Cinematic Treatment
Another Colonialist editor and I were having a discussion last night, part of which included talk of the nature of contemporary fiction, specifically in movies. I suggested that a currently growing trend seems to be a slight break from the uber-realism and the recapitulated fantasy (political movies and comic book remakes), two of the most popular tropes in movies today, and a move toward some more original fiction. I don’t know if this is true, seeing that a genuinely original story tends to pop up here and there in movies, but in the last week I came across a couple that seem to support my claim. Whether or not this is true I guess is up for debate (or if it turns out to be true, we can just wait and see), but stumbling on these made me all happy and warm inside. Maybe people are getting a little tired of super hero movies and biopics and political fiction…or maybe not. Either way, these movies are coming out and I’m excited. So, allow me to point yall in the direction of their respective trailers, if you haven’t seen them already.
The Fall, directed by Tarsem Singh (the unforgettable The Cell, featuring the ever-talented Jennifer Lopez)
Synopsis: (IMDb) In a hospital, a little girl with a broken collar bone meets a bedridden man who starts telling her a fantastical story which reflects his state of mind. As time goes by fiction and reality start to intertwine in this uplifting epic fantasy
Trailer:
Mister Lonely, written and directed by Harmony Korine (writer of family hit Kids, writer/director of Gummo), featuring cameo by Werner Herzog.
Synopsis: (IMDb) In Paris, a young American who works as a Michael Jackson lookalike meets Marilyn Monroe, who invites him to her commune in Scotland, where she lives with Charlie Chaplin and her daughter, Shirley Temple.
Trailer:
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Comments
Max, you’re Forgetting Sarah Marshall Oh, hahaha!
Anyway, I’d have to agree with Max regarding a change in trending direction.
There have always been awesome films that inexplicably get huge budgets and sometimes — like with certain of Fellini’s films — huge box office numbers, but most “block busting” films are not-so-awesome and supersaturated with honeydew realism. (That’s not to say a film needs a huge budget to be successful, it’s just to say it happens on occasion).
Perhaps something to tack on to this post is the question:
If the film producing world switches to ‘original fictions,’ would that be a good thing?
Would it be better to be plagued with a bunch of bullshit produced by Hollywood regulars that doesn’t work because it takes someone who is committed to film in a very specific way to make a film like Mister Lonely good — provided it is good?
I don’t know if I’d take that train of logic; a lot would have to change in Hollywood before that sort of change could happen. I don’t know how I’d answer.
Another thing: It seems, Kevin, that your post takes an uncritical view of what it means for a story to qualify as “uber-realism”. No-one, certainly not hollywood studio execs, have a monopoly on interpretations of how the world actually works. Hence, to posit that the original narrative structures must somehow abstract themselves from the experiences of ordinary life (i’m not sure if you were saying this but your two film suggestions suggest that by “new fiction” you meant some sort of reality-defying blend of fiction and fantasy) is, in a way, to undercut the very possibility of creating new fiction. New fiction becomes merely a static negation of the objectively viewed realism of Hollywood.
The more appropriate task, and way of approaching this problem, would be to question the categories that structure reality presupposed by major hollywood films. Such an approach need not retreat to the realm of fantasy to reflect something interesting and new about the human experience (but it can if it wants to).
My point is that an either/or approach inhibits the possibility of properly thinking about what even constitutes new fiction, because it capitulates certain narrative structures (such as an accurate interpretation of reality) to the status quo.
ah, edit on that last post:
“No-one, certainly not hollywood studio execs, HAS a monopoly on interpretations of how the world actually works.”
“i’m not sure if you were saying this but your two film suggestions suggest that by “new fiction” you meant some sort of reality-defying blend of LIFE and fantasy”
sorry
I don’t think 2 films constitutes a trend. But its definitely good to see apparently new material. Especially if its got Herzog in it. The litmus test for new fiction in films should probably not be whether or not such films are being made, but how popularly they are received. The question is whether there is a demand for something original and different extending beyond the normal cinephile audience. I honestly don’t see it. That market is being gobbled up by pseudo-indy masturbation-fests like Garden State, Juno, or Little Miss Sunshine.