Impossible Puzzle Films by Mikls Kiss
Narrative complexity is a trend in contemporary cinema. Since the late 1990s there has been a palpable increase in complex storytelling in movies. But how and why do complex movies create perplexity and confusion? How do we engage with these challenges? And what makes complex stories so attractive? By blending film studies, narrative theory and cognitive sciences, Kiss and Wilemsen look into the relation between complex storytelling and the mind. Analysing the effects that different complex narratives have on viewers, the book addresses how films like Donnie Darko, Mulholland Drive and Primer strategically create complexity and confusion, using the specific category of the impossible puzzle film to examine movies that use baffling paradoxes, impossible loops, and unresolved ambiguities in their stories and storytelling. By looking at how these films play on our mind’s blind spots, this innovative book explains their viewing effects in terms of the mental state of cognitive dissonance that they evoke.
Impossible Puzzle Films is a dense, probing, truly enlightening study of a salient trend within world cinemaKiss and Willemsen offer an enriching perspective on cinema’s cognitive and affective power, its capacity to beguile, bewilder, and delight. -- Gary Bettinson * The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory *
Kiss and Willemsen’s book is an important step forward in the study of cinematic complexity. It offers a thorough analysis of complex storytelling techniques with a special focus on the "impossible puzzle films," reveals the cognitive effects and challenges they evoke and explores the reasons why viewers find them fascinating.' -- Professor Marina Grishakova, Institute of Cultural Research and Arts, University of Tartu
Kiss and Willemsen’s book is an important step forward in the study of cinematic complexity. It offers a thorough analysis of complex storytelling techniques with a special focus on the "impossible puzzle films," reveals the cognitive effects and challenges they evoke and explores the reasons why viewers find them fascinating.' -- Professor Marina Grishakova, Institute of Cultural Research and Arts, University of Tartu
Miklós Kiss is Assistant Professor in Film and Media Studies at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. His research focuses on contemporary audiovisual media, intersecting the fields of narrative and cognitive film theories. Steven Willemsen is a PhD-candidate and Junior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. His research addresses the topic of story complexity from embodied-cognitive and narratological perspectives.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781474406727 |
| ISBN 10 | 1474406726 |
| Title | Impossible Puzzle Films |
| Author | Mikls Kiss |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Edinburgh University Press |
| Year published | 2016-12-09 |
| Number of pages | 240 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |