Both of Kozloff’s pieces were very interesting and complimented one another.  The first piece, the introduction of Invisible Storytellers: Voice-Over Narration in American Fiction Film, defined Voice-over-narration while the second piece, A Defense-and history-of Voice over Narration, discussed the controversy of voice over narration in cinema. 

notes: 

•  Voice over narration formally defined as “oral statements, conveying any portion of a narrative, spoken by an unseen speaker situated in a space and time other than that simultaneously being presented by the images on screen”
• narrators are usually: 1st person or 3rd person
• VON creates intimacy.  Personal Tone, historical information, and gives people who normally don’t have a voice, a voice (i.e. 1940’s women) 
• art vs. media; film=visual art
• insultin: telling=laziness and/or condescension

In Kozloff’s A Defense-and history of voice over narration, she demonstrates the various effects of Voice over Narration (VON) in the cinema world.  Some, like Spike Jonze, even go as far as to criticize the use of VON in film.  In Jonze’s Adaptation, a character attends a screenwriting lecture where Robert McKee, a real-life figure criticizes VON by saying, “And God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That’s flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character”.  Some see VONs as degrading, as they “tell” rather “show” the audience giving the narrator condescending persona.   While others object to VONs because they believe that film is a visual art and that the addition of media (i.e. voice over sounds) detracts from the art of film as Kozloff notes, “What makes film distinct and special, these theorists argue, is its capacity to convey information nonverbally—through mise-en-scène, editing, camera movement, POV, facial expression or pantomime”.  They want to separate the various forms of art, seeing each form as a threat to the others, “From the beginning, film aficionados have felt the need to defend cinema as an art and to do so by setting it apart from other media, especially theater and literature”.  People want to set defined lines between the various forms of art to keep each form true.  By adding VON’s to film, critics believe that the visual display of the films are tampered and biased by the narrators and limit the audience’s perspectives.

I think that Kozloff feels the need to defend voice over narrations because others refuse to do so and more importantly, she sees the importance of VONs where others do not as she states, “Many have issued pronouncements against voice-over, and few have murmured in its defense. Yet voice-over narration remains an integral part of moviemaking—so common that we often overlook its contribution and ignore its development”.  Kozoloff acknowledges the controversy with VON in the film industry and takes her reader through the negative and positive outlooks of using VON.  She tries to persuade her readers by taking a more “neutral” standpoint, stating why some critics refuse to accept VON while others believe VONs are crucial to the film industry.

            I have actually seen most of the movies Kozoloff mentions in her writings and like she said, “Voice-over narration has been a major element of cinema since the thirties; it is so very common that it probably passes the average moviegoer unnoticed” I too failed to realize the element of voice over narration in these movies.  I’m sure that while watching movies I acknowledge that there is someone, not in the visual, speaking.  The usual narrative structures “Once upon a time” and “So the story begins”, etc. are phrases that I subconsciously note as voice-overs but usually dismiss during the movies.   Considering our next assignment, I am leaning towards Amelie or American Beauty because I am familiar with these two films.