The Effects of Rhetorical Ellipsis in the Editing of some Iranian Films

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D Student in Persian Language and Literature Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters and Humanities Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

2 Full Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters and Humanities Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad. Iran (Corresponding Author)

3 Full Professor, Department of Television, Faculty of Radio and Television Production, IRIB University.Tehran. Iran

10.30480/dam.2023.4382.1745

Abstract

The main goalof this researchis to analyze and investigate rhetoricalellipsis and its effect infilm editing. Rhetorical ellipsis in cinema is one of the methods in which a part of a film is omitted in order to an effective and the implicit purposes. Studying this literary device in cinema by explaining different reasons and motivations provides a clear explanation of how films are constructed and how they affect the audience. In this research, with a neoformalist approach and a descriptive-analytical method, and using library sources and audio-visual documents (films), the effects of Rhetorical ellipsis in the editing of 11 films from Iranian cinema have been investigated. First, using rhetoric, a precise definition of rhetorical ellipsis and its differences with compression has been provided. The main difference between rhetorical ellipsis and compression is that in compression attention is paid to shortening and creating brevity, in fact in compression is omitted some of the very common recurring words that are obviously understood. While the main goal of rhetorical ellipsis is to create mental and emotional effects in the audience and the removed part is not easily identified, and understanding it requires more thinking.In the following, after looking at the history and types of this ellipsis in the editing of the world cinema, examples of Iranian cinema have been analyzed. The results of the research showed that the rhetorical ellipsis in the editing of films had led to defamiliarization by creating different implicit meanings and changing the audience's conventional attitude toward the film. By ignoring the audience's expectations and preconceptions, the rhetorical ellipsis challenges them. When they are waiting to see the continuation of the film, the rhetorical ellipsis attracts their attention by not showing it.The origin of the effect of rhetorical ellipsis is in using the audience's imagination to understand the omitted parts. In other words, Audience participation to understand the meaning of the film while creating pleasure will make the film more effective. The dynamics of rhythm, creating emotional shocks, intensifying emotions, creating ambiguity, observing the appropriate situation of the audience, reflecting the mentalities and emotions of the characters in the film, and creating a cinematic metaphor are some of the uses of rhetorical ellipsis in films. Rhetorical ellipsis by not following the requirements of the story has led to an implicit and special way of storytelling, which needs more thought and rethinking to understand.

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