1. Narrative in Comedy films

2. Two Key Approaches
• The Narrative/Situation Led Structure
– Order – chaos – order restored
– Equilibrium – disequilibrium – new equilibrium
– The Three Act Structure
• Comedian led Structure - Showcase of individual
gags, personal quirks and set pieces loose held
together by a ‘plot’
– The Three Stooges
– Charlie Chaplin
– Monty Python

3. What is the narrative of Love Actually
• The film begins with a voiceover from David
(Hugh Grant) commenting that whenever he gets
gloomy with the state of the world he thinks
about the arrivals terminal at Heathrow Airport,
and the pure uncomplicated love felt as friends
and families welcome their arriving loved ones.
David's voiceover also relates that all the
messages left by the people who died on the
9/11 planes were messages of love and not hate.
The film then tells the 'love stories' of many
people…

4. Love Actually and the Three Act
Structure.
• Choose at least two ‘love stories within the
film and plot out how the Three Act Structure
works in each

5. In pairs
• Do a brainstorm of all the subplots of Love
Actually… Make sure to detail the issue and
how it is resolved.
• First one as an example …
The Prime Minister falls in love with his simple
secretary, the POTUS hits on her, the PM then
forcing her to leave. The PM realises it was the
POTUS’ fault, goes to her family home and wins
her love.

6. Conflict in Love Actually
• List on the left side of the page describing
words for the types of conflict we see in this
film…
• Draw an arrow to the subplots in your
brainstorm that are evidence of this type of
conflict
• Why do you think this film offers and deals
with conflict in these ways?
• Is there one conflict moment that is unlike the
rest in the film?
• Why?

7. Question
• What is predictable about this text?
• Positives
• Negatives

8. Narrative Summary of Four Lions
• On the sheets provided list as many
events/scene that you can remember from
the film. Write only one event/scene per
sheet of paper
• As a class order the events/scene according
to how we saw them in the film.

9. Four Lions and the Three Act
Structure.
• Mark out where the different elements of the
Three Act Structure happen – you must reach
a consensus.

10. Conflict in Four Lions
• Find the Four Lions conflict moments from
your pieces of paper and group them together
• Group the papers in two groups –
RESOLVED or UNRESOLVED
Discuss what sorts of conflict this film has.

11. RESOLVED
• What strategies are used by the director to
resolve the conflict?
• How does resolving these conflicts make the
audience feel? (Use an example to support
your reasoning)
• How does this link to the expectations we
have of this genre?

12. UNRESOLVED
• How come the unresolved conflict is left
open?
• Why do you think the director chose to leave
some conflict resolved and some unresolved?
• How would this film be different if all conflict
was resolved? Would it be more successful?

13. Question
• What is predictable about this text?
• Positives
• Negatives

14. Four Lions and Love Actually
• Are mostly the classic Hollywood style but
they both do include element of gags and
they do play with conventions
• Single goal oriented protagonist
• Narrative is driven by character traits

15. Four Lions and Love Actually
• Cause and Effect
• Use of subplots
• The Happy Ending

16. Essay Question
• How far are the narratives of the two genre
films you have studied for this topic
predictable?
• Spend five mins brainstorming all the things
you could possible talk about for this
question

17. Constructing an Argument
• First of all you need to…
…decide on your point of view!
On the sheet provided write three
different points of view you could
have about the question – No
sharing ideas!!!!

18. Ongoing Argument
• At GCSE, simply writing separate paragraphs about
different narrative ideas with general analysis and
examples from the film is enough.
• The difference between GCSE and A Level essays; the
examiner will now expect your essay to have a central,
ongoing thesis (argument) which runs throughout your
essay (ie you refer to it often and use select evidence
to back up your view point) and which you conclusively
prove using detailed analysis.
• Including a counter argument (or acknowledging other
possible view point) can also greatly increase your
marks.