During last week’s seminar we had an interesting discussion about narrative, notably in relation to the movie we watched the day before, ‘Mystery Road’. Personally, I was a fan of the film simply because it was Australian, which is hard to come by. There were a few times that it lost me, especially in the shoot out and the overall discovering of who killed the girl, but it was easy to overlook when the film was just so beautifully shot.

The opening title is apart of the film, which is interesting considering most would simply superimpose. It’s the sign of Mystery Road itself and the clouds are parted enough to make out the silhouette. When the frame gets tighter though, the cloud shrouds the ‘road’ part, so that you can only read mystery. I thought that was a very clever way of indicating the thematic concerns of the film before it had even opened on the first scene.

I have to admit; narrative confuses me a little. Things like inferred events (when something is talked about but not shown and usually takes place before the plot chronologically) are relatively easy to understand. But when it comes to the difference between plot and narrative, I get a little hazy.

From what I can tell, narrative includes objects, place and people that all help illustrate the plot. I think! In Mystery Road, this would be things like the girl’s necklace and phone, which are clues to her death which is the whole plot. Place would be obvious – Mystery Road and outback Australia in general. People would be Jay, the protagonist, whose perspective is established within minutes of the opening scene.