There are a certain few movies that have this…je ne sais quois about them. A very pleasant feeling; contentedness, maybe. Fantasy, but not supernatural or sci-fi. Not necessarily happy, but always very natural. Perhaps a listing of the movies I’m thinking of will make this more clear:
Castaway
Pleasantville
Being There
Edward Scissorhands
Forest Gump
The Truman Show (especially!)
I don’t really know how to describe it. All these movies produce in me the same feeling. I can’t really quantify it. The Truman Show is probably the best example, with Forest Gump coming in at second. Maybe someone else reading this might be able to better quantify the feeling? Oh, and of course - any suggestions of other films similar to the above?
I’ve not seen all ‘Being There’, but my guess is that the common thread in all of these movies is a sense of voyeurism that is created due to the subject matter, direction, editing, or all three. In all of them, the viewer is acutely aware that they are ‘looking in’ on someone’s private space rather than just watching a story unfold. There is a sense of interaction and intimacy there that is not seen in most movies.
Well the films on your list are all kind of ‘quiet’. Well Forrest Gump isn’t all that quiet.
But Truman Show, Pleasantville, Being There are really pretty quiet in that they rely on people talking to each other.
The Truman Show is directed by Peter Weir.
Check out his other films like Witness, Fearless, Picnic at Hanging Rock.
If you liked Edward Sissorhands you will probably like Big Fish.
These movies are allegories - they present a stylized version of reality in order to make a moral point or at least to comment on the human condition. Allegories are typically close enough to reality to feel familiar, but one or two aspects of reality are exaggerated or different - which of course is meant to highlight the issue being addressed.
Many, many episodes of the Twilight Zone and Star Trek fall into this category.
My first thought at reading the whole list is that I could open any of them with the stereotypical crane shot over the roofs of suburbia. By filtering the colors a little I could make the lawns greener than any lawn ever was (and almost green enough that you would say “that’s what lawns looked like when I was a kid”). I think the art direction in all of those films highlights both the voyeuristic sense (when the camera is above the town, the audience is “flying” – like gods) and a sense of nostalgia and idealism that is not-quite-real.
When you see a movie reviewed as “dreamlike” this is often the quality they mean: things are recognizable as reality, but nothing in the real world looks like these films do; the silence behind all the dialogue (which can help focus the film on dialogue) explains the “quiet” feel, and the absence of background noise makes you feel as though something isn’t quite right, because every moment of every day you have to filter out background noises.
A synopsis of any of these movies, from the first person perspective of the main character, would sound like a Monday-morning water cooler conversation about intriguing and bizarre dreams:
“I was in a TV show, only I didn’t know it…”
“…and then I ran across the whole country again, with people following me…”
“…but my fingers, they were actually these long scissor blades…”
“…and when she kissed me, everything went from black and white to color!”
I haven’t seen Castaway, but all the others are–with varying degrees of success; there ain’t a gun big enough to make me watch Forrest Gump ever again–about the, um, I guess tension between bland suburban conformity and the uniqueness of the individual. No, that’s not quite it. The dangers that bland conformity poses to the soul of the individual? Something like that. On the one hand you got your bland conformity, and on the other hand you got your individual. In these films, the individual either triumphs over the bland conformity (Truman, e.g.) or is unalterable damaged by it (Being There, e.g).
Zebra’s observations make a lot of sense. In all these movies, the stories unfold almost entirely through dialogue (or lack of dialog, in Castaway), as opposed to actions. I like Wordman’s allegory idea too. I know Star Trek has allegorical episodes too, but they’re a little too sci-fi for me.
Another film with a similar vibe: Blast from the Past, in which Brendan Frasier plays a young man born and raised in a bomb shelter (his parents are played by the brilliantly cast Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek). Once he reaches adulthood, he ventures back – well, out for the first time – into the real world.
Hmm, well, Twickster must be getting a different “vibe” then me, as Blast From The Past is a crappy comedy that could hardly be included with the movies I listed!
Wow, really? I enjoyed it a lot. Christopher Walken is a hoot. I’m not going to call it one of the best movies I’ve ever seen – but I definitely got a similar “stranger in a strange land” vibe off it.