Roland Barthes believed that the structure of films allows for ambiguity and different interpretations by audiences. He described five narrative codes that shape a film's plot and meaning: action, enigma, semantic, symbolic, and cultural. Vladimir Propp analyzed character archetypes and identified eight common roles that appear in stories: hero, villain, false hero, helper, donor, princess, father, and dispatcher. Tzvetan Todorov's theory proposed that all narratives follow a pattern of equilibrium, disruption, recognition, repair, and new equilibrium. Claude Levi-Strauss analyzed the use of binary opposites to drive conflict and progression in stories.

1. THEORIES

2. ROLAND THEORY
 Roland Barthes believes the structure of movies is somewhat similar to a tangled weave of string which once you
start to watch become unraveled and the meaning behind the film/ the plot is ambiguously decided by the individual
audience. The movie completely a matter of opinion.
 Barthes quotes "texts may be opened or closed"

 There are 5 narrative codes :

 Action- the way the story avoids telling the truth or revealing all which let's a mystery lead it forward
 Enigma- the tension is built up and the audience is left guessing what is about to come next!
 Semantic code- when it points to any element in a text that suggest a particular meaning by the way of connotation
which the story suggests. Based around cultural expectations
 Symbolic code- acts at a wider level, organising semantic meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaning! This
typically done in the use of anthises, where new meaning arises out of conflict ideas.
 Cultural code- looks at the audience wider bilingual knowledge , morality and ideology

3. EXAMPLES OF ROLAND'S
THEORY
 Examples of each code:
 Action- audience are expected to connect the dots of narrative
 Enigma- audience question 'when will it happen'
 Semantic-glass, book, notepads, red car, uniform
 Symbolic- conflicts of male and female etc
 Cultural-draws on stereotypes , geek jock etc

4. P ROP P ’ S THEORY
 Propp's theory
 Propp believed that in every movie there are eight type of characters. All will appear in every movie if look
carefully enough, some may only appear for a few minutes and some might take on the role of several of propp's
character types yet all still are present!
The eight types are:
The hero- this is usually the protagonist or main character
 The villain- typically the antagonist and this character will withhold opposite views to the hero
 False hero- this character is usually the one who will support the hero yet end up working against them!
 The helper- the helper gives help and supports the other characters
 The donor- this role gives a main character soemthing valuable
 The princess- stereotypically a girl yet modern films have created a male 'princess' and some have even created
a princess to be an aim ie freedom
 The father- the father will reward the hero for their efforts
 The dispatcher- this character will send the main character on their way

5. TODOROV’ S THEORY
 Todorov in 1969 produced a theory which he believed to be able to be applied to any film. He believed
that all films followed the same narrative pattern. They all went through stages called the equilibrium,
disequilibrium, acknowledgement, solving and new equilibrium.

 Equilibrium- this is the beginning of each movie inwhich the characters life's are the normal and they're
balanced with no signs of problems or disruption
 Disruption- this is the stage inwhich the characters are faces with a problem or obstacle
 Recognition- this is when the characters begin to realise their lives have changed
 Repair- the characters now try to repair and over come their problems and stuggle
 New equilibrium- could be the same as the old equilibrium or a new equilibrium inwhich the characters
have adapted to as the 'norm'

6. CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS
 Claude Levi-Strauss was a French theorist, not to be mixed up with the
denim maker. He came up with the theory of binary opposites. He belived that
there are always two opposites/conflict which are used to drive the films
narrative forward!
Examples of the conflict in Disney films would be :
The youthful beautiful princess Snow White V the old haggard witch
Well behaved Anna V rebellious Elsa (frozen)
Naturalistic life V surreal life (Alice in wonderland)