Review of Edward Branigan, Narrative Comprehension and Film. London and New York: Routledge, 1992. (Distributed by the Law Book Company Ltd.). 325pp. ISBN 0415075114. (pbk), $45.00.

Abstract

If Point of View in the Cinema introduced its author as one of the leading film analysts by its attention to the details of the process of cinematic presentation, Narrative Comprehension and Film establishes Edward Branigan as a creative theorist beyond the boundaries of film. The book's voice is that of a craftsman speaking from his workshop. No deconstructive symplok and certainly no rhetorical terrorism. Instead, we find a certain modesty of style, which is deceptive considering that Branigan offers a great deal of substance and a range of attractive speculative insights. The author's mastery of technical intricacies within the broader frame of general narrative makes Narrative Comprehension and Film an outstanding teaching book for film studies as well as other disciplines in the humanities. What makes it especially appealing is its careful elaboration of an inferential account of how we make sense of narrative. For this and other reasons, it is well worth paying closer attention than is perhaps usual for a review article to how the book's argument unfolds and in particular to how it manages to relate the double argument about narrative in film and human perception as interpretive construals