Keywords

• This article will explore the concept of focalisation as popularized by Gérard Genette within the field of literature and attempts to apply it to cinematographic studies
• more specifically to the 1970sâ€
• ™
• popular Italian film genre: giallo. This in order to highlight and clarify certain confusions inherent in Genetteâ€
• ™
• s concept
• particularly in relation to seeing and knowing. Wishing to dispel this confusion and in pursuit of a more adequate and operational model
• we seek not only to review the different gradations of focalisation (zero
• internal and external)
• but also to look at the notions of perception and cognition. Therefore
• we find eight possible configurations
• each liable to produce a different â€
• œ
• effectâ€
• 
• on the audience. Do we perceive more
• less or the same as the characters? Do we know more
• less or the same as them? And do we understand more
• less or the same as them? These are the questions we seek to address
• individually and in that order
• in an effort to better understand the different effects sought by each of these configurations. We believe that these clarifications will allow for a more grounded model with which to think about cinematic identification