Abstract
The present paper critically examines recent contributions to the concept of the unreliable narrator in film narrative theory. It takes issue with the latest tendency to unnecessarily widen the scope of the unreliable narrator. Instead, it is argued that only films in the classical Hollywood tradition that feature character‐narrators who ‘take over’ their narratives fulfil the precondition for unreliable narration. Only in such instances will viewers attribute textual incongruities and referential difficulties to character‐narrators who can be given sufficient authority over their narratives and thus the blame for their unreliable reporting, interpreting or evaluating. When facing textual inconsistencies and referential problems in storytelling situations other than that, we already have an adequate set of recuperation strategies at hand in order to resolve such difficulties, and concepts such as the tradition of the art film, the notion of the uncanny or the genre of the fantasy film will lead to more satisfactory readings.
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