Dissolving & Reconstituting Narrative Cinema

16	Pee Wee's Big Adventure	1995 – Tim Burton (USA)
	Icons & cliches	Symbolic codes; semiotics/semiology in the cinema; saturation

A: Symbolic modes

Recalling our long running distinction between Story (what is told/described) and Narrative (how it as told/described), the act of description involves a multiple of symbolic modes. The movement or interaction between these modes we could say constitutes a vertical. movement through the density of the story's symbolism, in contrast to the, horizontal movement of the story as a chronological , linear and cyclical form. In short, this means that an the story moves along in real time (as its screen time can move forwards, backwards and stand still) the action at any one point will have a different symbolic relationship to the story.

This relationship determines the symbolic content of the narrative at that point. Some points will be 'straight/descriptive' (purely detailing some action necessary for plot cohesion) ; other points will be I self/referential' (referring back to some other part of the story) ; other points will be 'iconic/generic' (relying on plot, visual and/or thematic formulae) other points will be 'poetic/metaphorical' (expressing abstract concepts), etc.

Two major factors distinguish the tonality and intensity of the narrative's symbolic content at any point:

(a) internal/external flow whether the symbolism in tied in with the construction of the narrative or directed out toward viewer to elaborate extra narrative ideas and notions. (For example, close up shots of the gun in WINCHESTER 73 establish the travels of the gun as a particular flow through the narrative of it as a symbol of violence power, possession and compulsion, while the textual organization of THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ADAM & EVE explode the narrative into a referential complex dealing with cultural notions of the Bible as an authorative text.)

(b) covert/overt form whether the symbolism is complexly extricated from the narrative or readily acknowledged as a 'symbolic discourse'. (For example, wet hair in FLASHDANCE covertly symbolizes physical saturation of the body and literary condensation of the narrative, while all the colours and shapes in QUERELLE overtly symbolize the sexual ambience of the port's environment as the stage for its characters' interactions.)
 
B: Semiotics/semiology in cinematic narrative

The histories of literature, painting, theatre and film (to name a few representational arts) have created, fostered, nurtured and controlled objects and images which have resulted from repeated usage at particular symbolic modes (in reference to the operations cited above), Generally, the repetition of these objects and images generates familiarity which in turn constitutes a communicative effect (no matter how vague or inarticulate).This means that an image of an object (say, blonde hair flowing in the wind) will start to communicate something (a mood, a concept, an ideal, an impression, an effect, whatever) due to our having seen this image/object before in a variety of cultural instances, scenes, locations and contexts.

The accumulative 'cultural' effect of the experiences of seeing this image/object starts to, as it were, give the feeling that something is being communicated when we encounter that same image/object again. This transforms the image/object into something else: a symbol. The function of the symbol - like the function of symbolism in narratives - is multiple. The image/objects could be a sign, an icon, an index, a pictogram, an ideograph, a cliche, a quote, etc. Our ability to distinguish between these symbolic modes of representation are largely to do with how we as viewers interact the image/object's denotation (its status as sign) with its connotation (its effect as signifier).

More precisely, then, Narrative can be viewed not simply as how the story is told (the telling) but as a complex flow of signification, where the status, nature and effect of each and every image communicates in differing symbolic modes.
 
C:Saturation

PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE is a good example of how saturated the state of signification can get. On a simplistic level, this film reverts the flow between image and symbol (similar in a way to QUERELLE) in order to manipulate images of symbols as opposed to making symbols out of images. The saturation of the film is demonstrated by the status of its source narrative material: every possible corny cliche in pulp/comic/screwball/etc. fiction, plus every known visual icon pertinent to Americana. In other words, you've heard it all and you've seen it all before.

But what is important about PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE is the way that such saturated material is used to construct a peculiar narrative form, shape and style quite like any other. Consider:

(a) condensation how the story has no gaps, voids, passages or explications, but instead immediately cuts into the next scene
(b) separation how the figure of Pee Wee is totally disnonnocted from the depicted visual reality which he inhabits
(c) distillation how every object in the film in a formal ideal and how every character is a classic stereotype
(d) exaggeration how the process of stylization is taken to an extreme throughout the film
(a) intensification how Pee Wee himself is 'hyper', 'mega' and 'ultra' in terms of how he reacts to everything.