People such as Robert McKee bash voice-over narration by saying that, “Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character.”  He objected to the use of voice-over narration because he believed that film is a special medium of art because it has the capacity to convey information nonverbally.  According to Kozloff, “…some saw in speech the death of film art.”  Some people think of film as strictly a visual art, in which speech and dialog should be kept to a minimum.  They believe film should be expression without explanation.  It should “show” you, not “tell” you what’s going on in the story.  Kozloff wrote that, “…because of association with authoritative, voice of god narrators, voice-over has been charged with enforcing ideological biases, restricting the viewers’ ability to interpret onscreen events freely for themselves.”

I think Kozloff feels the need to defend voice-over narration because good narration is art.  She believes the cinema is an audio and video experience.  She defends voice-over by tracing it’s history.  At the turn of the century films were watched while a lecturer narrated.  She goes on to describe many films throughout history in which voice-over narration was in vogue and highly influential.  She uses contemporary literary theorists Jeffrey Youdelman and Bill Nichols to make the point that, “in many circumstances narration is a more forthright, honest approach to the subject matter than pretending that the represented scenes speak for themselves or that editing is noncoercive.”  She also quoted literary theorist Wayne Booth, who wrote, “‘showing’ is just as manipulative as ‘telling’.”  Voice-over narration needs to be defended because using it implies an implicit recognition of the spectator.

I am not too familiar with voice-over narration, because as Kozloff explained, it often passes the average moviegoer unnoticed.  After reading the article though, I remember hearing voice-over narration in “It’s A Wonderful Life,” “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” “A Clockwork Orange,” and “Fight Club.”  I remember that in “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” the narrator was an unknown voice that introduced the characters.  In “A Clockwork Orange,” the main character was narrating his own experience of a different place and time.  I have only seen three of the countless films she mentioned in her writing, so her writing does not intersect very well with my familiarity.  However, I am now inspired to see some of the films she mentioned.

I’m not quite sure what film I am considering for analysis.  I am searching for a film with voice-over narration that had a influence on my life.  I have never seen the film Amelie, but I am in love with its soundtrack music, so I think I will watch that one as soon as possible.