Magical Realism

[Hairy Lime]

I'm interested in finding other examples of magical realism in films. For those unfamiliar, or not aware that you're familiar, magical realism is a literary style in which the magical, supernatural, or surreal is incorporated into a realist narrative structure - as if they were a normal part of everyday life. This distinguishes the genre from science fiction or horror, because the unknown is accepted by the character and left unexplained to the audience.

Some examples from cinema include:

Jean-Pierre Jeunet - City of Lost Children, Amelie, A Very Long Engagement

Tim Burton - Big Fish in particular, but also elements of Edward Scissorhands and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I'm sure there are plenty of others that I'm not remembering right now.

As I gear up to direct my first short film, which is strongly magical realist in style (I'm using City of Lost Children as a template), I'm interested in finding other movies that fit this genre that I may not have seen.

So let's hear them.

[RBoss]

does Who Framed Roger Rabbit count?

[TDWoj]

Ghost comes to mind. City of Angels, another, I think.

Chocolat, maybe?

[Ravenlocks]

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants?

[Pen Dragon]

The Bishop's Wife
Field of Dreams
The Natural
It's a Wonderful Life
Miracle on 34th Street
Harvey
The Green Mile
Always
Angel on My Shoulder
Bruce Almighty
What Women Want
Bell Book and Candle
Big
Hudsucker Proxy
Liar Liar
Secret of Roan Inish
The Fisher King
Pleasantville

[Hairy Lime]

Maybe I should have prefaced this with good movies.

Seriously though, these are excellent suggestions. Keep 'em coming.

[cluckyburger]

like water for chocolate
in america
purple rose of cairo
many fellinis

[TDWoj]

Maybe I should have prefaced this with good movies.

Seriously though, these are excellent suggestions. Keep 'em coming.

Pen Dragon's list doesn't have any good movies on it? Oh, dear. I guess my tastes are shallower than I thought. I thought most of them were rather good, myself.... (for me, however, it would be the original Cary Grant version of The Bishop's Wife. The remake - feh.).

:(

[Pen Dragon]

Hairy always spits in my face. But I just keep trying to please him.

[Jake Schuster]

Buñuel, Fellini come to mind. Magical realism in the novel is all too often a lazy writer's device: when in doubt, make someone fly. It can get tired really fast in a movie, too. How about "The Wizard of Oz" as an earlyish example of it?

And, Hairy, check out the photography exhibit at the Met. I was there on Tuesday--it's magical realism taken to an extreme: faked spiritualist photos from fifty to a hundred years ago.

[Hairy Lime]

Pen Dragon's list doesn't have any good movies on it? Oh, dear. I guess my tastes are shallower than I thought. I thought most of them were rather good, myself.... (for me, however, it would be the original Cary Grant version of The Bishop's Wife. The remake - feh.).

:(You'll see that pen's post was just one minute before mine. I was composing mine as he posted his. I did like several on his list.

Jake, I'll check it out.

[Hairy Lime]

many fellinisSpecific examples, please?

[Insanity In A Jar]

Being John Malkovich
Barton Fink
Deja Vu (Henry Jaglom)
Cries and Whispers
The Seventh Seal
Whale Rider

[Hairy Lime]

I knew I could count on you, Jar. You even named a couple I haven't seen.

I don't remember any magical elements in some of these movies, but it makes me think maybe I need to go back and look at them again.

Also, I'd prefer not to lump movies with contrivances such as Big or Liar, Liar in with stories that don't use something magical as the central conceit. I'm more interested in the latter.

[Pen Dragon]

The Disappearance of Hairy Lime

[Fortean]

Charles Sturridge's Fairy Tale (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119095/combined) (inspired by the discredited Cottingley fairy photographs (http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/photos/cottingley.html))

[Hairy Lime]

Fortean. I was sure you'd give me a list of 30 movies from the 1890s to the 1930s that I couldn't pronounce, let alone find on anything other than a grainy 8mm reel at the library. Instead you give me a Paramount release from 1997?

Oh, and I'll add a couple more of my own ...

Finding Neverland
Millions

[dclary]

Is there any Terry Gilliam film that DOESN'T have an element of magical realism?

[Hairy Lime]

Ah, yes. Gilliam was the other director I'd meant to mention in my examples.

[Architeuthis Dux]

Hairy always spits in my face. But I just keep trying to please him.

I see . . . okay . . . not that there's anything wrong with that . . .

[TDWoj]

You'll see that pen's post was just one minute before mine. I was composing mine as he posted his. I did like several on his list.


I beg your pardon. It was hard to tell, without the previous post quoted, to whom you were responding.

[Jake Schuster]

Hairy:
Fellini's "Juliet of the Spirits" and "8 1/2", just for starters. But he breaks out of the realist mode in most of his films at one point or another.

[cluckyburger]

Hairy:
Fellini's "Juliet of the Spirits" and "8 1/2", just for starters. But he breaks out of the realist mode in most of his films at one point or another.

right. i would say LA STRADA first and foremost. plus the above, plus NIGHTS OF CABIRIA.

also, tarkovsky's THE SACRIFICE, kurosawa's DREAMS
also, i haven't seen this but, i'm told the milagro beanfield war fits the bill.

[postalpictures]

Herzog's Aguirre, Wrath of God.
Coens' Raising Arizona.

[flyingcactus]

Thanks for the interesting lists.

I personally would have thought something like Liar, Liar or Ghost would be "supernatural comedy" rather than magical realism because it's so mainstream. Magial realism, to me, is more mystical or shamanistic or something in nature. Like 100 years of Solitude and the butterflies and the blood trailing all over and no one remembering anything. Or Isabel Allende. But grounded in a real drama. Or whatever.

[Jake Schuster]

I'm not seeing a lot of magic in "Nights of Cabiria", I'm afraid. It's a fairly realistic picture, even when she's hypnotized.

[dclary]

LA Story is the best, by far.

[thatcomedian]

Maybe I'm forgetting some of the details but what was surreal in A Very Long Engagement.

My List

Swimming Pool
Heavenly Creatures
Les Visiteurs
Kate and Leopold

I'm interested in finding other examples of magical realism in films. For those unfamiliar, or not aware that you're familiar, magical realism is a literary style in which the magical, supernatural, or surreal is incorporated into a realist narrative structure - as if they were a normal part of everyday life. This distinguishes the genre from science fiction or horror, because the unknown is accepted by the character and left unexplained to the audience.

Some examples from cinema include:

Jean-Pierre Jeunet - City of Lost Children, Amelie, A Very Long Engagement

Tim Burton - Big Fish in particular, but also elements of Edward Scissorhands and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I'm sure there are plenty of others that I'm not remembering right now.

As I gear up to direct my first short film, which is strongly magical realist in style (I'm using City of Lost Children as a template), I'm interested in finding other movies that fit this genre that I may not have seen.

So let's hear them.

[cluckyburger]

I'm not seeing a lot of magic in "Nights of Cabiria", I'm afraid. It's a fairly realistic picture, even when she's hypnotized.

jake, you're right. i don't know what i was thinking of.

let me toss 2 more out:
what dreams may come
fanny & alexander

[Pen Dragon]

I see . . . okay . . . not that there's anything wrong with that . . .

why you...

oh, and -



BRIGADOON!

[Hairy Lime]

LA Story is the best, by far.And you, of course, can say this, because you've seen everything else mentioned in this thread.

[Jake Schuster]

Good call, Cluck!

[Fortean]

Fortean. I was sure you'd give me a list of 30 movies from the 1890s to the 1930s that I couldn't pronounce, let alone find on anything other than a grainy 8mm reel at the library. Instead you give me a Paramount release from 1997?I'm keeping in mind your first post in this thread.As I gear up to direct my first short film, which is strongly magical realist in style (I'm using City of Lost Children as a template), I'm interested in finding other movies that fit this genre that I may not have seen.Sturridge's film is often overlooked, but sometimes available, (probably as a "family" or "children's" film). Magical realism is not "fantasy," (which is how I'd define many of the films mentioned in this thread). I wouldn't include FINDING NEVERLAND, but would add Wayne Kramer's THE COOLER (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318374/combined) and François Girard's LE VIOLIN ROUGE (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120802/combined) (THE RED VIOLIN), to your prospective list, (which should be readily available to consult, if you haven't seen them already).

[Hairy Lime]

Fortean. Thanks for the Fairy Tale recommendation. Cute, touching little story.

Anybody else have suggestions?

[Jake Schuster]

Just realize that "magical realism" was a literary term invented around 1981 or so and applied to certain works by Gabriel Marquez and the overrated Salmon Rushdie. In some cases--I'd say most--magical realism is the laziest kind of writing. When you can't think of what you do with a character you make him...fly and turn into a butterfly and then seek out the hunchbacked princess in the distant castle and impregnate her and wait till she gives birth to a talking pig named Rumpy Al-Jazira, godson of the Grand Shaman of the Temple Purgatory in the Micronesian Isles, who disappeared in a puff of smoke eight centuries ago and lingers over the mangrove swamp as a scented cloud weeping droplets of lavender, when not leaving signs of his sadness in the coiled vines of the enchanted Forest of Haffa-ben-Raphael

God, that was easy.

Very sloppy stuff that's had its day and doesn't, at least in the literary world, have a great future.

[sasqits]

Fearless - great film and performances, especially from Jeff Bridges.

Alexander -

The Last Samurai -

Hairy, if you're researching for your Death of the Bulls script, these two films might be worthwhile for you to see. Their themes of destiny, honor, and honor in death are similar, I think, to what I read for your posting for the script.

Good luck

[Hairy Lime]

Okay, Jake's not a fan. Anyone else?

[tabula rasa]

um ...
Woman On Top (Penelope Cruz and her magical cooking)?
Bell, Book & Candle (Kim Novak as a witch)?

[Hairy Lime]

Deja Vu (Henry Jaglom)Man, this was hard to get through. Nice concept. Awful execution. Acting was even worse.