Frame Me & Hang Me on the Wall
By frame, I mean framing device. And by framing device, I mean the skeleton story that holds the "real" story together. Think When Harry Met Sally's interviews. Citizen Kane's "Rosebud" investigation. War of the Roses's lawyer telling the sordid tale of Oliver and Barbara to a young man considering divorce.
Think: Grandpa reading a book to his grandson in The Princess Bride. We all love it. (Don't EVEN pretend you don't, 'cause the rest of us won't believe you.) So why is this frame so successful?
For those who haven't, check out the novel of The Princess Bride-- Goldman uses a completely different kind of framing device for the prose version of this 'story by S. Morgenstern', and it's fairly hilarious in its own right.
Think: Grandpa reading a book to his grandson in The Princess Bride. We all love it. (Don't EVEN pretend you don't, 'cause the rest of us won't believe you.) So why is this frame so successful?
- It serves to bring various kinds of viewers together-- if a movie about brides and princesses sounds like it's not your thing, the handy framing device lets you know that there's also going to be pirates, giants, swordplay, torture, and death (sort of).
- It adds something tonally. There are a few solid laughs in the interaction between the kid hearing the story and the story itself. (I.e. "Hold it, hold it. Are you trying to trick me? Is this a kissing book?")
- There's an arc in the frame-- the kid's slow commitment to the story, and eventual zeal. This makes it feel integral to the movie as a whole, and it gives us more reason to invest in the frame. But the movie also doesn't milk this arc overmuch. Once we're out of the first act, there are only a few more beats of present-day story.
For those who haven't, check out the novel of The Princess Bride-- Goldman uses a completely different kind of framing device for the prose version of this 'story by S. Morgenstern', and it's fairly hilarious in its own right.
posted by Jennica at 6:41 p.m.
10 Comments:
uh oh. don't encourage them! this is one of those easy-to-use-but-hard-to-do-right devices that new writers often resort too (im guilty of it myself as a filmmaker - its why so many of us start out with "mockumentaries"). beware!
Is that true, DS? I didn't know that! I've been teaching screenwriting for 4 years, and in the same time have read probably hundreds of scripts for producers and funding agencies... and in all that time I've seen *maybe* a handful of frames. In my experience, it doesn't occur to most new writers to even try it!
The mockumentary curse, though-- oh yes. Seen that one. A LOT. Hmm: must blog about the mockumentary.
In other news, due to a sudden barrage of spam on old posts, I've turned on Word Verification. (My first word says it all: Grrzs!) Please, all, don't let this stop you from commenting!
Ah, but Jennica -- frames are not always our friend. For every "Princess Bride", there's an "Edward Scissorhands." Or "Saving Private Ryan." Or "A League of Their Own."
The lesson here, I guess, is that old people suck.
Andy's right, old people suck. Titanic, anyone? Even one I did like with an older person, Ever After, didn't really seem that necessary.
One frame I did really like, other than The Princess Bride, because you're right, that's brilliant, was Luhrmann's version of Romeo and Juliet. The telecast giving the opening and closing couplets, was a nice set-up, I thought. As opposed to say the one in Moulin Rouge which gives away the whole story in the first 30 seconds.
I haven't seen the Princess Bride (I know, I know) so I can't comment on the awesomeness of its framing device, but pretty much most others suck. You may not see it a lot in your classes, Jennica, but it shows up in fiction all the time. The "Old Woman Sipping Tea and Remembering Her Life" genre? I know you know it and hate it, too.
I think it is probably like Voice Over. When used well, it's brilliant, but in lesser hands, it's deeply, deeply painful.
Okay, all you naysayers... you had me at "Saving Private Ryan". Good lord, how quickly I'd forgotten. If anyone has NOT read William Goldman's very funny essay about S.P.R., you must. I think it's in "The Big Picture".
Odd, that a post praising Goldman's frame would turn into a comment praising Goldman's dissing of another!
Okay, old people suck. But am I the only one who would actually defend the frames in both Edward Scissorhands and Titanic? For what they were doing (E.S. - bringing us into a very unusual and stylized world, and T. - creating the most accessible possible period piece) I thought they both earned the right to exist...
Titanic? No, sorry. This is a story in which we already know the ending (the boat sinks!), so by showing her an old lady at the beginning, totally takes away the stakes of whether or not she lives. Sure, there is other stuff going on, but why blow that opportunity? Why lower those stakes?
That's the problem with many framing devices: they tend to undercut whatever tension and suspense the story might otherwise generate.
I had a discussion with another writer who claimed that LAWRENCE OF ARABIA was ruined by the use of the funeral scene framing device (which I find blasphemous, as LoA is my alltime favorite movie) as it killed all the suspense about whether or not Lawrence died, but I pointed out that that movie is not about suspense-- it's about mystery.
Still, his point is interesting to consider in general terms-- if you are trying to keep the audience in suspense, then it is very risky to use a framed story structure.
Unless you are Orson freakin Welles.
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(and, yes, SPB is a great movie which uses a truly cheesy framing trick to mislead the audience)
Not entirely relevant, but I did appreciate your Crowded House reference.
Hey, thanks Kerry! Not too many people would've caught that... love those Kiwis!
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