Visual narrative structure and Cinematic Continuity in Samuel Beckett’s Act Without Words I

Abstract

The present paper aims at exploring the 2000 filmed version of Samuel Beckett’s mime, Act Without Words I, in the light of Neil Cohn’s theory of Visual Narrative Grammar and Tim Smith’s Attentional Theory of Cinematic Continuity. Act Without Words I demonstrates, in an unmatched manner, the power of the visual by virtue of its being a mime. Beckett’s reliance on the visual demands much from the film viewer, the role of whom is the basis of Smith’s Attentional Theory of Cinematic Continuity. As regards the theory of Visual Narrative Grammar, Cohn postulates that the visual structure of a narrative is analogous to grammatical structure and is also related to the inferences made by the viewer. Meaning is, thus, made by the film viewer through the gaze and the visual narrative structure aimed at by the author is complete.

Keywords

• Mime: visual
• narrative: structure
• filmed: cinematic
• continuity
• viewer
• gaze