Anything Goes : Magical Realism Films by Johnnie Mazzocco

What would you consider a Magical Realism Film, or what parameters would you put on it. I think there can be a thin line or a very thick line separating Magical Realism, depending on how you define it.

I'm leaving that open to interpretation.

most of the Spielberg movies of my youth are magical realism in my own interpretation of it : E.T. / Back to the Future / Goonies / Jurassic Park etc. all feel like movies grounded in reality but that happen to be fantastical stories. And then there's Lord of the Rings which I class as being fantasy realism of the highest order ;)

Magical -realism? that plays with my brain! If its magical how can it be real? if its real how can it be magical lol!!! So I guess you mean films that are convincing with fantasy thrown in? Well the most recent thing I watched that gave me that feeling was a game of thrones. The mother of dragons especially gets my hairs on end with her brood of dragons!

Thanks, you guys, for your input. I'm thinking along the lines of Big Fish, Like Water for Chocolate, or Fairy Tale: A True Story, maybe... Although there are many, many others. Just trying to figure out how and where I want to draw the line between the magic and the real... Thanks again for your thoughts. :)

Field of Dreams. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, if you look at the crossing of our universe and the Oompa Loompahs (SP?) universe as being the gateway of magic that creates these amazing confections, a magical gateway created by the imagination of Willy Wonka. Yes I think that would be my favorite. Groundhog Day.

I'd like you to look at Bum Rap - A Noir Fantasy, up on YouTube in 1080p and see what I've done in this style of filmmaking. It just got a staff pick by First Rites Films....thanks...

Fantastic imagery, sound, music. Stunning.

Yvette, you made my Cream of Wheat taste like Sunday brunch at the Four Seasons. Thank you so much for your generous comment and watching the film.

If you are referring to American films, I don't think you would find too many, if any. The closest one would be Gravity, which had a minute or two in the film. Indeed, it would be difficult to find an American book based on magic realism. I include it in most of my writings, only because I read it, mostly from Latin writers. If I were to point to one besides Gravity, it would be la grande belleza. A superb mixed narrative, a compelling story. Of course, it is by Latin filmmakers, as is Gravity.

What about "eve's bayou", "city of lost children", "Amelie", "Pan's Labyrinth", "Barton Fink", "baron munchausen", "the imaginarium of doctor parnassus", "I heart huckabees"? Would you consider any of those magical realism? What I like about these and some of the ones you mention is that when the magic happens it is unexpected and exciting, but not a surprise. When done well, it feels natural. I hope this helps.

Johnnie is asking why they are favorites. The magic can serve to support the character leads, or hinder them. At some point the magic may reveal itself to be entirely dependent on the "lead". But when the reveal takes place is crucial. The grand trine between the audience, the author and the film is when the accident of realization takes place. In Tarkovsky's Solaris, a man's dead wife keeps coming back to life after poisoning herself. She ain't done. What made this so powerful for me is that she never knew any more about herself than he knew about her. But this comes sideways at you. As she keeps returning, he begins to see more deeply into who she is, and she grows. But this is all laying in wait for the viewer, who realizes this at their own speed. When it finally hits you, it's a revelation. Later on, he's in a home off the space station, and it begins to rain. But it rains inside the room instead of outside. Never explained...but the camera pulls back into the sky, and we see he's on an island...created from his mind. But no one is telling you anything. The filmmaker is allowing you to participate creatively. Remember Gestalt therapy? Dreams were discussed, and everything in the dream would have meaning. You need to open a gate, the gate had meaning. The position of things. The clarity or the lack of it. The amount of time simple things took. All representing your mind. You go to open a drawer. You have no idea what's in it. You open it, and there's this thing in there, but a split second before, you had butkus. Then, it was there. Your mind controlled the whole psychic event. That's a lot of power. What makes it even more interesting is that these activities in imagination are representations of the act of giving. To yourself. Then you start to see certain films as offered gifts to the audience. Carefully done...meticulously staged and presented through time. I remember reading how Orson Welles would stay up late illustrating the dance hall posters in the alley behind the nightclub/ brothel Madame Zza Gabor managed in Touch Of Evil. Later one poster gets the acid spilled onto it....and I thought of Welles alone at night making these. Wrapping the gift. Two films. Favorites.

@Andre, finally had a chance to watch your film. Beautiful. So stylized and very well done. Thank you for sharing it.

Thanks for your support. I hope to hear more about your project. One of my actors is over and we're celebrating with glasses of rare California tap water....see you on the red carpet someday....Andre

For myself, I am greatly influenced growing up on Fellini's neo-realism when the dead come back to life, or in the case of Pan's, the creatures take on human roles with full participation of the spirits and other deities. I like Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire in which the protagonist awaits the helps of angels to solve his problems. Michaelangelo Antonioni was the first to use sound and visual effects to internalize lucidity or confusion in a narrative, stretching a visual neo-realism or art-house film, In terms of American\Hollywood films, those which reflect an altered reality, using aparitions and non-time reality I would add "Love in the time of cholera", but I've never been able to find the film. I have read parts of the book by Gabriel García Márquez, the novelist who is credited for creating magic-realism as a literary device. His 100 Years of Solitude, one of the most popular books in the world, has never been made into a movie. Pan's Labyrinth comes closest in the list you provided. One of my favorite films, Children of Men has elements of magic realism. (A good of mine has refused to talk to me since because I liked this movie.) Magic characters come and go, they are not fixed in the narrative as characters, they are there one minute and not there until much later. Also, time is elastic. It's not uncommon to lose track of time and the characters can be hundreds of years old, yet current time. The thing I love about these films\books is a very strong sense of ironic humor throughout.

Michael....always here to help... http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=love+in+the+time+of+cholera...

It's been a while since I've seen it but Kull the Conqueror was good. - The film didn't concentrate on the magicians or magic - yeah they were there but not the focus. If your focuses on magic, you have to provide the logic behind the magic and that never works because magic is illogical. Just remembered that I saw Full Metal Alchemist (similar to magic) that nearly focuses on magic it's excellent.

Thanks. I've been off the grid. This helps.

@Michael, I had forgotten about Antonioni! Thanks for mentioning him. I will revisit his film... And yes, GGM's 100 Years is a fabulous model for magical realism. Isabelle Allende, too.

Thanks, Cliff. I don't know these films. I'll check them out.