key piece of narrative information so that when the information is finally revealed, the spectator will appreciate its significance.
How Structure Manipulates Emotion
Though a lot can be said about how plot manipulates spectator knowledge, there is also much to be said about how it manipulates the spectator’s emotions. Story events are arranged in the plot of Talk to Her in such a way that the film generates very specific feelings about each character. In Acts I-IV, the spectator is introduced to both Benigno and Marco. While nothing occurs in Benigno’s scenes (Acts I, III) that would cause the spectator to feel strong emotions toward him, in Marco’s scenes (Acts II, IV) the spectator is able to see his relationship with Lydia as well as Lydia’s accident. Before Act V begins, the spectator has been given much more reason to be sympathetic toward Marco since the emotional ups and downs of his relationship with Lydia have been played out.
When Benigno finally does reveal his history with Alicia in Acts V-VI, it becomes apparent that Benigno is actually obsessed with Alicia. This creates uneasiness in the spectator toward Benigno. From this point on, it becomes difficult to empathize with Benigno’s loneliness in the same way we would Marco’s because we know now that no relationship ever existed between Alicia and Benigno. Moreover, Alicia’s accident is not enacted in the film’s plot and Lydia’s is. Because the spectator is given a visual of the tragic event that put Lydia in a coma and is not given the same for Alicia, the spectator is able to feel even more sympathy for Marco’s character.
In Act VII, an event takes place that strengthens the spectator’s anxiety toward Benigno. In Scene 45, while massaging her, Benigno tells Alicia about a silent film he has just seen. The scene is intercut with a sequence from the silent film and there is overt sexuality present in the silent film sequence that is echoed in the way Benigno is touching Alicia. The scene is upsetting because it reveals the raw desperation and loneliness Benigno suffers from. It suggests an instability in Benigno that appears to be a threat to Alicia and consequently comes off as threatening to the spectator.
In Act VIII, there is a flashback, or more accurately a recount of the conversation between Lydia and Marco on the day of her fight. Lydia’s feelings of anguish were unclear the first time the scene was played out but are clarified in Act IX-Scene 52 when Nino tells Marco about Nino and Lydia’s relationship. Act IX becomes another point in the film where the spectator is prompted to feel compassion for Marco because Nino has explained to Marco how Lydia was truly feeling. The real tragedy, however, lies in the fact that we now know why Lydia was so reluctant to talk to Marco in the car. Marco had just told Lydia that his relationship with Angela was over, and Lydia’s guilt kept her from telling Marco that her relationship with him was, in fact, over as well. After Nino’s revelation in Scene 52, it is as though Marco has lost Lydia all over again and this makes him that much more sympathetic to the audience. While the spectator’s feelings of sympathy toward Marco are intensified in Act VIII, those feelings of uneasiness toward Benigno are simultaneously intensified. In Scenes 53-59, the fact that Benigno has raped and impregnated Alicia slowly comes to light. The nurses discover that Alicia has been missing her periods and Benigno was covering this up. Meanwhile, Benigno confesses to Marco that he wishes to marry to Alicia, which is very off-putting to Marco. The events surrounding Benigno in Act IX are even more suggestive of his instability than those of Act VII.
In Act X, Benigno undergoes a complete mental breakdown and eventually commits suicide because he realizes that his desire for Alicia will never be fulfilled. While everyone else in the film has dismissed Benigno, Marco remains his friend even until Benigno’s last moments of life. He is even willing to disobey Mr. Sanz’s requests to keep the news about Alicia from Benigno in order to prevent Benigno from killing himself. In Act X-Scene 78, Marco visits Benigno’s gravestone and it is in this scene that our compassion for Marco is at its peak. It is clear that despite Benigno’s unforgiving behavior, Marco still cared for him and is upset that Benigno’s unfulfilled desires drove him to commit an act of such desperate proportions.
The conclusion in Act XI thus functions as the film’s catharsis because it represents a resolving of the internal conflicts suffered by both Benigno and Marco. The spectator’s ability to see Alicia alive and well is rewarding because Benigno was never able to do so. In addition, the exchange between Alicia and Marco at the theatre is also rewarding because it suggests that Marco’s feelings of loss might be alleviated through a potential relationship with Alicia. In order to make the union of Alicia and Marco emotionally gratifying, the plot had to manipulate the story in a very specific way. Everyone loves a happy ending in which two people find one another and fall in love, however, a happy ending can often appear too predictable and thus too implausible for the audience to truly feel affected by it. With Talk to Her, the story has been told in such a way as to generate the kind of concern and expectation necessary to make the ending exactly what the audience wanted to see, and this speaks volumes about Pedro Almodóvar’s skills as both a filmmaker and a storyteller.
Talk to Her is an important film because it provides the spectator with an opportunity to better understand his or her own viewing tendencies. It suggests that when a film has an unconventional element, it is in the audience’s best interest to pay attention. The unconventional element in Talk to Her is clearly its narrative structure. By paying closer attention to the narrative structure and what Pedro Almodóvar is attempting to accomplish with it, we as an audience can better understand our own relationship to the film. While it is possible to enjoy Talk to Her without picking apart and examining its entire plot construction, what you can take away from an analysis like this one is a stronger appreciation for cinema and its incomparable ability to manipulate human perception and emotion.
*2003 Academy Award Winner for Best Original Screenplay
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