Intralinking Movies

[Cameron262]

I'm not really sure what to call them but I really love movies with multiple stories (with different focusses but maybe with the same characters) which all tie up together brilliantly. I don't know how better to explain than with examples: The Tree of Life, Mr Nobody, The Fountain, The Air I Breathe.

Any recommendations would be great, thank you!

[djross]

x

[Cameron262]

There are many.

Do they have a specific name? I only ask because I'm not really sure what to google! Otherwise, recommendations are wonderful thank you very much!

[KGB]

ensemble films

[matGuy3]

Cloud Atlas is right up your alley

Six different stories, each a different genre in a different setting and time period, all loosely connected by a subtle 'reincarnation' theme.

[3dRevelation]

Let's see films I would recommend:
Magnolia
Gosford Park
Babel
I second Short Cuts
Elephant

[ShogunRua]

Bit surprised that Burn after Reading hasn't been mentioned yet. Excellent film.

[mattorama12]

Robert Altman movies generally follow this kind of structure, particularly Nashville.

[afx237vi]

There are many.

Do they have a specific name? I only ask because I'm not really sure what to google! Otherwise, recommendations are wonderful thank you very much!

Hyperlink films:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlink_cinema

[Stewball]

I was really put off by the ensemble films essay with all of its pretentious language, such as: moral mapping, cognitive mapping, telegraphed in the opening sentence with the phrase, "social, experiential and moral complexity of the postmodern era." I've always gagged when I've heard a reference to postmodernism. She even refers to "sub-sets of the contemporary ensemble film and related forms, such as 'hyperlink cinema' and 'network narratives'". Is it contemporary or postmodern? I'd never thought of the term essay being pretentious, but she makes it seem that way in amongst the strings of "psychobabblical" phraseology. Need to be put out of your misery, try this coup de gras on for size: "Due to their attempt to connect and afford pattern to the complex landscapes of postmodernity – be they spatial, social or political – such films can also be understood to serve a conceptual and cathartic function in that they can perform for the viewer through narrative and aesthetic means forms of 'cognitive mapping' that the individual may not be able to realise (sic) in actual life.[2]" I'd be negligent not to append the refrenced footnote--"[2] Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Durham, USA: Duke University Press, 2005), 54."

I certainly have nothing against using big words or complex syntax, but language should be used to enhance the communication of knowledge, not to make yourself appear to be a member of the literati while in fact hiding one's ignorance or inability to contribute anything worthy of note.

Sorry. (ahem) back to the topic.
I'd like to second Magnolia and Burn After Reading, and add Pulp Fiction (can't believe that one hasn't been mentioned), Traffic (2000), The Departed (sort of) and Hereafter.