Making sense of hypothetical focalization in the cinema

Abstract

The term ‘focalization’ designates the delivery of narrative information to film spectators by narrators and characters. It connects crucially with notions about the beliefs and worldviews of these agents, and thus has implications for what kind of a fictional truth and notions about the diegetic as well as the real world the narrative work as a whole implies. Of particular interest here is hypothetical focalization as the articulation of merely possible modes of perception, narrative indecision, and uncertainty about the world as a whole. In filmic narration, these issues are articulated slightly differently than in literary fiction, as the filmic image and sound may be used to imply an embodied presence in the diegetic world with all its ambiguities and uncertainties. Michael Haneke's Caché (2005) exemplifies in a particularly intriguing way how hypothetical focalization can be used to explore suppressed events and moral concerns.

Keywords:

• focalization
• hypothetical focalization
• fictional truth
• epistemic modality
• embodied mind
• invisible observer
• implicit diegetic narrator
• implied author
• Michael Haneke
• Caché (2005)

Notes

1. Lensbaby produces optic systems which allow for a certain part of the image to be in focus while surrounding areas are increasingly out of focus.

2. This was one of the first instances of the consistent use of steadycam camerawork.