Appendix 3.2: Sample films - synopses and character lists
MARNIE US 64
Marnie, he discovers what he takes to be the 'truth' about the
traumatic events of her childhood. He confronts Marnie with
her mother and provokes sufficient reenactment (his physical
struggle with Bernice during which Marnie regresses to a
childish state) to allow Marnie to 'remember' that which she
had repressed. In a series of short flashbacks intercut with
this confrontation we, and Mark, learn the 'real' truth of the
traumatic event. Marnie, the narrative closure suggests, is
'saved' by this memory: she freely chooses to 'have it all
cleared up' (she will confess her crimes against the law) and
she also chooses Mark (she will accept her husband). She
chooses to grow up: this means that she will reject her
mother's view of the social order
Decent women don't have need for any men
in favour of Mark's view
Oh Mark, I don't want to go to jail. I'd rather stay
with you.
Mark and Marnie drive away from her mother's house to the
sound of the children's chant which had accompanied her
arrival there during the visit near the opening of the film:
Mother mother I am ill
Call for the doctor on the hill
Call for the doctor
Call for the nurse
Call for the lady with the alligator purse (etc)
The positioning of the audience urged through the text's
construction is of particular interest in the way it orders
the audience's understanding of the narrative's closure. We
have two mysteries - or rather we have one mystery viewed from
two different places. The two are Marnie's criminality and
her sexuality; the one entails an explanation which will
answer both, and this is what the film offers in the closing
scene.
Bernice: And I promised God right there and then, if
he'd let me keep you, and you not remember, I'd
bring you up different from me. Decent.
Mark: Marnie - it's time to have a little compassion
for yourself. When a child, a child of any age,
Marnie, can't get love - Well it takes what it
can get. Anyway it can get it. It's not so hard
to understand.
In the first part of the film the audience has more knowledge
than any of the protagonists. We know, unlike Mark, that
'Marion Holland' who robbed Strutt, is really Marnie; that she
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