Films broken up into segments/chapters/topics/etc. etc.

Cafe Society
1

I have an idea for a student film that involves a group of guys working at the grocery store one summer, which breaks down into 10 surreal segments, preceded by a title, of different film-genres or something similar, in which the characters go through that segment in that way, but none having an influence on the next (they can die in one and be back in the next :smiley: ), all taking place in and around the grocery store. Here are the segments in order as planned right now:
[ul]
[li]Situational Comedy[/li][li]Action/ Kung-Fu[/li][li]Hip-Hop/ You Got Served[/li][li]Horror[/li][li]Musical[/li][li]Transcendental/ Philosophical[/li][li]Gross-Out/Sex/Teen Comedy[/li][li]Romance[/li][li]New Wave/Godard/Woody Allen/Dialogue-Driven[/li][li]Random[/li][/ul]

The primary influences for the goodness of this film would be Xena and Buffy, b/c both shows were so skilled at changing from one type of entertainment (humor, light dialogue, even musical) to the darkest or frightening or bloodiest type.

And the point of this OP is to ask for films that are broken up into segments, either similar to mine or not so much.

Pulp Fiction (and Tarantino’s other work)
Clerks (not really)
Sin City

All come to mind. Segment films became much more popular after Pulp Fiction, right? Discuss.

2

Tarantion again: Kill Bill, Vol 1 and 2

Does what I call the “sketch anthology” films count? this would include movies like “Amazon Women on the Moon” and “Kentucky Fried Movie”.

What about other anthology films like “Twilight Zone: The Movie”, “Creepshow” and “Cat’s Eye”?

3

OK, make that “Tarantino” :smack:

4

“Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex.” As in the book, each began with a question (such as “What is bestiality?” featuring Gene Wilder and a sheep.)

5

You just broke my brain.

6

Jeffrey
Go

7

Coffee and Cigarettes

8

Four Rooms consists of four almost-independent short films, plus a frame story linking them together. It’s another Tarantino film, but if I remember right, each of the segments was done by a different director.

Many of Peter Greenaway’s films have a very formal episodic structure. Ones that I have seen: The Pillow Book; Prospero’s Books; The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover; Drowning by Numbers; The Draughtsman’s Contract.

9

As I recall, *Breaking the Waves * was divided into chapters.

10

Two films with the simplest of segmentation come to mind:

In the Company of Men
Sideways

Both are segmented by time, and very effectively, too. This is not just a simple matter of chronologic plot development-- the segmentation serves as an important plot element, adding to the tension or funniness, as the case may be.

11

Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life is broken up in segments about the various stages of life.

12

The biographical movie Mishima was divided into four parts, each directed and photographed in a different style to portray a different aspect of the Japanese author’s life, via his autobiographical novels.

13

Rashômon might be relevant to what you want to do, even though it’s the same incident viewed four ways instead of independent bits.

And you need a noir segment as well.

14

This is a very old cinematic conceit. D.W. Griffith’s Birth Of A Nation was divided into chapters. It almost certainly not the first silent film to use the technique. A very recent use of the concept is Donnie Darko. *The Four Seasons * also used this idea. In a sense, any film that’s ever used a clock or calendar to show the passage of time does this.

Hope this is of some use.

15

While not necessarily being broken up into specific chapters, one movie that plays with the clock in the most brilliant matter is Memento.

Maybe Mulholland Drive also.

16

Stanley Kubrick’s film of The Shining is broken into titled segments. For no good reason that I can see.