A1 Journal article (refereed)
Hetkiä elämän virrasta : kerronnallinen ja kokemuksellinen aika Joki-elokuvassa (2016)
Moments in the Flow of Life : Narrative and Experiential Time in The River

Hiltunen, K. (2016). Hetkiä elämän virrasta : kerronnallinen ja kokemuksellinen aika Joki-elokuvassa. Lähikuva, 29(3), 6-23. https://doi.org/10.23994/lk.59497

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Hiltunen, Kaisa

Journal or series: Lähikuva

ISSN: 0782-3053

eISSN: 2343-399X

Publication year: 2016

Volume: 29

Issue number: 3

Pages range: 6-23

Publisher: Lähikuva-yhdistys

Publication country: Finland

Publication language: Finnish

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23994/lk.59497

Persistent website address: https://journal.fi/lahikuva/article/view/59497

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/51885

Abstract

Jarmo Lampela’s film The River (Joki, Suomi 2001) narrates six simultaneous and intersecting stories in which small town characters are faced by important choices and life-changing events. Through the characters of differing ages The River outlines the course of a human life. In this article I ask how time is manifested in The River. I examine the many dimensions of time that can be reached through cinema. On the one hand, time is examined as a part of film form, and on the other, as experiential. Moreover, the article asks how The River thematizes time through its philosophical content. In The River, narrative time is emphasized, because its structure with six storylines deviates from the typical linear and unitary narrative. The six simultaneous events in The River are told as subsequent episodes. David Bordwell’s concept of network narrative is used to analyze this episodic structure. Film theory and Paul Ricoeur’s theory of narrative are used to address questions related to narrative time. The spectator becomes conscious of time when she has to figure out what the relationships between the storylines are. Cinematic time is invariably experiential, because it is constructed for the spectator, and comes into existence in the encounter of the film and the spectator. In The River, time is experiential also in the sense that its narrative expresses the personal experiences of its characters that are temporal in nature. This experiential dimension of cinematic time is examined in the framework of phenomenology of time and film theoretical adaptations of phenomenology. Time in cinema is more than a narrative phenomenon. Thus, the article examines how time is manifested both as a narrative and a non-narrative element in The River.

Keywords: time; films; narration; phenomenology

Free keywords: Joki [elokuva]; Lampela, Jarmo

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2016

JUFO rating: 1