Jan 09 2009
Films and revealing Names
So as a bit of an addendum to my previous post, I wanted to discuss briefly the concept of names in film. One of my biggest pet peeves in film (btw, I hate the word pet peeve, but until I find a functional equivalent, I’ll have to stick with it) is when you spend most the movie wondering what the characters are actually called.
In the case of “The English Patient”, for example, we only hear references to Almasy for the first hour or so, or people call him just Count, and I think only one do we hear his full name. Often people joke about his name being foreign and hard to pronounce. Which in the sense of the story could all work to build his character. But for me as an audience, I found it extremely annoying. If a movie presents a main character and expects me to connect with them, the least they can do is be perfectly clear as to what his/her name is. Granted, in some rare cases, this information is withheld on purpose from the audience, to make the character alienated or mysterious. But most times it seems it is done merely as a mistake.
Especially in a case like this, where is a bizarre name, the filmmakers should find a simple and clever way to show us names: on a nameplate on a desk, painted on an office door, on a name-tag, etc., something to give us something visual and definitive to latch on to. I’m not saying that all details in a film should be spelled out and spoon-fed to the audience (and certainly if the name is “Joe” or the like, it doesn’t take much work), but I believe that a name is crucial to developing a character (just like their physical appearance or costumes), and thus, needs to be clarified.
Often, I think filmmakers don’t stop to think about this little detail and how it might affect the audience. In their case, they’ve been living in the world of the story for years and know all the names and details from the script, and so maybe they assume all this information will automatically be picked up by the audience, instead of realizing that sometimes that audience needs to be fed at least a few solid pieces of information before they can really engage.
Just my two cents.
