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April 2008, Week 2

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Subject:
From:
Anne Dotter <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 12 Apr 2008 09:14:09 -0500
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Barry - You might find Modern Love (France, 2008) interesting. While 
the two lead characters (one of them is a screen play writer) are not 
writing but telling their respective stories, by doing so, they are 
clearly commenting on the American romantic comedy genre. Their 
romantic narratives are broken at regular interval with scenes from a 
third love story, a musical, clearly different in style from the two 
others (which is hinted to have been written by the screen play 
writer). Although you can find hints throughout the film, the 
self-reflexivity of the narrators  and the actual extra-diegetic 
qualities are only clearly established within the last few minutes of 
the film. This means also that the boundary reality / fiction might be 
a little too porous.  Best,
Anne Dotter

On Apr 11, 2008, at 11:13 AM, Barry Langford wrote:

> I'm searching for examples of a rather specific kind of 
> "metafictional" movie:
> where a fictional narrative which either has been, or is in the 
> process of being
> created (written) by one of the characters features directly in the 
> film, i.e. as
> an interpolated dramatised sequence, or sequences. I'm not after 
> backstage
> musicals or plays-within-films (e.g., Bullets Over Broadway, 
> Shakespeare In
> Love) but fictions whose dramatisation occurs so to speak 
> extra-diegetically.
>
> I'd expect that the fiction-within-the-film would have some critical or
> commentary relationship to the frame narrative. However, I'm not 
> looking for
> literary pastiches where a given fictive mode is adopted wholesale in a
> narrative ostensibly centring on a writer identified with that mode 
> (e.g.
> Hammett), but texts where the boundary between reality and fiction 
> remains
> clear if porous.
>
> The writer who obviously and consistently explores the kind of thing 
> I'm
> interested is Dennis Potter (The Singing Detective, Karaoke, etc.). 
> The "Happy
> Endings" sequence in New York, New York offers another take on the 
> principle.
> But I'm keen to accumulate further instances - suggestions gratefully 
> received.
>
> Thanks in advance, Barry
>
>
> Dr Barry Langford
> Senior Lecturer in Film & Television Studies
> Royal Holloway, University of London
> [log in to unmask]
>
> ----
> Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
> http://www.ScreenSite.org
>

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