Experimental Narrative

Alexander is thrust into a an uncomfortable looking chair in a pool of light. He’s surrounded by shadowy figures. They speak amongst each other in quiet tones. Alexander: What’s going on? What do you want from me? A few of the people turn toward him. They murmur indistinctly. Bartolomeo approaches and inspects Alexander closely. Bartolomeo No... No, he won’t do. He won’t do at all. Alexander Hey, what do you mean? What’s wrong with me? Bartolomeo suddenly shifts his tone. Bartolomeo What do you want out of life, Mr. Harrison? What drives a man like you? Alexander My... My name isn’t - Bartolomeo Why’d you do it, Mr. Harrison? Such a bright spark of life, taken in the prime of her life, her blooming years! Alexander Wait, what is it I’m supposed to have done? Bartolomeo Don’t try to act innocent with me, sir, her soul cries out for vengeance from beyond! He holds up a picture of a flower Bartolomeo Do you deny...

Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002) attempts a level of meta that I hadn't seen in a movie before. I found its implied claim of realism very interesting and had to look up which elements of the movie are true and which are not. I think that was a successful feature of this film. It was interesting that Charles' twin brother who plays such an important role in the film is completely fictitious. At the beginning of the movie I thought the whole thing would be mostly non-fiction, but by the end it got so absurd that it was clearly fictional. There's a noticeable turning point in the movie where it goes a bit off the rails. In my opinion this is the point where Charles and his brother are spying on Orlean. After the ridiculous ending of the movie I was prepared to learn that the entire thing was made up. However, I was surprised to learn the the original premise of the film, Charles attempting to write a screenplay based on the book about orchids, actually did happen and the film is...

Last Year in Marianbad, from what I was able to gather, is about a guy remembering his time at a hotel with a woman who doesn't remember it. There's another guy there too and he likes to play this game where you pick up objects that are arranged in a triangle. The first guy keeps telling his story over and over again. Sometimes he adds new details but usually he just slowly repeats himself. Despite repeating himself his story keeps changing and very few of the details remain consistent. At one point he claims he shot the woman which is strange because it's her to whom he is telling the story. Seems like a bit of a plot hole in his narrative. Speaking of holes in narrative, this movie is a sieve. Trying to find a narrative in this movie is like trying to carry water in a bucket of straw. The convoluted story barely has time to get out a plot point before it has doubled back on itself or taken a wandering tangent through the corridors of the giant mansion or hotel or palace ...

I recently watched the film Solaris ( Andrei Tarkovsky  1972) I didn't originally intend to make a blog post about it but after watching it I felt it fit the theme of experimental narrative too well not to talk about it here. The film presents itself as a sci-fi. It takes place mostly on a scientific station orbiting the planet Solaris. The people stationed on the station to study the planet have sent strange reports to earth and seem to have grown mentally unstable. Upon arriving at the station, Kris Kelvin discovers that one of the scientists is dead and the other two are not very helpful when questioned. Kris Kelvin finds his long dead ex-wife on the station and must emotionally contend with her, himself, the scientists, and his mission, none of which he is particularly effective at. The pacing throughout the film is slow and very little of what happens is expounded upon directly. The film regularly switches between black and white and color without any apparent reasoning y...

Hungry Ghost Did this last minute in one night. A ghost wants some guy's pasta. Why does the ghost want pasta? It's anybody's guess.

The first thing I would think about when creating an experimental narrative is chronology. Or perhaps that’s getting ahead of myself. The first thing you should think about when making anything is why you are making it in this way or that way. There must be justification behind your stylization. Assuming you’ve already done that and have decided that yes, you have a story that is best told as an experimental narrative, the first thing I would think about is the chronology. Shifting around the chronology of scenes can’t be done at random. It must have a reason behind it. Every scene should be considered in relation to the story as a whole. If the viewer is seeing the scenes in a non chronological order, the story needs to develop in a rational arc despite the scenes being out of order. The story is revealed to the audience in a different order than to the characters in the film and this must be taken into account. The premise of the characters on screen knowing things that the audience...