Textural Worlds

Abstract

At the basis of seeing texture as the constitution of the whole lies a commonplace understanding: if something can be said to have texture, it is not flat or made up of one note. To describe a narrative or a character as having texture is to say that a story or character contains a richness, detail, complexity. Texture is made up of parts, of strands, of the intermeshing of warp and weft; the sounds made by instruments singly make one part of the palette of the soundscape, the combination of different timbres enlarges and intensifies it. This constitutive relationship between detail and whole is echoed by production designer Stuart Wurtzel: ‘The detail is incredibly important; it all gels together. [&]. I can’t separate it; it’s the total picture’ (LoBrutto, 1992: 202). To look at the overall fabric, the total picture, involves scrutinising the interaction of the detail: the threads of narrative; the rhythmic relations between visual style, sound and action; the pattern arising out of a horizontal movement or unfolding of narrative action. The texture of film which constitutes our understanding of the film’s world leads us to broader considerations of mood and feel.