Interstitial Film?

[badducky]

Just wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of "Interstitial" films. I can think of only a couple off hand. (La Jetee, Being John Malkovich, and... no more?)

I'm sure there's gobs.

Recommendations?

[AMCrenshaw]

"Oldboy"

"Stay"

"Paperhouse"

"El Topo"

"Science of Sleep"

"Timecrimes"

"The Fountain"

"Manchurian Candidate"

"Waking Life"

"Three Extremes"

"Mirrormask"






AMC

[Kitty Pryde]

I'll throw out:

The Happiness of the Katakuris

Eraserhead

FLCL (technically a miniseries I think)

Woman on Top

[ZakJarvis]

I'm limiting myself to one film per director

The Quiet Earth (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089869/)

Millennium Actress (Sennen joyu) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0291350/)

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285441/)

La Double vie de Veronique (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101765/)

Vacas (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103186/)

The Holy Mountain (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071615/)

The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342882/)

Sileni (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407236/)

The Pillow Book (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114134/)

Rampo (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110943/)

Singapore sling: O anthropos pou agapise ena ptoma (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100623/)

The Mouse and his Child (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076416/)

Marquis (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097839/)

The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095709/)

That ought to do for now.

[Esopha]

What about I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'm_a_Cyborg,_But_That's_OK)?

[badducky]

You do know I don't have Netflix...

Argh.

Oh, well. I hear Blockbuster is making great strides in the netflix direction...

I'd throw out "Cowboy Bebop" if we're including anime series. I loved FLCL!

[ZakJarvis]

Blockbuster might well have The Navigator.

I should have also added The New World, which is totally interstitial, and Blockbuster almost certainly has it.

Alternately, you could visit San Diego. I've got all those films.

[Sharon Mock]

Silly 'ducky, you expected interstitial movies to be easy to find?

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is slipstream SF. (But also, like Being John Malkovich, written by Charlie Kaufman. Speaking of whom, I don't particularly recommend Synecdoche, New York...)

[Shweta]

I second the "visit San Diego" option :)

And I'm so glad someone here knows film, because I so do not.

[Cranky]

I don't think this is *really* interstitial, but I got that sort of feel when I watched Pale Rider last night on AMC. (Kickass movie, btw)

There are hints that The Preacher is something supernatural, anyway, and everyone just accepts his presence without too much thought. Even him administering a hickory stick beatdown on the street (preacher or no) doesn't really even raise many eyebrows.

Of course, I'm still trying to figure this whole thing out. :D

[payitforward]

Try Alice and Faust by Svankmajer.

Those who recommended the films of Jodorowsky are right on! (try Santa Sangre as well).

And perhaps had Tin Drum to the list?

[Smiling Ted]

Rhinoceros.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Northern Exposure (TV).
Terry Gilliam: Brazil, Time Bandits, The Fisher King, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

[payitforward]

Just saw INK (http://www.doubleedgefilms.com/) this weekend. Fabulous. Certainly in between genres.

[maxmordon]

Rhinoceros.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Northern Exposure (TV).
Terry Gilliam: Brazil, Time Bandits, The Fisher King, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.


Good to see someone mentioning Gilliam! Though I am not sure if Forbidden Zone counts...

[Use Her Name]

Fight Club
I *heart* Huckabees
Almost any fim by David Lynch
Adaptation (another Charlie Kauffman film)

[Aggy B.]

Probably Tarkovsky's The Mirror (http://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Margarita-Terekhova/dp/6305744114/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1243770386&sr=8-1) and Stalker. (http://www.amazon.com/Stalker-Andrei-Tarkovsky-Aleksandr-Kaidanovsky/dp/B000I8OOG0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1243770474&sr=1-1)

[mkcbunny]

In addition to Lynch, you can't go wrong with a lot of Cronenberg. If you want to mix up the Ballard/Cronenberg, there's Crash—which is a flawed movie, for sure, but I figure that the point here isn't always to find the best thing, but interesting things.

Southland Tales is a movie that pretty much defines definition. I'd call it an ambitious failure, but one that I never wanted to turn off when watching. I felt the whole time like it was this unique, completely odd combination of genres and styles, but that it was admirable for being unique. The musical sequence with Justin Timberlake and the many Marilyn Monoes is just out of this world.

The Singing Detective—the Dennis Potter, not the remake.

[TheAmir]

Eraserhead
Tetsuo the Iron Man
Ichi the Killer
Begotten

The Seventh Seal All seriously messed up movies.

[Irysangel]

Did you ever see Night Watch? Russian film, and I *think* it's supposed to be contemporary fantasy but it's so very bizarre that it reads more like a movie-length hallucination. Very strange but visually powerful, I thought. You might like it.

[Kitty Pryde]

Did you ever see Night Watch? Russian film, and I *think* it's supposed to be contemporary fantasy but it's so very bizarre that it reads more like a movie-length hallucination. Very strange but visually powerful, I thought. You might like it.

Are you talking about the 2004 Night Watch? MC named Anton? Lots of vampires and good ole Russian despair? Hot lady who turns into a tiger? It's based on a straight-up urban fantasy novel by Sergei Lukyanenko. They didn't do that great of a job turning it into the movie, making it fairly incomprehensible to anyone who hadn't already read the book. I would probably call it more of 'badly done' than interstitial.

The book, on the other hand, is fabulous. As are the other books in the series.

[Aggy B.]

I would probably call it more of 'badly done' than interstitial.

I was thinking the same thing.

@TheAmir: "Messed up" doesn't equal interstitial either. In fact, I wouldn't consider The Seventh Seal interstitial, but that's JMO. (Not having seen the others I can't comment on their appropriateness to the thread.)

[Irysangel]

Are you talking about the 2004 Night Watch? MC named Anton? Lots of vampires and good ole Russian despair? Hot lady who turns into a tiger? It's based on a straight-up urban fantasy novel by Sergei Lukyanenko. They didn't do that great of a job turning it into the movie, making it fairly incomprehensible to anyone who hadn't already read the book. I would probably call it more of 'badly done' than interstitial.

The book, on the other hand, is fabulous. As are the other books in the series.

I haven't read the book, but I did see the movie and after it was done, I turned to my husband and said "Well, that was...weird." :)

[TheAmir]

I was thinking the same thing.

@TheAmir: "Messed up" doesn't equal interstitial either. In fact, I wouldn't consider The Seventh Seal interstitial, but that's JMO. (Not having seen the others I can't comment on their appropriateness to the thread.)

"Messed up" meaning, in this context, full of symbolic meaning and rather hard for the average person to "grasp" unless it's explained in full detail. There was a lot of use of symbolic metaphor and efigy play in the Seventh Seal. At least I thought there was - the average movie-goer probably isn't going to "get" it, hence why I think it's appropriate to mention here.

[Shweta]

Heads up -- search youtube for "Dali Disney Destino" for serious amounts of awesome WTF.
If you can find it, look at the 6 minute 47 second version.

[Dawnstorm]

I didn't expect Disney in here...

...but that was great. (I found a 6:46 version; does the second make a difference?)

My favourite part was the bell/woman shadow/object ambiguity section.

[Shweta]

I didn't expect Disney in here...

...but that was great. (I found a 6:46 version; does the second make a difference?)

My favourite part was the bell/woman shadow/object ambiguity section.

I think the 6:46 and the 6:47 are the same clip, just with a bit of error in there. I meant as opposed to the 30 second or minute and a half clips.

I loved the bell/woman bit :)

Somehow, I think disneyfying Dali makes him way weirder.

[beezle]

So that answers the old question- if you cracked open Disney's and Dali's heads, whisked up the combined contents and put it in the frypan on high heat, what would the resulting omelette taste like?

Pretty good, it turns out.

[Aggy B.]

The Pornographers
Warm Water Under a Red Bridge

Both by Shohei Immamura. All of his films have elements that are pushing interstitial, but those two (I think) are the most obvious.

[Liosse de Velishaf]

The Pornographers
Warm Water Under a Red Bridge

Both by Shohei Immamura. All of his films have elements that are pushing interstitial, but those two (I think) are the most obvious.


I agree. Also, great movies.

Er... shouldn't that be "Imamura"?

[Aggy B.]

I agree. Also, great movies.

Er... shouldn't that be "Imamura"?

Probably. Lack of coffee + non-English name = stupidity on my part. >_<

[NicoleJLeBoeuf]

Just saw INK (http://www.doubleedgefilms.com/) this weekend. Fabulous. Certainly in between genres.

Bumping up your mention of this film because it is most excellent. You must be in the Denver area, too, huh? Because in April that's the only place INK was playing. Nowadays it appears to be getting limited screenings in NYC, Seattle, Portland, etc. I wish a big distributor would pick it up--I'd be so thrilled to see it in the big Century Theater in Boulder!

Why do so many reviews refer to INK as science fiction? I've been calling it "urban fantasy" myself, because it takes place in the real world but posits a magical/fantastical aspect.

[AMCrenshaw]

Angels in America-- I just finished this very long, very hard-to-watch film. I recommend it to those who are OK with spiritual death-drives.



AMC

[Xelebes]

Heads up -- search youtube for "Dali Disney Destino" for serious amounts of awesome WTF.
If you can find it, look at the 6 minute 47 second version.

You mean this? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU_f2vqEgGM)

[Manuel Royal]

Are you talking about the 2004 Night Watch? MC named Anton? Lots of vampires and good ole Russian despair? Hot lady who turns into a tiger? It's based on a straight-up urban fantasy novel by Sergei Lukyanenko. They didn't do that great of a job turning it into the movie, making it fairly incomprehensible to anyone who hadn't already read the book. I would probably call it more of 'badly done' than interstitial.

The book, on the other hand, is fabulous. As are the other books in the series.Agreed; the book and its sequels, Daywatch and Twilight Watch, are great. Very Russian, but very accessible too.

I guess any movie by Peter Greenaway might be called interstitial, if you have to call it something.

Maybe Last Year at Marienbad.

[SarahMacManus]

I think someone already mentioned "The Fisher King".

"Joe Vs the Volcano" is one of my favorites.

[badducky]

I've watched a couple movies on this list, courtesy of Netflicks. I've got a quibble. I think there's this notion that unconventional=interstitial. There's nothing interstitial about "Oldboy", for instance. That was straight-up psychological thriller. Though it had a few interesting camera tricks, that does not equal "interstitial". There was no blend of genres, or feeling of strangeness as one realized one was spinning beyond the norms of film genre boundaries.

"La Jetee", for instance, married highest of the high, art house, cine-style with very low B-movie science fiction.

Terry Gilliam's movie "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" is not interstitial at all, nor is "Time Bandits". They're fantasy.

"The New World" is just a very stylized - and f-ing wonderful - historical romance.

"The Pillow Book", I think, is also not quite Interstitial, just really f-ed up Erotica.

Is oddity enough to make something in-between? I don't think so.

The only movie mentioned that I have seen so far, which I would agree is "Interstitial", is Dali Destino.

I think it's very easy to say something I like that is not like a Hollywood movie is interstitial, without a clearer sense of what "Interstitial" really means to the cinema.

Who wants to try coming up with a better definition of "Interstitial" for the purposes of film?

[AMCrenshaw]

What's the difference between un-conventional and between conventions?


(I viewed Oldboy as a horror flick with a tendency toward pulp. Not to mention the con-artist direction)

[badducky]

Exactly AMCrenshaw. That's exactly my point. Like, for example, George RR Martin writes unconventional epic fantasy (where main characters can actually die, among other things), but it is not in between conventions. It is quite clearly of the Tolkein-esque fantasy tradition.

Then, you have something like China Mieville's "The City & The City" wherein noir crime drama is combined with surrealist fantasy world-building. That's Interstitial, in that two genres blur together as much as the cities in the book.

[AMCrenshaw]

but are you talking about a combination of generic conventions or a work which falls between them? i see interstitial as the latter, but that makes it all the harder to define. for example, are glen cook's Garret novels interstitial? well probably not, we have a name for that kind of fiction now even though the line between the genres has blurred. what separates it from the city & the city? maybe surrealism vs magic. maybe the pretense that mieville is an interstitial writer, and cook is not.

[Ruv Draba]

I think that the definition of interstitial is transient and dependent. Our taxonomies evolve as our fiction conventions do. The unconventional can become a convention, and gaps between genres become filled by sub-genres.

What's really interesting about interstitial fiction is how it's perceived before it's understood. Especially, what new messages or appreciations we can deliver, when those things are still fresh on the mind.

Creatively, I think that there's a difference between 'between the cracks' (e.g. Mieville and the New Weird movement) and 'off the map' (e.g. Joyce). One tries to wring new perception from the well-trodden; the other seeks to hack sense from entirely unfamiliar terrain. If the latter is mountain-climbing, the former is urban spelunking.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1046/1014034717_2a32650237_o.jpg

[Sharon Mock]

Creatively, I think that there's a difference between 'between the cracks' (e.g. Mieville and the New Weird movement) and 'off the map' (e.g. Joyce). One tries to wring new perception from the well-trodden; the other seeks to hack sense from entirely unfamiliar terrain. If the latter is mountain-climbing, the former is urban spelunking.
I don't have much time for a substantial comment--I'm at the World Fantasy Convention, and should go register and get breakfast Real Soon Now--but I just wanted to say that I love this analogy.

I've been giving thought as to what makes a movie interstitial, but it's all kind of blurry at the moment. Certainly Baron Munchausen is a metafiction--a fantasy about fantasy--but that's a very common theme in fantasy anyway, so.

[badducky]

To me, an interstitial movie would be "Shoot the Piano Player" by Truffaut. The thing about it is, you never really know what kind of movie you're in. It goes from crime drama to biopic to romance to tragedy to thriller... The most interstitial moment, to me, is when the Piano Player is kidnapped with his love interest, and in the car they hold a friendly conversation with the dangerous criminals as if they weren't in a thriller situation, but in a romance comedy with friends.

I think a definition of Interstitial Film to me, is that I never really know what kind of movie I'm watching, until I reach a point, in my viewing, where I just give up and follow along wherever the film takes me.

Like "Shoot the Piano Player".

(Back from WFC today: Thanks for the cookies, Sharon! They're awesome!)

[Sharon Mock]

One thing is that movies are fairly enthusiastic about borrowing and cross-pollinating from other genres while still remaining in their genre. Take District 9 as a recent example: structurally a mockumentary, but still undebatably science fiction.

Fiction does this too, but usually not quite as enthusiastically without knocking itself out of genre and into the interstices. (Musical comedy Star Trek tie-in novels notwithstanding...)

(Glad you liked the cookies, badducky! I've been home from WFC since Tuesday night, but am only now getting back enough brain to start posting...)