Guest: Anne Gjelsvik, Voices over Images: On voice-over in fiction films

This week we are visited by Anne Gjelsvik, who will give a lecture on Voices over Images: On voice-over in fiction films.

Anne Gjelsvik is invited as the 2022 Lars Elleström guest researcher, in a new initiative from IMS to honour the work of Lars Elleström – and to make strong ties to important researchers in intermediality and multimodality. 

Abstract

It might be fair to say that there are two schools regarding the use of voice-over in fiction film. One, arguing that the use of voice-over in film is an unnecessary heritage from literature, and mostly the result of sloppy narration (for instance represented by scriptwriter guru Robert McKee in the film Adaptation). And a second school calling for a reevaluation of voice-over narration(represented by Sarah Kozloff in her Invisible Storytellers: Voice-over Narration in American Fiction Film (1989)), for instance due to the possibility of using irony, having an unreliable narrator etc through voice over.

In this talk, I will discuss different types of voice over in fiction film, drawing (among other examples) on Joachim Trier’s use of voice over in his films, in particular his combination of inner voice and montage, and the combination of omnipresent narrator and montage. I will reflect on what these narrative choices add to the films, as well as how they reflect on film as a medium.

Bio

Anne Gjelsvik is Professor of film studies at the department of art and media studies, NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology). Her research interests cover a wide range of topics from terrorism and the media, popular cinema, ethicsand eco-criticism to intermediality and adaptation. She has extensively published in both Norwegian and English, to name a few: Cinema Between Media (Edinburgh University Press 2018), together with Jørgen Bruhn; Hva er film (Universtetsforlaget, 2013); Bad and Beautiful (Vondt og vakkert, Vold i audiovisuelle medier, Høyskoleforlaget, 2007); Women of Ice and Fire. Gender, Game of Thrones and Multiple Media Engagments, Bloomsbury 2016 (edited by Gjelsvik); Adaptations Studies. New Challenges. New Directions (Bloomsbury, 2013)  (Edited together with Jørgen Bruhn and Eirik Frisvold Hanssen).

How to participate

It is possible to attend the seminar both from Dacke in Växjö and via zoom. Contact us at ims@lnu.se if you want to participate via zoom, or sign up for our external email list to receive automatic updates on our events (zoom link and additional information are sent out one week in advance).

Photo: 'Aurora - Connecting Senses’, Cristina Pop-Tiron & Signe Kjær Jensen