Fabulas?*

It struck me today as I was reading my aforementioned pre-requisite introduction to film that I have not fully explained the purpose of this study; I was drawn to this project because I love films. While I want to look at the critical reaction and cultural responses to great and obscure pictures-- within a specific era and regarding a historical theme-- to be completely honest, you choose to do an Interim on film because you love to watch movies. The cinema captivates me, and yet I claim no expertise. Reading Ed Sikov's Film: An Introduction has provided a cursory glance at the highlights of film making, from camera angles to plot developments to screenwriting-- but the essence of what I hope to achieve in this endeavor was fittingly revealed to me while reading an explication of the differences between plot and story as I nearly nodded off this late afternoon.

 The school of film known as Russian Formalism (which bears no significance in this project other than the forthcoming analysis) distinguishes between the plot and the story with terminology referred to as syuzhet and fabula. In all schools of study, it is generally agreed amongst film scholars that the plot refers to the specific ordering of the narrative elements within the film, while the story is not only the plot that is revealed to the audience through the director's camera angles and the screenwriter's dialogue but also the total sum of interpretation. As the Russian Formalists describe the fabula, or story, it is the narrative that each of us constructs as we are exposed to the plot-- not simply the associations we make with the plot's events and interactions, but the "stories we tell ourselves based on the stories we are being told." The stories we tell based on the stories we are being told.  It was not until I read this line that I could express fully the captivation that I feel with film as an audience member.  Films can be beautiful and rapturous and lead total escape, but the vital satisfaction that I find in films is my own ability to interpret and to tell stories based on what I have seen and heard. We all do this-- personalize a movie's plot and story to take something away that makes us feel, if not good, more whole and human. My revelation on fabula furthermore connected the personal enjoyment that I hope to experience in watching these films with the cultural and historical understanding that I will research in watching and reading about these films and the Civil Rights Era: to explore the fabula of those who viewed these films as ordinary people, critics, and members of differing cultural and racial groups. What stories do these people tell about the stories revealed in the plot of each film? Do African-Americans resent the mainstream portrayals of Sidney Poitier in films produced by white Americans? Will popular critics like Roger Ebert delve into the politics of making films about race relations? How does the fabula reveal itself? I look forward to finding these answers and hope that they will be a part of my, perhaps our, story.  Until next time...