Suggestive techniques of screenwriting: taboo and unpredictability

Abstract

The subject of this research is the suggestive techniques of screenwriting on various level of perception of the movie, which engage the audience into cinematographic scene. The majority of movies reproduce the topic of social taboo, pulling upon the forbidden desires, and thus, instigating the audience. Such movies intend to distort the socially accepted moral and ethical restrictions, blurring the boundaries of the generally accepted standard. Alongside the violation of social taboo, one of the most important elements of drawing attention of the audience is unpredictability, used in dramaturgy to create an effect of incompleteness of story and the desire to reveal it. The research is based on the analytical and comparative methods, which allow analyzing particular effects intended by the author at the conceptual and dramaturgical level of the screen work. As a suggestive dramaturgical element, unpredictability can be reflected as a deferred event or a unpredictability  that forms the screen image and character of the hero. Analysis is conducted on the movies “The Return” (2003), “Loveless” (2017) directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev; “Fight Club” (1999) directed by David Fincher; “The Departed” (2006) directed by Martin Scorsese; “Melancholia” (2011) directed by Lars von Trier. The research result consists in characterization of the modern trend of preserving unpredictability within a narrative structure of the movie to maintain non-triviality of the storyline.