SILENCE AND SPEECH IN FILM NARRATIVE STRUCTURE : LAILA PAKALNIŅA ’ S “ THE SHOE ” AND DĀVIS SĪMANIS ’ “ EXILED ”

Abstract

The paper deals with the importance of speech (and absence of speech) for the storytelling strategies in film, which includes verbal and non-verbal interaction between characters, as well as speech in a broader sense as part of cinematic soundscape with particular focus on the relationship between sound and image. For the analysis, Laila Pakalniņa’s “The Shoe” (Kurpe, 1998) and Dāvis Sīmanis’ “Exiled” (Pelnu sanatorija, 2016) where chosen. Although “The Shoe” and “Exiled” differ considerably in terms of visual aesthetics and thematic scope, both films share stylistic features of slow cinema. The significance of silence and speech in shaping film narrative (syntagms) is analyzed using narratology models; the interaction between speech and silence, as well as between sound and image is described using linguistic terms.