Narrative Structure

This chapter is concerned with the narrative structure of Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir. It reflects on the differences between Waltz with Bashir's story and plot, as defined by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson in their seminal text Film Art: An Introduction and looks at how information is revealed to the audience. It also looks at the ten animated interview scenes ordered around in Waltz with Bashir, which allegedly took place in 2006 and are carried out as part of an investigation to help the film's narrator-protagonist to overcome his amnesia about his role during the First Lebanon War. The chapter analyzes Waltz with Bashir's final scene that uses live news footage of the Sabra and Shatila camps and appears to mark the moment when the protagonist is hit by the full emotional force of his memories. It talks about the juxtaposition of live footage with total recall that suggests that Waltz with Bashir moves from unreliable or 'false' memory to 'real' truth.