Liu Yang
email: yangl@isir.upmc.fr

Catherine Achard
email: catherine.achard@upmc.fr

Catherine Pelachaud
email: catherine.pelachaud@upmc.fr

Now or When? Interruption timing prediction in dyadic interaction

Keywords: Nonverbal Behaviour, Interruption Prediction, Turn-Taking, multimodality, Socially Interactive Agent

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INTRODUCTION

Interruptions are frequent in human communication, occurring in everyday conversations and playing a critical role in shaping the outcome of a conversation. They can either engage in interaction or disrupt the conversation flow, depending on the speaker's intent, the timing of the interruption, and the speaker's response [START_REF] Kendon | Conducting interaction: Patterns of behavior in focused encounters[END_REF]. In natural interactions, speakers switch speaking floors quickly and smoothly. Humans can predict when their partner's turn will end, enabling them to take the speaking turn without breaking the conversation flow [START_REF] De Ruiter | Projecting the end of a speaker's turn: A cognitive cornerstone of conversation[END_REF].

Virtual agents are developed as interaction partners of human users in a variety of applications. To ensure seamless and natural interactions between humans and virtual agents we believe it is important to equip virtual agents with the ability to handle interruptions during interactions. In particular, they ought to predict when human users may interrupt them when they have the speaking turn.

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to find possible interruption initiation timing in dyadic interactions using multi-modal features only from the speaker since this model is to be applied to a virtual agent, of which the behaviour may be different from the real human. Our approach is based on a one-class classification model that has been trained on a corpus of dyadic interactions. We evaluate the model's accuracy through a perceptual study that compares model-predicted interruptions with ground truth data and random interruptions.

RELATED WORKS

Interruptions are common, but in most cases speaking turn exchanges smoothly during a conversation, smooth turn exchange is found predictable due to various cues that indicate the end of a turn: Ruth E. Corps et al. [START_REF] Ruth E Corps | Predicting turn-ends in discourse context[END_REF] proposed a model that predicts turn-ends by using the semantic content and timing of the preceding speech. S.C. Levinson et al. [START_REF] Stephen | Timing in turn-taking and its implications for processing models of language[END_REF] provided insights into the systematic organization of turn-taking and its implications for processing models of language. Skantze [START_REF] Skantze | Turn-taking in conversational systems and human-robot interaction: a review[END_REF] proposed a continuous model of turn-taking using LSTM recurrent neural networks, which takes into account contextual information. Crook et al. [START_REF] Crook | Handling user interruptions in an embodied conversational agent[END_REF][START_REF] Smith | Interaction strategies for an affective conversational agent[END_REF] developed a model for handling user's interruptions when conversing with an embodied conversational agent; this model considers the user's intent and the agent's goals. Chỳlek et al. [START_REF] Chỳlek | Learning to interrupt the user at the right time in incremental dialogue systems[END_REF] proposed to use low-level acoustic features to predict interruptions and overlaps with a deep residual learning network. Their method allows for predicting interruption timings using the speaker's acoustic features.

Current studies highlight the importance of effective turn-taking and interruption management in human-agent interactions and focus more on handling the interruptions initiated by the human user, while it is also important that the agent interrupts the human user's floor and adjusts the conversation flow. We propose a one-class classification method using multimodal features such as acoustic features, head movement, and facial expression.

APPROACH

We use the French part of the NoXi corpus [START_REF] Cafaro | The NoXi database: multimodal recordings of mediated novice-expert interactions[END_REF] for our study. NoXi is a multimodal database that contains free dyadic conversations(21 videos, 7 hours). According to the schema described in [START_REF] Yang | Annotating interruption in dyadic human interaction[END_REF], 859 interruptions are annotatedObtaining the ground truth of positive samples (occurrence of interruptions) is thus possible but obtaining negative samples (where interruptions could have occurred but have not occurred) is more challenging. Even if an interruption did not occur at a given moment, it does not mean that it could not have happened: how to determine that it is not possible to interrupt at a given moment?

For this issue, Chỳlek et al. [START_REF] Chỳlek | Learning to interrupt the user at the right time in incremental dialogue systems[END_REF] assumed that the current speaker was purposefully not interrupted before a real interruption (𝑡 -0.7s), and consider this point as the negative sample. To overcome the limitation of missing negative samples we use a one-class classification model. Such a model does not need negative samples. It learns to detect interruptions based on only existing positive samples. In this article, we compared our approach with the method proposed by Chỳlek et al. [START_REF] Chỳlek | Learning to interrupt the user at the right time in incremental dialogue systems[END_REF] using multimodal features extracted on 1s length temporal window. We leveraged acoustic features extracted from openSmile [START_REF] Eyben | Opensmile: the munich versatile and fast open-source audio feature extractor[END_REF]: fundamental frequency, loudness, and 12 mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC). We also extracted facial expressions, gaze, and head movements from OpenFace [START_REF] Baltrušaitis | Openface: an open source facial behavior analysis toolkit[END_REF], including Action Units (AU) 01, 02, 04, 05, 12, and 15, gaze direction, as well as head position and rotation. For all multimodal features, we calculated their average values on the corresponding temporal window length (0.7s for the approach of Chỳlek et al. [START_REF] Chỳlek | Learning to interrupt the user at the right time in incremental dialogue systems[END_REF], 1s for our method) and used this feature vector as input to both models. The works of Chỳlek et al. [START_REF] Chỳlek | Learning to interrupt the user at the right time in incremental dialogue systems[END_REF] used a deep residual learning network (ResNet-152). Data is augmented by offsetting each moment by 1 to 3 samples. The method we proposed is a one-class SVM with specific hyperparameters 𝛾 = 0.1𝑎𝑛𝑑𝜈 = 0.3. The output of the one-class SVM is a score representing the similarity of the input features vector to the targeted class, which in our case is interruptions. We manually set a threshold on the output score based on the frequency of interruptions on the validation data.

To compare our one-class SVM model with the method presented by Chỳlek et al. [START_REF] Chỳlek | Learning to interrupt the user at the right time in incremental dialogue systems[END_REF], we followed a similar approach to use the annotated interruption onset moments as positive samples, and defined the moment -0.7s as negative samples, with an offset of 3 frames. For both methods, the model is trained on 19 conversations (validation set: 2 half videos from the 19) and tested on the 2 remaining ones. The results are presented in Table 1. It is important to note that we do not exactly obtain the results presented in [START_REF] Chỳlek | Learning to interrupt the user at the right time in incremental dialogue systems[END_REF] as we use another database where participants spoke another language and discussed other topics in a different interaction setting. The comparison showed that the inclusion of facial expressions and head motions enhances the prediction accuracy of interruptions. Moreover, our proposed one-class SVM model performs slightly better than the neural network model.

SUBJECTIVE EVALUATION

We conduct a perceptual study to evaluate our timing prediction model. We compare ground truth annotations, predicted interruptions, and randomly selected ones. We consider 4 independent variables: interruption timing (ground truth, model predicted, randomly chosen), interrupter speech (ground truth, scripted), interrupter audio voice (natural human audio or synthesised voice), interruption type (agreement, clarification, disagreement) and we added one more variable to be tested: interruption turn (ground truth turn, during which interruptions were annotated in the real conversation, or false-positive turn, during which interruptions were predicted to occur but didn't occur in real conversation). The value of these variables is explained below. Thus we obtained 8 conditions we referred to as group 1...8 (see Figure 1). Each group was evaluated by 30 participants using a questionnaire composed of 11 questions.

All the participants were fluent in speaking French.

Stimuli

To assess the predicted interruption timings, we compared them to the ground truth and randomly selected interruption timings. We utilized a static image featuring two stylized young individuals to accompany the interrupter and interruptee audios. As shown in Figure 2, the person on the left represents the interrupter, and the person on the right represents the interruptee. Subtitles were displayed concurrently with the audio for both the interrupter and interruptee beneath their corresponding silhouette.

From the NoXi database, we chose five interruptions categorized into three types: agreement, disagreement, and clarification (e.g. French: 'Ouais c'est ça ouais', English: 'Yeah that's it').

To examine the impact of the interrupter's voice, we used either natural human voice interrupter audios extracted from the videos of the NoXi database or synthesised voice. In all conditions, we used the original audio from the database for interruptees.

Comparison & results

For each video, participants answered 11 questions (see Table 2) related to the timing of the interruption, the type of interruption, and their perception of the interrupter, using a 5-point Likert scale. We report the significant differences between groups with a t-test (95% confidence of the p-value), Bonferroni correction was applied for multiple testing.

Interrupter speech.

We compared the stimuli of groups 1, 2, and 3 to see how interrupter speech impacts the perception of the interruption. The interruptions of group 1 were evaluated as significantly more coherent (Q3) and cooperative (Q5) than those of groups 2 and 3, even though the interruption timings were the same for groups 1 and 2. There were no remarkable differences in competitiveness (Q4), dominance (Q6), and friendliness (Q7) between the three groups. Furthermore, the interrupters in group 1 were perceived as more likely to grab the turn (Q9) than the interrupters in groups 2 and 3. The interrupters of groups 1, 2, and 3 were rated as should let the speaker finish talking (Q10), but none of them tried to control the conversation (Q8).

Interruption timing.

We compared the stimuli of groups 4, 5, and 6 to study how the different interruption timings are perceived. Group 4's interruptions were perceived as more acceptable (Q2) than groups 5 and 6. Compared to group 6, group 4's interruptions were also found to be better placed (Q1); the interrupters were perceived as more cooperative (Q5), friendly (Q7), and less competitive (Q4) and dominant (Q6), but no significant difference was found between the comparisons of group 4 vs. group 5, and group 5 vs. group 6. The interruptions of groups 4, 5, and 6 were perceived as coherent (Q3, score>3) but there was no significant difference between these groups. The interrupters of groups 5 and 6 were perceived as more likely to control the conversation (Q8) and "should not have interrupted" (Q11) than those of group 4. Compared to the interrupters of groups 4 and 5, the interrupters of group 6 were perceived as more likely to grab the floor (Q9) and should let the speaker finish the turn (Q10).

Interruption turn & interruption type.

We examined the results obtained from the stimuli of groups 7 and 8 to investigate how false-positive turn interruptions were perceived and the impact of interruption types. The only significant difference between the stimuli of groups 7 and 8 is that the interrupters of group 7 were perceived as more friendly (Q7) than those of group 8. We further analyzed the differences between different interruption types. Agreement and clarification interruptions were perceived similarly in all aspects. While compared to disagreement interruptions, the agreement type was perceived as better placed (Q1), more acceptable (Q2), and coherent (Q3), with interrupters perceived as more cooperative (Q5) and friendly (Q7), and less competitive (Q4) and dominant (Q6). Clarification and disagreement interruptions had no significant differences in terms of placement (Q1) and coherence (Q3). Interrupters of agreement and clarification interruptions were more likely to control the conversation (Q8) and grab the turn (Q9) compared to those of disagreement interruptions.

Interrupter audio voice.

To figure out the influence on perception when natural human voice or synthesised voice was used, we compared the results between group 2 and group 4, and between group 3 and group 5. The natural human voice group interruptions were perceived as more acceptable (Q2) than the synthesised voice group, and the interrupters of the natural, human voice group were perceived as less competitive (Q4) or dominant (Q6) than the synthesised voice ones, who were perceived as more like interrupting unnecessarily (Q10, Q11). Participants might become more sensitive to interruption timing when there is no longer natural intonation.

CONCLUSION

In this paper, we presented a novel approach to predict interruptions during conversations through the use of a one-class classification model with multimodal features from the speaker. To evaluate the effectiveness of our model, we conducted an objective study and a perceptual experiment to gain insights into how interruptions are perceived under different conditions. As a result, randomly chosen interruptions were rated rather similarly to the ground truth and predicted ones. Moreover, when using synthesised voice and scripted sentences, interrupting as in the ground truth or at other moments did not make a significant difference in perception. One possible reason is that interruptions may not have to occur at specific times in a conversation; there seems to be quite a lot of flexibility. But, this result is modulated by other factors (coherence of the interrupter speech sentences and voice quality). Interruption timing may not be the prime factor, rather the quality of the voice (natural vs. synthesized voice) seems more important.

In the near future, we plan to integrate our interruption prediction model into a virtual agent platform to allow the agent to interrupt the user as well as to react to the user's interruption.

Figure 1 :

 1 Figure 1: 8 groups with different conditions in interruption timing, interrupter speech, and interrupter audio voice.

Figure 2 :

 2 Figure 2: Screenshot of generated video for an interruption.

Table 1 :

 1 Accuracy & F1-score for Deep residual learning network and One-class SVM models with different modality combinations.

		Accuracy F1-score
	Deep residual learning network	0.56	0.56
	[3] (acoustic only)
	Deep residual learning network	0.59	0.58
	[3] (all modalities)
	One-class SVM (ours)	0.61	0.61

Table 2 :

 2 Evaluation questions.

	Do you think the interruption is	1. well placed? 2. acceptable? 3. coherent?
		4. competitive?
	Do you think the	5. cooperative?
	interrupter is	6. dominant?
		7. friendly?
		8. is trying to control the conversation?
	Do you think the	9. intend to take the floor?
	interrupter	10. should let his interlocuter finish
		what he was about to say?
		11. shouldn't have interrupted?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was performed as a part of the ANR-JST-CREST TAPAS (ANR-19-JSTS-0001) and IA ANR-DFG-JST Panorama (ANR-20-IADJ-0008) project.


C. S. Lewis is a polarising author. On one hand, his Narnia Chronicles, particularly The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe are still some of the most well-loved novels in English children's literature. For instance, to mark the centenary anniversary of his birth in 1998, in addition to new editions of the seven books chronicles, numerous national events were organized. These included a theatrical adaptation of his work by the Royal Shakespeare Company, a competition at Hamleys, the famous London toy shop, for children to make greetings cards on the theme of the Narnia stories and commemorative postage stamps issued by The Royal Mail. Popular stars at the time, such as Gerri Halliwell of The Spice Girls and even, Liam Gallagher, the singer from Oasis, all recounted how much they loved the books too.

On the other hand, Lewis is not without his critics and certainly often appears to suffer in comparison with his contemporary, J. R. R. Tolkien. This is significant, given how closely these authors and their works relate to each other, yet it may be explained through various reasons. They were the most famous members of a literary group known as the Inklings who met regularly in Oxford where they were both teaching. Today, anyone visiting their most famous

3 This is the real interest of the Shadowlands. It is the most well-known biopic about Lewis, directed in 1993 by Richard Attenborough, starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger. While it alludes briefly to the novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, its main focus contrasts Lewis's philosophical arguments about faith found in The Problem of Pain written in 1940 with an autobiographical publication from 1961, A Grief Observed. The film is an example of 'life-slicing' which recounts events surrounding Lewis' marriage to the American writer Joy Davidman in 1956 ending with her death four years later. Attempting to explain the circumstances which led to their wedding before considering the rather tragic nature of her death, it is clear that Attenborough is adopting this method of detailed narrow focus in an attempt to convey a much deeper exploration of the person behind the persona.

We will analyse this work from a point of view of adaptation theory. We suggest the term 'metonymic adaptation' to describe the purpose and the technique of life-slicing. We will begin by looking at how this particular slice of Lewis' life could be considered as a heroic journey. Following this we will examine how much ideas from the field of adaptation studies could contribute to questioning the process and the product of biopic filmmaking before finally returning to examine what we learn from Shadowlands.

Lewis as a hero: A Journey through the Shadowlands

Before considering the plot of the story, we should take a moment to consider the meaning of the title. Shadows are omnipresent in the film. Obviously the shadow of cancer looms over Lewis' life as he lost his mother to it aged 10 and Joy will eventually succumb too. We may also attribute a metaphorical sense to the title as the film discusses grey areas in life where a categorical black or white answer is impossible. However it should also be remembered that Lewis was a highly skilled philosopher. To fully understand the title we need to know that 'shadowlands' is a concept he invented to explain a fundamental aspect of his novels. According to Lancelyn Green and Hooper3 in their Authorised Biography; it is the perfect example of what Lewis terms 'symbolism'. That is that the world we inhabit is a copy of an invisible world.

Lord Diggory, is a character present at the creation of Narnia recounted in The Magician's Nephew.

In the The Last Battle, he explains how the 'real' world of England and the old Narnia are just copies of this invisible world, the 'true' Narnia, saying: "And of course it is different; as different as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream... It's all in Plato, all in Plato, bless me, what do they teach them at those schools !" 4 This is a reference to Plato's Cave Allegory in Book VII of The Republic. These 'real' worlds (England and Narnia) are shadows, blurred representations of an ideal universe where we can find 'true' life. Lewis' implication is clear, different worlds coexist. Just like England in relation to the Narnia of his stories and in turn the 'real' Narnia in relation to this world, the spiritual world coexists with our world. Lewis agrees with Plato on the nature of reality but he adapts the concept to his own ends. From Lewis' point of view, if we only believe in the world which surrounds us, we only trust the information that our senses provide us about the physical world. However, the 'true' life exists all around us and elsewhere at the same time. Lewis adopts Plato's idea of shadows projected on the wall of a cave representing a reality from outside. This allows his narratives and arguments to slip easily between different worlds and realities, all representing an overall 'truth'. For Lewis, if we do not accept the possibility of a spiritual dimension, we are just as much prisoners as the men chained up in Plato's cave. The crucial point is that Aslan, the Lion who represents Christ in the Narnia Chronicles, plays the role of the philosopher for Plato, guiding us towards the 'truth'. And yet, Aslan may often be an uncomfortable guide.

As Lancelyn Green and Hooper explain5 , Lewis liked to begin his stories from a position of supposition. 'What would happen if ...,?' His supposition regarding Narnia was, what if there were a world where animals spoke and mythological creatures existed? What if this world fell? How would Christ be represented and how would he save it? Lewis' answer was as a lion. This imageS echoed the idea of Christ as the Lion of Judah as well as portraying Him as the powerful king of all the animals. His nature is wild, free and untameable. Aslan's guidance is not necessarily safe. He may not lead you in the direction you were expecting. Lewis' conviction of the nature of Christ is firm and he reiterates it in all his works. For example in The Problem of Pain, his defence of suffering in the world, Lewis states: Christianity, true, as always, to the complexity of the real, presents us with something knottier and more ambiguous -a God so full of mercy that He becomes man and dies by torture to avert that final ruin from His creatures, and who yet, where that heroic remedy fails, seems unwilling, or even unable, to arrest the ruin by an act of mere power.

Lewis never argues that Christianity is a crutch or a shield against difficulty. He does not dismiss suffering, yet a fundamental problem is created by the very nature of Lewis' apologetics as his arguments are conceptual and philosophical, defending suffering through reason. Of course, the title of the film naturally points us towards shades of grey in life. However we cannot discount these references as Lewis experiences a real crisis of faith. The film leads asks we should react to the death of a loved one and whether religion can be a true solace in this circumstance. Choosing Lewis as the main character for this plot amplifies the answers (if there are any) due to his particular character. These philosophical questions may not immediately make us think of a typical hero. However, Lewis is clearly the central hero in the film as he has to find his own answers in his life to the questions he has raised in writing.

The story is extremely intimate, but it raises universal questions. Both the screenplay and Attenborough's direction lean towards the classic Hollywood structure of The Hero's Journey. First established by Joseph Campbell in the 1950's, this is based on his research into comparative mythology where he discovered a commonality between ancient stories from different cultures around the world. Attributing this phenomenon to the existence of a collective unconsciousness as described in Jungean psychoanalysis, Campbell termed it the monomyth. He concluded that every hero is on a journey. They are initiated into this by some major event which causes them to leave the world they know and embark on a quest. During separation from the world they know, they pass through trials gaining the knowledge necessary to return once more and restore order.

If this resembles the basic plot of any blockbuster, it is no surprise. The Hero's Journey can play out anywhere and at any time. It is therefore perfect for creating widescreen narratives that will be equally enjoyed and appreciated throughout the world. However, this emphasis on the epic nature of the monomyth misses a crucial point, as Campbell indicated through the title of his principle work on the subject, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Heroes do not just live in mythical stories. The hero can be anyone who faces difficulties in their life and finds a way to overcome them, be they tragic or mundane. This is abundantly clear in Shadowlands and significantly Lewis' relationship with Joy initiates his transformative journey. At its heart, Shadowlands is a love story and is at times both uplifting and tragic. The central plot is true. Lewis is an Oxford don. Unmarried and childless, he lives with his brother in a country cottage while being well-known to the public at large for his lectures on Christianity. Despite his fame, he inhabits a closed-off world. His existence is completely turned upside down when Joy Davidman appears in his life. She is an established poet in the USA and is seeking a new start in Britain as she awaits her divorce.

Their characters, life experiences and belief systems are poles apart and yet they develop a friendship which gradually becomes ever closer. After her divorce Joy wishes to remain in the UK but cannot obtain permanent residence. Lewis proposes a marriage of convenience. Tragedy strikes as they eventually fall in love, only to discover she has an advanced cancer. With little time left, they have a religious wedding. A miracle occurs and she goes into remission. However, the cancer returns and this time proves fatal. Lewis experiences a real crisis of faith, yet grows from his experience and is a better man as a result. The narrative arc of the story leads Lewis on a difficult journey from a man of strict reason to the man capable of experiencing a deep sense of grief and opening himself up to Douglas, Joy's young son.

We will come back later to see how this journey teaches Lewis by looking at certain key scenes. For the moment, however, let us turn our attention to examining how borrowing from adaptation theory can help our theoretical discussion of biopics.

Metonymic Adaptation

The central premise of the plot is set up during the opening scene where Lewis dines among his college colleagues in Oxford. Two questions are raised related to his books. One professor, a young father, wonders how Lewis manages to write such popular children's books since he has none himself while another, Christopher Riley, asks why he is not out lecturing on Christianity this evening, 'plying his trade' as he puts it.

Going further, Riley says: I see you as a species of medieval peddler, selling relics of the saints of dubious authenticity.

When another colleague, the Reverend Harry Harrington, defends Lewis, Riley replies: I speak metaphorically, Harry. Jack's6 trade is the manufacture and supply of easy answers to difficult questions.

This prologue highlights the tensions we have already raised over Lewis and his writing. There is a very real question hanging over Lewis about the authenticity of what he says. A full 5 minutes later, the title 'This is a true story' is displayed on screen. Shadowlands is not 'based on a true story', it is real. However, this statement is clearly false. Certain facts demonstrate this, such as the moment much later, when Lewis takes Joy on a driving holiday. He could not drive. Or perhaps more seriously, Joy had two sons, only Douglas is written into the screenplay. Even Riley and Harrington did not exist but represent Lewis' Oxford colleagues, who did ask questions about his literary fame. While these may be minor points overall, they do raise an important question: How far is this story true?

This probably depends on our definition of 'truth'. As a writer so closely linked to allegory, it is hard to escape from metaphor and symbolism when considering Lewis. As we have already seen, the plot and structure of the film demonstrate he is on a metaphorical journey. From one point of view we may conceivably concede that metaphor, by comparing one thing with another, edges us closer to a 'sort of truth'. However, the fact remains that in a biopic we cannot show everything about the subject. In a sense, something is always lost as choices have to be made about what is relevant to the overall story arc and what must be left out. We will now consider how the life-slicing approach to biopic may be considered as adaptation and more specifically as a form of metonymy which may lead us to a greater perception of 'truth'.

The Collins Dictionary tells us that metonymy is: the substitution of a word referring to an attribute for the thing that is meant, as for example the use of the crown to refer to a monarch7 Metonymy therefore describes the essence of a subject through one particular aspect. This suggests that we may see biopic life-slicing as a form of metonymic adaptation of a life, principally because it focuses on one event as indicative as a reflection of the whole person.

To explain this further, the technique of life-slicing focuses on a particular set of circumstances in order to illuminate the audience about the subject. We may see such exposition as revelatory for them and regard it as a way of understanding the principle character in the wider context of their whole life. Within the confines of a standard length film, let us say, around 2 hours, it is clearly very difficult to portray an entire lifespan. This is why, life-slicing appears to be a very manageable and convenient way to give an impression of a character. The way they act should indicate their values and beliefs, in short, their actions speak louder than their words.

Lewis makes this clear in a particularly telling scene, while giving a tutorial to a small group of students when he explains:

Character and thought... chicken and egg. Which comes first? Aristotle's solution was simple and radical. He said, Plot is character. Forget psychology. Forget the inside of men's heads. Judge them by their actions.

These words effectively summarise the whole film. While it may appear a shallow way to understand the complexity of a person, it is also worth remembering a fundamental difference to the narrative form we find in cinema in comparison with literature. A film shows what a book tells.

Literary authors have a privileged access to their readers An author can grant the reader access to the thoughts and feelings of their character. A film narrates from the outside looking in. In a certain way, a biographical work may seem close to a film, depending on the access the biographer has to their subject. Regardless of how well they may know them, the biographer is still exterior to their subject. They are giving their interpretation of events. Without going into details, the point should be clear that in film we are talking about a different mode of narration to the printed word and in biopic life-slicing a different approach to telling a life story.

There have been many descriptions of approaches to filmic adaptation of literature and many taxonomies applied to it. One of the clearest ways remains Dudley Andrew's classification8 from Concepts in Film Theory from 1984.

He suggests three basic approaches to adaptation:

1. Transforming where the film attempts to represent as much of the dialogue and events of the book as it can on screen 2. Borrowing where the film seeks first to portray the essential discourse of the book rather than necessarily focus on events 3. Intersecting where the book resists a direct adaptation and a necessarily wide divergence is applied

It would be reasonable to assume that the first approach is what most people call 'faithful' as it appears to stay as close to its source as possible. However, is it not possible to regard fidelity as getting to the heart of the discourse, even if this means emphasising certain points or events over others?

Which approach would suit biopics best? As we have suggested, within the time constraints of a typical Hollywood film, transforming becomes impossible. If we consider a biopic as an adaptation of a person's life story (by analogy, the source text), then the borrowing approach creates a link with the idea of life-slicing which it seems reasonable to describe as a metonymic form of adaptation. In adaptation studies, fidelity has always been a problematic argument. Much discourse has tended towards a form of comparison between 'original' and adaptation through opposition. In other words, judging the adapted work by what it is not, rather than what it is, what is missing from the original rather than what is added by the adaptation. This poses questions for biopics, should fidelity be considered as synonymous with truth. How true is the 'true story' we see on screen? Instead of asking what is missing or reflecting on the relative truth of events, we could ask what does the particular portrayal of events in a film reveal of the person being represented?

Two concepts are useful to answer this question. The first is intertextuality. In 2007 Brian Mcfarlane 9 argued strongly in favour of countering fidelity discourse with an approach based on this, taking many factors into account before judging literary adaptation simply by whether the film matches our own vision of a book.

We need to have in mind, for instance, the parameters of cinematic practice at the time of the film's production, the proclivities of the film's director and writer, the auras that attach to the film's stars. (...), we need to realize and allow for the fact that the anterior novel or play or poem is only one element of the film's intertextuality, an element of varying importance to viewers depending on how well or little they know or care about the pre-cursor text. (...)10

He then adds:

The 1992 version of Howards End similarly needs to be considered not just as a version of E. M. Forster's novel but also as a Merchant Ivory production and as an example of 1990s British ''heritage cinema'': the other texts one may have in mind in considering it are as likely to be, say, the film of Room with a View (also from Forster), Remains of the Day (1993), Carrington (1994) and Shakespeare in Love (1999), all films with some kind of literary/heritage connection.11 (26)

Although we should remember that discourse on fidelity has recently been in the process of a reconsideration 12 , where rather than being rejected it could be taken as one element of an overall intertextual approach to adaptation, many of Mcfarlane's about intertextual reference can be seen Shadowlands. While it focuses on Lewis' marriage, his writings cast their own large 'shadow' over the plot and the film makes it clear that it was almost impossible for Lewis to escape from his public image.

We should not attempt to analyse a film in complete isolation from other cultural references and the socio-economic context of the time in which it was made. Beyond these literary echoes and textual references, Shadowlands certainly shares many of the aesthetic characteristics of late 20th-century British 'heritage' cinema. These works were noteworthy for their attention to period detail and the use of splendid scenes of the English landscape. Heritage films were particularly appealing to many because they projected a nostalgic image of Britain. Set in and around the colleges of Oxford, Shadowlands evokes a certain nostalgia for the past and cultivates a healthy respect for Lewis' position as a canonic author.

Released at the height of the 'heritage' movement in 1993, Shadowlands, is a major example of the 'genre'. The production team is very impressive. We could justifiably term Richard Attenborough as British 'filmmaking aristocracy'. In addition to being part of the British cinema establishment as both an actor and director, in the years just before Shadowlands, he had directed several significant biographical heritage films: Gandhi in 1982 which won 8 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director and Chaplin in 1992, where he also worked with Anthony Hopkins.

Hopkins' star was firmly in the ascendance at this point, having won the Best Actor Oscar in 1991 for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. His 'heritage' credentials were also obvious, starring in two Merchant Ivory productions: Howard's End in 1992 and The Remains of the Day, released in 1993. He would then go on to star as Nixon in Oliver Stone's 1994 film. Debra Winger also received her third Oscar nomination for her performance as Joy in Shadowlands. In addition to the film's recognition within the cinema industry, it received a generally positive reception critically at the time and judging by its current scores on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes this has not diminished. 13 Shadowlands' narrow-focus life-slicing does give us an insight into Lewis the man. All of these points should be borne in mind when considering it as metonymic adaptation and before making a judgement of its relative success as a biographical account.

A year before Mcfarlane, in A Theory of Adaptation from 2006, Linda Hutcheon also strongly argues in favour of revising fidelity discourse by considering adaptation in the context of intertextual reference. Drawing on Genette's concept of the Palimpsest14 , Hutcheon argues: … adaptation is a form of intertextuality: we experience adaptations as palimpsests through our memory of other works that resonate through repetition with variation. In short, adaptation can be described as the following:

•

An acknowledged transposition of a recognizable other work or works • A creative and an interpretive act of appropriation/salvaging • An extended intertextual engagement with the adapted work

Therefore, an adaptation is a derivation that is not derivative-a work that is second without being secondary. It is its own palimpsestic thing. 15 Hutcheon argues that we should not see adaptation as inferior copying. The nature of a palimpsest is that traces from previous works are always visible. The adaptation comes on top of the original text yet does not delete it. On the contrary, adaptation can give new life to a story that may have been forgotten, allowing it to survive, transforming for a new audience and in a new production context. We should not see biopic as inferior to biography and Shadowlands is certainly a palimpsest.

In an obituary for Attenborough in 2014, the British Film Institute referred to Shadowlands as "perhaps Attenborough's most perfectly achieved film" 16 . Indeed, it also notes that:

According to the BFI, Attenborough triumphantly achieved his ideal of seeing "the real processes of that person, not the acting". This is remarkable as it suggests two things: Firstly Hopkins' intuitive style of acting relies on a borrowing adaptive approach, he has to 'inhabit' his character. This requires him to strive to find the essence of whoever he portrays to show it on screen. Secondly, the necessity to adapt to his stars' approaches forced Attenborough to similarly inhabit Lewis to aid Winger's performance. This cannot have failed to help him to gain a greater insight as a director too. It is true to say that we feel much more empathy towards the Lewis we see in Shadowlands than in the majority of his writing. In short, he appears much more 'human'. All of those points lend support to the idea of its value as metonymic adaptation. Despite its narrow focus or perhaps thanks to it, Shadowlands allows us to reevaluate our perceptions of Lewis. We cannot see inside his head in the film but we can judge him by his actions. We now come back to the film to compare two key sequences and what we can learn from them.

A Grief Observed

If cinema shows what literature has to tell, then Shadowlands is in a fortunate position. Over the course of its narrative, the film highlights the massive contrast between Lewis' point of view in The Problem 10 of Pain from 1940 and A Grief Observed from 1961. The primary difference, of course, is that Lewis has now lived through suffering. The question then is, how far experience has changed his previous reasoned position. The obvious way to compare this is to look at two scenes which bookend the whole narrative.

Born an Anglican, Lewis first drifted away from God. He describes this process, together with his subsequent re-conversion, in his first autobiography Surprised by Joy. He steadily reasons himself out of spiritual belief after the tragedy of his own mother dying from cancer. In the same way his coming back to God involved long discussion and argument with his peers, including Tolkien, reasoning himself back to faith. He applied his sharp sense of reasoned arguments to his Apologetics. In The Problem of Pain he answers the paradox of how a loving deity can allow his creations to suffer by saying that it is for our own good. He justifies suffering as a means of guiding the believer towards perfection. Shadowlands shows us what to his intellectual arguments when he is faced with real suffering and tragedy, posing his own arguments against him. His initial position is made clear at the beginning of the film where we join him at one of his lectures.

Yesterday, I received a letter...that referred to an event that took place... almost a year ago now, December. My correspondent hadn't forgotten. I doubt if any of us have. That was the night... a Number 9 bus drove into a column of young Royal Marine cadets in Chatham and killed 10 of them. You remember? The letter asks some simple but fundamental questions. Where was God on that December night? Why didn't He stop it? Isn't God supposed to be good? Isn't He supposed to love us? Does God want us to suffer? What if the answer to that question is yes? See, I'm not sure that God particularly wants us to be happy. I think He wants us to be able to love and be loved. He wants us to grow up. I suggest to you that it is because God loves us that He makes us the gift of suffering. To put it another way, pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. You see, we are like blocks of stone out of which the sculptor carves the forms of men. The blows of His chisel, which hurt us so much, are what make us perfect. This argument is explored thoroughly in the film. Reason alone cannot explain the workings of a good God who allows such terrible events. This is Lewis' initial point of departure on his heroic journey. The film proceeds to explore what happens when Lewis is confronted to such unexplainable circumstances. What are his own reactions when passing through his own lands of shadow which are not conceptual or metaphorical but all too real? How will his relationship with a wild, untameable God change when he faces blows of his own? Lewis has no problem explaining unexplainable tragedy through his own logical discourse. It is a position that we naturally find hard to fathom yet it becomes clear that this is how he functions. Argument and counter-argument, intellectual jousting. He is able to reason the world into a version of how he wants it to be and no-one is capable of standing up to him intellectually to prove otherwise.

No-one, that is, except Joy. Lewis' heroic trials begin with the discovery of Joy's cancer. This is where the crux of the character development occurs and where Lewis' learning occurs before the final act of the film where he has to confront his feelings towards God as Joy dies. By focusing on this particular slice of Lewis' life we have a fascinating portrait of how and why his thinking changed over the course of the twenty years between The Problem of Pain and A Grief Observed. In this case, the format of the biopic serves us very well.

One of his final works, A Grief Observed, is divided into four parts and documents Lewis' sometimes disparate impressions and the changes in his state of mind. It is a short collection of Lewis' reflections on the experience of bereavement following Joy's death. The title is significant as, in a certain sense, the text narrates by telling and showing. Contrary to much of Lewis' other texts, it is extremely candid and certainly at the beginning is very far from his normal approach of reasoned argument. It details his anger and bewilderment towards God during Joy's illness and death as well as his efforts to deal with his memory of her. The struggle to reconcile this suffering with his theological standpoint is obvious yet also rather transformative as Lewis comes to realisation that he may have been wrong to argue as he did previously as, for example in The Problem of Pain.

Lewis used four notebooks to vent and explore his feelings, describing the everyday trials of his life without Joy while, of course, exploring fundamental questions of faith. It questions the nature of grief and whether it is possible to return to 'normal' within the realm of human existence on earth. At times terribly raw, Lewis rails against himself and his own imperfections as well as God for the suffering he is experiencing. And yet, as perhaps only he could do, he manages to observe himself (internally and externally) and reflect on the process of grieving as much as the feelings. His writing becomes a method for dealing with his situation. To use modern parlance, it brings him a welcome sense of closure. Although clearly highly personal, its title also suggests a more open perspective, recognising that this is one grief among many. Wishing to avoid identification, Lewis published it in 1961 under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk. Ironically, many of his acquaintances apparently recommended the book to him as a way of coping with his own bereavement.

Here the film really does show us what this text tells us. Where the text exteriorises the thoughts of the author, we understand Lewis' inner feelings from the outside through Anthony Hopkins' portrayal. This is achieved notably in a scene near the end of the film where Lewis attends an evening engagement at Oxford shortly after Joy has passed away.

Lewis: Good evening. I wasn't going to come, but then I thought I would. Harrington: Life must go on. L: I don't know that it must, but it certainly does. Riley: I'm sorry, Jack. L: Thank you, Christopher. H: We're all deeply sorry. L: Thank you. R: Anything I can do? L: Yes, just don't tell me it's all for the best, that's all. H: Only God knows why these things have to happen, Jack. L: God knows, but does God care? H: Of course. We see so little here. We're not the creator. L: We're the creatures, aren't we? We're the rats in the cosmic laboratory. I've no doubt the experiment is for our own good, but... it still makes God the vivisectionist, doesn't it? It won't do. It's this bloody awful mess, and that's all there is to it. I'm sorry. I am sorry. Just not fit company tonight, that's all. H: Yes? Your grief is your own business.

Contrary to what Harry Harrington says, clearly his grief was not just his own business. The harsh language in this sequence is quite shocking and almost totally out of character. However much of this text is paraphrased from A Grief Observed where Lewis, talks about how he dislikes the well-worn phrases people speak in these circumstances and characterises God as a vivisectionist or a vet who operates on his creatures. The contrast between the romantic notion of a sculptor perfecting his art from The Problem of Pain to now is striking. Yet it is true to the experience that Lewis was living through and the reality of his situation.

Though not stated by the film at this point, perhaps Lewis is coming to realise that underlying criticism voiced towards him by Riley at the beginning of the narrative is possibly true. Another passage from A Grief Observed indicates a growing self-awareness: What grounds has it {H's death} given me for doubting all that I believe? I knew already that these things, and worse, happened daily. I would have said that I had taken them into account. I had been warned -I had warned myself -not to reckon on wordly happiness. We were even promised sufferings. They were part of the programme. We were even told 'Blessed are they that mourn' and I accepted it. I've got nothing that I hadn't bargained for. Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not in the imagination. Yes; but should it, for a sane man, make quite such a difference as this? No. And it wouldn't for a man whose faith had been real faith and whose concern for other people's sorrow had been real concern. 17 Despite these raw emotions, he remains C. S. Lewis, the reflective philosopher. By turns he comes to a point of reconciliation. Remarkably, by the end he is able to experience gratitude (and not regret) for the short time that he and Joy had together, recognising that he has been given the gift of having experienced one true love. In the end we could argue that if The Problem of Pain seeks to provide theory behind the suffering in the world, A Grief Observed plays out the reality. It is much more difficult to apply the theories he posited for pain when he is so deeply involved, rather than taking a philosophical standpoint. However he shows a gradual reacceptance of his own theories and a reluctant reacceptance of the necessity of suffering can be seen as we can see in this final quotation: I will not, if I can help it, shin up either the feathery or the prickly tree: {author's note: readily seek comfort or pain}. Two widely different convictions press more and more on my mind. One is that the Eternal Vet is even more inexorable and the possible operations even more painful than our severest imaginings can forebode. But the other, that 'all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well. 18 By way of conclusion we can say that in Shadowlands we are able to examine C. S. Lewis in a different context from his other writings. Even if we have seen that his body of written works overshadow the narrative arc of the film, the importance of the film is the access that this particular dramatization of this section of his life gives us to the man behind his words. At its heart, the film is a love story but as a biopic work it represents much more than this.

Bill Nicolson, who wrote the screenplay, put it simply in an interview with The Guardian in 1994. Lewis is on an emotional journey in the film. This is what attracts us to him and allows the audience to identify with him in a way that is not possible through his literature.

At the time I thought I was writing about cancer, but what happened, as always happens in pieces that go well, you find your own story in the ostensible structure. And a story about a middle-aged man failing, out of fear, to go all out in loving somebody obviously resonated with me. 19 In this way, it is a fine demonstration of the idea of metonymic adaptation of a person's life. This particular slice of Lewis' life allows us to directly compare the two diametrically opposed points of view and thus consider the duality at the heart of the man. On one side we can see the philosophical intellectual who is capable of analysing events and reasoning the unreasonable into a logical argument, on the other, a grieving individual, who cannot understand find reason in the events in the events they are experiencing.

Lewis suffers the very chisel blows of his sculptor that he had previously explained away and it hurts intensely. Pain and suffering are no longer conceptual for him. The intensity of his reaction to Joy's death portrays a genuine grief that we would not have thought him capable of from his earlier writing. Yet Lewis does come out better for it. He has a new perspective on tragic reality. Maybe he was right after all, maybe the blows do him good, harsh though they may be. We are sympathetic to him and he has an increased empathy for others. 17 C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed, London: Faber & Faber, 1961, 28. 18 Op. cit., 50. 19 Nicolas Wroe. 'William Nicholson: 'The novelist who thinks that 'story' is a dirty word had better be a genius'. 10/01/14, Web, consulted 19/09/19.

Through Shadowlands the audience also share in his suffering and are invited to judge him by his actions. It is entirely possible to feel an empathetic reaction for him as a man as we see him breaking down with Douglas at the end of the film. We realise, that Lewis has realised, that life is not always to be reasoned. He has finally shared something deeply meaningful in his marriage to Joy and we fully understand the painful release of emotion that is necessary for him to go through before he can continue.

And he did continue. The film allows us to gain a real impression of the man by his actions instead of solely by his words. In 'real' life, he adopted Joy's sons and also left his legacy of writing for us to study, which, thanks to Shadowlands, we can view with a fresh perspective.

Roger Lancelyn Green & Walter Hooper, C. S.Lewis. The Authorised and Revised Biography, [1974], London: HarperCollins, 2002., 323-4.

C. S.Lewis, The Last Battle, [1956]. London: HarperCollins, 178-9.

Idem, The Problem of Pain, [1940], London: HarperCollins, 2002, 97.

Clive Staples Lewis was known as 'Jack' to his immediate entourage, a name he adopted in memory of a favourite pet dog from his childhood.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/metonymy

J. Dudley, Andrew, Concepts in Film-Making, New York: Oxford University Press, 1984,

9 Brian Mcfarlane, "Reading film and literature", Literature on Screen, eds. Cartmell & Whelehan, Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 2007, 15 -29.

Brian Mcfarlane, "Reading film and literature", Literature on Screen, eds. Cartmell & Whelehan, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, 26.

Op. cit. 26.

See for example: Casie. Hermansson, "Flogging Fidelity: In Defense of the (Un)Dead Horse", Adaptation, Vol. 8, Issue 2, August 2015.

7.3/10 sur imdb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108101/, and 8.2/10 on rotten tomatoes https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shadowlands, both sites consulted 19/02/20.

The film was a particular test of his supreme skill and understanding in directing actors, since the two had directly opposed styles of working -Hopkins preferring intuition to study, while Winger insisted on endless rehearsal. Attenborough solved the problem by often standing in for Hopkins for rehearsal.

Gérard Genette, Palimpsestes, Paris: Seuil, 1992.

Linda Hutcheon, A Theory of Adaptation, New York: Routledge, 2006, 8-9.

David Robinson, "Remembering Richard Attenborough", www.bfi.org.uk, 02/09/14, Web.