The Parenthetical Voice-over: Dialectical Audiovisual Structure in Hollis Frampton`s (nostalgia) and Jonas Mekas`s The Song of Avila

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the use of the voice-over in first-person cinema and its unique audiovisual structure. Employing notions of caméra-stylo from Alexandre Astruc, horizontal montage from André Bazin, sonic interstices from Laura Rascaroli, and Michel Chion`s discussion on the sound in cinema, I try to examine in this paper how the voice-over has become the most common approach for revealing the filmmaker/author`s presence, and further, how voice-over narration interacts with images within a dynamic parenthetical structure. By using Hollis Frampton`s (nostalgia) and Jonas Mekas`s The Song of Avila as case studies, I aim to establish that in parenthetical structure, the voice-over functions in various ways and can be seen as a novel perspective for treating audiovisual structure in the first-person cinema.