NARRATIVE ANALYSIS - CANDY (2006) Starring: Heath Ledger, Abbie Cornish and Geoffrey Rush Directed by: Neil Armfield Told in an intently and distinctly planned three-act structure of set-up, confrontation and resolution. Candy is the intense love story and addiction fuelled journey of two heroin addicted artists, the films namesake and protagonist Candy, and her lover Dan. The diegesis of the plot points that drive the setup and the resolution in the first and second acts, and the climax and closure of the third act will be the basis of this analysis. And the techniques used to define the cinematic narration and the structures combined to direct the narrative and shape the film, namely the use of restricted narration and the colours of the setting. (Spiedel, in Niemes 2012, pg. 81). Understanding the three-act structure concept defined by screen writer Syd Field (2005) is not only outlined by the set-up, confrontation and resolution acts but the plot points. The events that hook into the action and spin it around into another direction. (Field, 2005) Each plot point in Candy is cleverly set in almost matching mise-en-scene involving cinematic codes, where editing and camera movement is used to posit certain shots as approximating what it is a character sees or knows. (Spiedel 2012, pg. 83) Dan is in the car, while Candy is out of scene, we learn, prostituting. The shots, both close-up and extreme close-ups of Dan, are paired with the restricted narration of his thoughts, in a poetic way. This affords the opportunity for intimate scrutiny, so effective that, the viewer is lead to understand the depth and severity of where their addiction is going, in the exact same moment of understanding and clarity as the character of Dan. (Spiedel 2012, pg 93) The relative and matching plot points propelling the story into the confrontation; the depths of their addiction and then, into the climax that is Candy's nervous breakdown and the story's resolution. Field's three act concept in Candy is so distinct, the climax and the closure of the film in the third act, the resolution. The film reaches an intensity that is felt by the characters and the
audience. Completed over a few scenes, the Candy climax is like the plot points; both effective and identifiable. The climax is signalled by the breaking of the pattern, the addiction and the catastrophic relationships throughout the film. (Spiedel 2012, pg. 83) Where the build-up to the nervous breakdown of Candy the character, by restricted narration. telling the story thus far in poem as she manically scribbles over their house. It continues from climax to closure, Candy in rehab and with further poetic narration from the character of Dan speaking "And that was it ... " over the scene of their friend Casper, dead from an overdose before reaching the denouement and balance of the closing scenes. The use of colour and poetry coded into the mise-en-scene creates the fluid connection and plays an important part in the expressiveness and emotive