Within and Without: Trans-Subjective Narrative Perspectives in Digital 3D Cinema

Abstract

I combine the cognitive film theory represented by Branigan (Point of view in the cinema. Berlin/New York/Amsterdam: Mouton Publishers; Narrative comprehension and film. London/New York: Routledge, 1992) and Bordwell (Narration in the fiction film. London: Methuen & Co, 1985) with the phenomenological theory represented by Sobchack (The address of the eye: A phenomenology of film experience. Princeton/Oxford, Princeton University Press, 1992) to argue the perspectival richness of 3D storytelling. Considering the connections between cinematic perspectives within the film and the viewer’s perspective on the film, I argue that 3D produces both a multiplication and fusion of narrative perspectives. The ambiguous figure of the ‘invisible observer’ is central to this investigation. Distributing narrative planes and perspectives along the Z-axis, 3D cinema brings into question the customary relationships among spectatorial, narrational and character perspectives. Moreover, 3D films reflect directly upon these altered subjective relations by producing a trans-subjective narrative perspective, in which the tendency for overlapping and alternating character and spectatorial perspectives foregrounds the intrasubjective and intersubjective foundations of 3D cinematic viewing.