Roland Barthes - Narrative Theory and Film Trailers

ROLAND BARTHES



Who is Roland Barthes and what is his theory?

Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist, born Nov 12th 1915, who is most known in film for his theory of 'enigma'. His idea is that texts (films, TV, posters, etc) portray an enigma- a mystery for the audience to solve. In this, they are kept engaged, intrigued and entertained, as an enigma prompts questions from the audience. A good example of this would be a film centered around a detective's struggle to find the culprit of a crime such as a murder or even series of killings; the typical 'whodunnit' style narrative that revolves around a mystery.

Additionally, there is the Barthes Referential Code or Cultural Code, which states that meaning can be derived from a text through its culturally specific knowledge. An audience needs to have this knowledge in order to be able to associate meanings with said text.

Where do we see enigma in media today?

Trailer: The Woman In Black (2012)



This trailer, in my opinion, is a great example of enigma. There are many elements that show this: from the opening few shots of vintage-looking children's toys that are completely still (accompanied by the sound of a faint wind), to the voice-over of a child that is suitably cryptic and ambiguous concerning the film's plot and the protagonist's cause. This voice-over is perhaps most notably cryptic about the source of this 'curse' on the town in which the film is set: it plays the pronoun game, where instead of a name, the little girl instead calls the ghostly prescence on-screen "she" (for example, when she says there is a chill in the air "that tells you she's there").

However, clues are given from these toys in the beginning, the little girls' and the main protagonist's costumes, etc, about the time period, but not much is explained about this protagonist, played by Daniel Radcliffe. There is a moment in the trailer were the perceived protagonist tears away some wallpaper to reveal "YOU COULD HAVE SAVED HIM" in red, escalating the element of mystery even further. The trailer escalates, getting faster and faster in pacing as shots become split-seconds, until the soundtrack reaches a crescendo and the voice-over says, "The spectre of darkness... the Woman In Black". The music box style soundtrack then synchronizes completely with the appearance of shots that cut in from black, to maximize the suspense factor.

The trailer really doesn't explain much to the audience at all in terms of the plot or what the protagonist is investigating at the 'house in the marsh', and the voice-over of the child, along with the sequences of unexplained shots of toys, the house, a storm, the protagonist running through the woods (a suitably anxiogenic space for a horror genre film), seem to be the main elements that show enigma and keep the audience engaged and intrigued. The trailer prompts the audience to ask questions, such as who is this ghostly 'woman in black', and why is she inflicting such terror on the seemingly nice, small town?

Promotional Poster: Alien (1979)

This poster for Alien (1979) exemplifies another form of media in which enigma is used to draw in an audience. The design of the poster is quite cryptic, as it only displays a large egg that is cracking open and a large net below. What is breaking through the egg is concealed by green smoke, the only clarification being the title of the film above. Below the egg is the text, "In space no one can hear you scream", which would prompt the audience to think the film is a science-fiction horror hybrid, but the enigma lies in what form the source of the horror will take, and who will experience it, as no characters are featured on the poster. This would intrigue the audience and encourage them to find out more and look out for it when it appears in cinema. Compared to today's posters where most of the story and characters are given away to attract attention through images of its stars and action, this poster is very enigmatic and unique. 










How could this theory be used in my own film trailer?

My film trailer's plot revolves around a theme of criminal vs. criminal, where a serial killer with twisted morals and opinions regarding society is posing as the stereotypical 'Anonymous' hacker, looking to dispose of society's so-called low-lives, namely, a group of drug addicts. I want the enigma in the trailer to lie in the fact that not a lot will be revealed about the specific reason why the hacker/killer wants to kill this group of drug addicts, and on a deeper level, what 'side' the audience should be rooting for, as both groups are equally 'bad' (since one is a cold-blooded killer with deranged morals, and the other is a group of mindless addicts)- I want it to prompt them to ask themselves who they feel or should be feeling empathy for, or if they should even be feeling empathy at all towards either group. I want to portray this enigma in a similar way to The Woman In Black's trailer: perhaps through a series of shots that contain no dialogue in the beginning that show the addicts taking drugs in a smoke-filled room, which could cross-cut between this and a sequence of shots showing the 'hacker' setting up to record a message. This would make the opening of the trailer quite mysterious, and very different from the conventional action-filled crime genre trailers of today, where they aim to be adrenaline-inducing from the very beginning.
To conclude, I really love the idea of portraying an enigma in my trailer, and I think it will evoke intrigue from the audience and make it clear to them that it is convention-defying and puts a new twist on the crime genre that they may not have seen before.