Hollywood puzzle films / edited by Warren Buckland.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Buckland, Warren, editor.

Series:

AFI film readers

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--Philosophy.

Narration (Rhetoric).

Space and time in motion pictures.

Motion pictures--United States--History--20th century.

Motion pictures.

United States.

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 308 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2014.

Summary:

From Inception to The Lake House, moviegoers are increasingly flocking to narratologically complex puzzle films. These puzzle movies borrow techniques-like fragmented spatio-temporal reality, time loops, unstable characters with split identities or unreliable narrators-more commonly attributed to art cinema and independent films. The essays in Hollywood Puzzle Films examine the appropriation of puzzle film techniques by contemporary Hollywood dramas and blockbusters through questions of narrative, time, and altered realities. Analyzing movies like Source Code, The Butterfly Effect, Donnie Darko, Déjà Vu, and adaptations of Philip K. Dick, contributors explore the implications of Hollywood's new movie mind games. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: ambiguity, ontological pluralism, and cognitive dissonance in the Hollywood puzzle film / Warren Buckland

Narratology and systems theory. Complex narratives / Jan Simons

Puzzled Hollywood and the return of complex films / Maria Poulaki

Inception, the archetypal Hollywood puzzle film. Unravelling the puzzle of inception / Geoff King

"Show, don't tell": considering the utility of diagrams as a tool for understanding complex narratives / Elliot Panek

"Pain is in the mind": dream narrative in Inception and Shutter Island / Paolo Russo

Modular spacetime in the "intelligent" blockbuster: Inception and Source code / Allan Cameron and Richard Misek

Complexity and simplicity in Inception and Five dedicated to ozu / William Brown

The science fiction Hollywood puzzle film / Philip K Dick, the mind-game film, and retroactive causality / Thomas Elsaesser

Fourth dimensions, seventh senses: the work of mind-gaming in the age of electronic reproduction / Garrett Stewart

Source code's video game logic / Warren Buckland

The image of time in post-classical Hollywood: Donnie Darko and Southland tales / Bruce Isaacs

The drama Hollywood puzzle film. Re-viewing vantage point / Paul Cobley

The butterfly effect upon its spectator / Edward Branigan

Solving suicide: facing the complexity of The hours / Lucy Bolton

Knowledge and narrativity in premonition and The lake house / Gary Bettinson.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780415622455

041562245X

9780415622462

0415622468

OCLC:

800036200