Puzzle Films
Complex Storytelling in Contemporary Cinema
1. Edition December 2008
256 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
ISBN:
978-1-4051-6862-5
John Wiley & Sons
Drawing upon the expertise of film scholars from around the world,
Puzzle Films investigates a number of films that sport
complex storytelling--from Memento, Old Boy, and
Run Lola Run, to the Infernal Affairs trilogy and
In the Mood for Love.
* Unites American 'independent' cinema, the European
and International Art film, and certain modes of avant-garde
filmmaking on the basis of their shared storytelling
complexity
* Draws upon the expertise of film scholars from North America,
Britain, China, Poland, Holland, Italy, Greece, New Zealand, and
Australia
List of Contributors vii
Introduction: Puzzle Plots 1
Warren Buckland
1 The Mind-Game Film 13
Thomas Elsaesser
2 Making Sense of Lost Highway 42
Warren Buckland
3 "Twist Blindness": The Role of Primacy, Priming, Schemas, and Reconstructive Memory in a First-Time Viewing of The Sixth Sense 62
Daniel Barratt
4 Narrative Comprehension Made Difficult: Film Form and Mnemonic Devices in Memento 87
Stefano Ghislotti
5 "Frustrated Time" Narration: The Screenplays of Charlie Kaufman 107
Chris Dzialo
6 Backbeat and Overlap: Time, Place, and Character Subjectivity in Run Lola Run 129
Michael Wedel
7 Infernal Affairs and the Ethics of Complex Narrative 151
Allan Cameron and Sean Cubitt
8 Happy Together? Generic Hybridity in 2046 and In the Mood for Love 167
Gary Bettinson
9 Revitalizing the Thriller Genre: Lou Ye's Suzhou River and Purple Butterfly 187
Yunda Eddie Feng
10 The Pragmatic Poetics of Hong Sangsoo's The Day a Pig Fell into a Well 203
Marshall Deutelbaum
11 Looking for Access in Narrative Complexity. The New and the Old in Oldboy 217
Eleftheria Thanouli
Index 233
Introduction: Puzzle Plots 1
Warren Buckland
1 The Mind-Game Film 13
Thomas Elsaesser
2 Making Sense of Lost Highway 42
Warren Buckland
3 "Twist Blindness": The Role of Primacy, Priming, Schemas, and Reconstructive Memory in a First-Time Viewing of The Sixth Sense 62
Daniel Barratt
4 Narrative Comprehension Made Difficult: Film Form and Mnemonic Devices in Memento 87
Stefano Ghislotti
5 "Frustrated Time" Narration: The Screenplays of Charlie Kaufman 107
Chris Dzialo
6 Backbeat and Overlap: Time, Place, and Character Subjectivity in Run Lola Run 129
Michael Wedel
7 Infernal Affairs and the Ethics of Complex Narrative 151
Allan Cameron and Sean Cubitt
8 Happy Together? Generic Hybridity in 2046 and In the Mood for Love 167
Gary Bettinson
9 Revitalizing the Thriller Genre: Lou Ye's Suzhou River and Purple Butterfly 187
Yunda Eddie Feng
10 The Pragmatic Poetics of Hong Sangsoo's The Day a Pig Fell into a Well 203
Marshall Deutelbaum
11 Looking for Access in Narrative Complexity. The New and the Old in Oldboy 217
Eleftheria Thanouli
Index 233
"Barratt makes excellent use of graphics to help illustrate the
strategies employed by Shyamalan to prevent the first-time viewer
anticipating the aforementioned twist . . . ultimately though,
Buckland's collection does provide a thought-provoking study of
what has become an important genre in contemporary cinema." (Scope
Book Reviews, 1 February 2011)
"A timely and insightful guide to some of the more complex and
labyrinthine currents in recent cinema, drawing on an admirable
range of examples from around the globe. Geoff King, Professor
of Film and TV Studies, Brunel University
strategies employed by Shyamalan to prevent the first-time viewer
anticipating the aforementioned twist . . . ultimately though,
Buckland's collection does provide a thought-provoking study of
what has become an important genre in contemporary cinema." (Scope
Book Reviews, 1 February 2011)
"A timely and insightful guide to some of the more complex and
labyrinthine currents in recent cinema, drawing on an admirable
range of examples from around the globe. Geoff King, Professor
of Film and TV Studies, Brunel University
Warren Buckland is Reader in Film Studies at Oxford Brookes University, UK. He is author of Directed by Steven Spielberg and The Cognitive Semiotics of Film, and co-author (with Thomas Elsaesser) of Studying Contemporary American Film.
