This essay aims to explore the narrative construction of classical Hollywood films, which will particularly focus on one specific scene from Ernst Lubitsch’s representative musical comedy, One hour with you (1932). The chosen scene is ‘before the party, Andrew was in the dining room and tried to change the order of place cards but being found by his wife (00:32:14 – 00:34:07).’ Basically it will be analyzed from three aspects: how this scene defines the two characters (Andrew and Colette), how it shows the classical continuity editing method and what is the logical relationship and causality behind it.

Relating to the overall narrative structure of the film, “In the middle of the scene, characters act toward their goals: they struggle, make choices, make appointments, set deadlines, and plan future events” (Bordwell, 20). In the chosen scene, characters are just entering this situation. The appearance of Mitzi and her actions have made everyone’s life full of unstable factors. Due to that, the contradictions hidden behind the marriages of the two couples have been activated and endangering their original lives. Andrew and Colette both have to make decisions which would certainly affect the plot. This is also the common way that classical Hollywood narrative promotes plot development: starting with peaceful romantic love, but then quickly comes to the problems, and characters struggle to make decision, finally the problems are solved with a happy ending.

As a result, the decisions they made not only open up new causal lines for future development of the plot, but also indicate or define who they are. At the start of the chosen scene, Andrew comes into the dining room with formal gown. He close the door gently, a very little action but shows he is careful and does not want to be noticed by anyone. He checks the place cards on the table with a serious face and finds his seat is just next to Mitzi’s. Then, there are some clues to figure out which kind of person Andrew is: he smiles and seems really happy to think the things he could do if sitting next Mitzi. While just before this scene he was trying to refuse Mitzi’s request to come to her house to view her condition because he knows she is seducing him and as a husband who loves his wife, he shall certainly refuse. But as he explains to camera after the party, he is a human who is hesitant and made up of desire. His faith and was shaken, but luckily he shakes his head and seems already made up his mind. He changes Mitzi’s card with Mademoiselle Martel’s, which means he is a loyal and responsible man. Those his actions are small but even significant to the narrative construction because, as mentioned above, it opens up new causal lines. It is because his behavior is just found by his wife, therefore the misunderstanding, which plays a great role in the rest of the film, appears in her mind.

And what kind of woman and wife Colette is according to this scene? As her face shows she is absolutely very unhappy with Andrew’s behavior. She glares at him, whatever he is trying to calm down the situation, she just not listen. At the end of their conversation, she still does not believe his words and even doubts his loyalty. This may suggest she is quite suspicious. And this suspicious also leads her actions later in the film: sticking with Andrew and monitoring him, conflicting with him after seeing Mademoiselle Martel tying his bow tie. Through this short scene, the personalities of the two characters are shown well, and in terms of narrative construction, it successfully defines character and relate to the overall narrative of the film.

Here is another important element in the narrative of the chosen scene: Continuity Editing, which is what classical Hollywood style fundamentally build on. The most successful continuity editing means the cut is invisible to audience, which means no one will notice the transitions when watching the film because it is smooth and fluent. As a very Lubitsch film, it certainly use this system frequently. For example, when change the place card, the editor uses eye match method several time. This is a very common method used in Classical narrative films to make the transition between shots smooth. The general principle is make the person looking at the subject (or person) which will be cut to next, therefore the person as a reference for audience will be helpful to relocate their views. Besides, at the beginning of the scene, it uses fade in to cut to the shot Andrew is walking into the dining room, which is also a common technique of Continuity Editing.

Finally, in the chosen scene, Lubitsch shows his own understanding on classical style films obviously. Although the characters are intensively struggling and making hard choices, audiences do not feel the same emotions but still feel easy during watching. This is because of Lubitsch’s outstanding skill of using funny physical actions and humorous conversation to achieve the effect in his comedies. And in this scene, for example, Andrew defends himself by amusing words. Besides, the background music is not as stressful as the plot, but still relaxing and pleasant. These features are commonly seen in Lubitsch’s classical musical comedies.

In sum, this essay has critically analyzed the classical Hollywood narrative through introducing the specific scene from Lubitsch’s musical comedy One Hour with You. Lubitsch as a master of classical films proved his excellent skills on narrative and character construction. The film One Hour with You is a representative of classical narrative film and great example for cinema studies student to understand the system.

References

Bordwell, D., 1986. Classical Hollywood Cinema : Narrational Principles and Procedures. In: P. Rosen, ed. Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology: A Film Theory Reader. New York: Columbia University Press, pp.18-32.