Subjective Realist Cinema: From Expressionism to Inception

Subjective Realist Cinema looks at the fragmented narratives and multiple realities of a wide range of films that depict subjective experience and employ “subjective realist” narration, including recent examples such as Mulholland Drive, Memento, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The author proposes that an understanding of the narrative structures of these films, particularly their use of mixed and multiple realities, enhances viewers’ enjoyment and comprehension of such films, and that such comprehension offers a key to understanding contemporary filmmaking.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Introduction Three Periods of Narrative Experimentation Multiform Narrative Subjective Realism Chapter 1. Complex Narratives The New Hollywood and The Smart Film New Hollywood Narration Fragmented Narratives Multi-strand Narratives Multiform Narratives Brazil Puzzle Films Chapter 2. Two Trajectories of the Cinema of Attractions The Narrative Trajectory: Realism and Spectacle The Avant-garde Trajectory: Realism and Defamiliarization Chapter 3. Subjective Realism and Multiform Narrative Subjective Realism Vertigo The Fantastic Wild Strawberries Chapter 4. Mulholland Drive Expressionism and the Uncanny Three Views As Surrealist or Trance Film As Fragmented Subjective Realist Film As Supernatural Film It Is All An Illusion Chapter 5. Memento The Four Strands Unreliable Narration Disrupted Expectations Subjective Realism Chapter 6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind The Philosophy of Eternal Sunshine Temporal Inversions Subjective Realism Sonic Metalepsis The Marvelous Real Conclusion Filmography Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Matthew Campora is a Lecturer at the Australian Film Television and Radio School and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies. He holds an MPhil in literary studies and a PhD in film studies from the University of Queensland.

Review :
“In his timely and erudite book, Matthew Campora…makes use of a variety of analytical tools and methods, from narrative theory to historiography to reception studies. The result is a thorough volume that successfully combines theory and interpretation...Campora’s goals are numerous, and he moves through his information clearly and carefully…and makes the reader want to return to the films themselves, to watch them each anew with [his] insights in mind. Campora’s book illuminates many fascinating features of these films and this genre, and his book will be of interest to a wide variety of readers.” · Film Criticism “…identifies and defines a distinct group of films within contemporary complex narrative films, partly tracing historical antecedents, using a useful taxonomy for contemporary complex narrative films.” · Nitzan Ben Shaul, Tel Aviv University “This book effectively combines theories of multiform narrative with subjective realism to develop a sophisticated theory of complex storytelling in contemporary cinema. It presents detailed and distinct analyses of [a number of important films].” · Warren Buckland, Oxford Brookes University