“Narrative simply means storytelling. [A story is] all the events of the narrative as they occur in chronological order from beginning to end, including not only those that we see and hear, but those we infer.
Not all films are narrative films. There are documentaries—nonfiction accounts of real people and events that may or may not tell a story in the process. [Commercials are another type of a film that does not necessarily include a narrative (although many do).]
But most of the films you will see in your life—and most of the television shows as well—are narratives. They tell stories, and their stories follow broad patterns or conventions.”
For more on narrative, see the literary web.
—Film studies: An introduction by Ed Sikov.
