One Missed Call

Which was better - American or Japanese version?

Barthes and his Codes

Roland Barthes was a thinker closely associated with Levi-Strauss. he came to the conclusion that narratives could be understood in terms of codes.

The three main codes were enigma, action and cultural. All these codes interlinked. Enigmas were snares which hooked the audience into the film. Although it is not always obvious to the audience why enigmas occur (such as why is David so interested in Michael) they enjoy trying to discover the solutions.

Action codes were caused by the characters in the film who are seeking answers or are seeking to 'act'. The audience enjoy action codes since they propel the narrative forwards. For example Michael follows David's gang to their cave and what he discovers there leads to his subsequent problems. This leads to the involvement of his brother and the Froggs and to his romance with Star.

Cultural codes are things which the audience as a group or society share with the film. For example the idea of vampires is a shared idea which helps us with the film. So too is the rebellious behaviour of the youngsters. Our society has similar problems. Cultural codes are very similar to the verisimilar idea in Classic Narrative Formula.

Dawg get your Claude Levi Strauss On :)

Levi-Strauss was known as part of the Structuralist school of thinkers. One of the main parts of his theory was the concept of BINARY OPPOSITIONS

Strauss argued that we can understand many things in this way. This theory is often applied to understanding narrative in cinema. It is a good theory for understanding genre in cinema.

So for example if we were to take the example of The Lost Boys we can explore binaries within the film and then look at how they fit or don't fit when The Lost Boys is placed within the Horror genre and the Vampire sub-genre.

In the Lost Boys we have good forces in opposition to evil forces. There is also the chaos of Santa Carla and the order which the Frogg Bros try to restore. There are other binaries such as those between the lure of the otherness and revulsion at the otherness. There is the also the opposition of Night to Day and between youth and older age.

It is interesting that Binaries compliment Classic Narrative Formula in the sense that CNF is concerned with equilibrium and disequilibrium. For Strauss these are binary oppositions!