Despite being used to great effect in a handful of films, the technique of “third-person images” remains a largely unexplored topic within film studies. This peculiar phenomenon constitutes a particularly interesting and challenging object of research, as its demands a larger, multi-layered understanding of points of view in narrative cinema. The purpose of this thesis is thus divided into two parts: First, to present an expanded definition of the expression “point of view” that more adequately deals with the various technical, aesthetic, and narrative elements of a film; and second, to introduce and examine third-person images in an attempt to discover the fundamental qualities of this peculiar technique. In so doing, the goal of this study is to determine what makes third-person images so unique and what they might contribute to the films that feature them.
Using an approach I term techno-aesthetic, this thesis examines with equal focus the technical, aesthetic, and narrative elements of a film. Specifically, these are discussed in terms of their various interactions, rather than independently of one another. Precise descriptions of the technical apparatus are paired with a rigorous analysis of the camera movements it produces. In turn, this informs an examination of the type of narrative subjectivity that this technique represents on screen. A scene from Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000) serves as the object of these analyses, and illustrates both the specificities of third-person images, as well as the complexity of points of view in narrative cinema.