Modular Narratives in Contemporary Cinema

Allan, Cameron

doi:10.1057/9780230594197_1

Cited by 22 publications

(23 citation statements)

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“…Dispute has emerged over whether contemporary complex films should be seen as an altogether new phenomenon, with distinct strategies, conventions and viewing effects, or as still belonging to and rooted in the tradition of classical narrative cinema. On the one hand, some have proposed that today's complex films are merely "trickled down" mainstream incarnations of previous artcinematic storytelling experiments (e.g., Kovács 2007, 60;Cameron 2008;Klecker 2011), whereas other scholars have argued that the trend should mostly just be seen as a series of intensified variations -mere complications -of longestablished and prevailing classical narrative principles (see, most notably the consistent contentions of Bordwell and Thompson 2013). 16 Also others have sought to define contemporary complex films as some form of novel hybrid, seeing them as a new and distinctly post-classical breed of puzzle films that question or deconstruct the narrative principles by which they are governed (such as linearity, causality, coherence and congruity, or the relative trustworthiness and transparency of narration) and that "suspend the common contract between the film and its viewers" (Elsaesser 2009, 19; see also Thanouli 2006;Buckland 2009Buckland , 2014or Elsaesser 2017).…”

Section: Interpretive Multi-stability As a Viewing Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Last Year at Mulholland Drive: Ambiguous Framings and Framing Ambiguities

Willemsen

Kiss

2019

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies

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This article proposes a cognitive-narratological perspective on David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001) and the numerous contrasting interpretations that this film has generated. Rather than offering an(other) interpretation of the film, we aim to investigate some of the reasons why Lynch’s highly complex narrative has gained a cult – if not classic – status in recent film history. To explain the striking variety of (often conflicting) interpretations and responses that the film has evoked, we analyse its complex narrative in terms of its cognitive effects. Our hypothesis is that part of Mulholland Drive’s attractiveness arises from a cognitive oscillation that the film allows between profoundly differing, but potentially equally valid interpretive framings of its enigmatic story: as a perplexing but enticing puzzle, sustained by (post-)classical cues in its narration, and as an art-cinematic experience that builds on elements from experimental, surrealist, or other film- and art-historical traditions. The urge to narrativize Mulholland Drive, we argue, is driven by a distinct cognitive hesitation between these conflicting arrays of meaning making. As such, the film has been trailblazing with regards to contemporary cinema, setting stage for the current trend of what critics and scholars have called complex cinema or puzzle films.

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Section: Interpretive Multi-stability As a Viewing Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Last Year at Mulholland Drive: Ambiguous Framings and Framing Ambiguities

Willemsen

Kiss

2019

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies

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“…Spread across three screens, and within those screens across multiple planes, and relying on story elements that were fragmented and combinatory, I'll Be Fine was conceived of as a modular text, and relies on many of the techniques of modular fiction: -an effaced or reduced forward-moving plot; -resistance to any narrative dominance that would imply a central truth or final resolution to the concerns presented in the story; -a structure that allows for multiple points of view, contradictions, instabilities, and double meanings; -juxtaposition, flashback, and variation reveal character rather than organize plot; -disruptions to any linear progressions; -inclusion of seemingly random events; -amplification and meaning gained through an accumulation of elements; -pattern and repetition have privilege over event or plot [5].…”

Section: Structural and Procedural Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Case Study of I’ll Be Fine

Ferraiolo

2017

Humanities

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This case study of I'll Be Fine describes my creation of a passively interactive, "playable" movie for networked screens, and outlines reasons why this story is an instance of a new genre of storytelling that might be called "playable narrative". Although the piece is interactive, and while it seems to satisfy certain features of the activity of play, I'll Be Fine does not offer opportunities for strategy, competition, or closure, and does not proceed towards goals or outcomes, but seeks to construct meaning cinematically, proceeding sequentially across planes or layers, and using a spatial design much like the cinematic compositional scheme of background, middle ground, and foreground. While a general model for the spatial construction of playable movies is outside the scope of this writing, the following description of my design concepts are meant to delineate certain aspects of working with spatiality and playability while constructing an interactive story. Abstract: This case study of I'll Be Fine describes my creation of a passively interactive, "playable" movie for networked screens, and outlines reasons why this story is an instance of a new genre of storytelling that might be called "playable narrative". Although the piece is interactive, and while it seems to satisfy certain features of the activity of play, I'll Be Fine does not offer opportunities for strategy, competition, or closure, and does not proceed towards goals or outcomes, but seeks to construct meaning cinematically, proceeding sequentially across planes or layers, and using a spatial design much like the cinematic compositional scheme of background, middle ground, and foreground. While a general model for the spatial construction of playable movies is outside the scope of this writing, the following description of my design concepts are meant to delineate certain aspects of working with spatiality and playability while constructing an interactive story. Keywords

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“…However, films which are distinguished by their narrative structure and which call for viewer participation definitely exist, either by breaking down the stories into individually narrative blocks, or by a diegetic layout which is spread out, reversed, or uncoordinated with the narrative, or even by repetition or temporal a-synchronism of the characters' actions. These are films with multiple structures according to Dan HasslerForest (2005), or data based films according to Lev Manovich (2001) and Jim Bizzochi (2005), mosaic films according to Suzanne Duchiron (2007) or even modular films according to Allan Cameron (2008). In the sections hereafter we will try to show why certain narrative techniques, used in contemporary cinema, suggest that the film narrative could be adapted into a potentially interactive narrative tool.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The interactive potential of post-modern film narrative - Frequency, Order and Simultaneity

Caires¹

2009

CITAR Journal

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Modular Narratives in Contemporary Cinema

Cited by 22 publications

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Last Year at Mulholland Drive: Ambiguous Framings and Framing Ambiguities

Last Year at Mulholland Drive: Ambiguous Framings and Framing Ambiguities

A Case Study of I’ll Be Fine

The interactive potential of post-modern film narrative - Frequency, Order and Simultaneity

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