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hyperlink cinema

{{Short description|Multilinear filmmaking style}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2015}}

Hyperlink cinema is a style of filmmaking characterized by complex or multilinear narrative structures with multiple characters under one unifying theme.[https://movieweb.com/movies-where-several-stories-interconnect/ 10 Movies Where Several Stories Interconnect - MovieWeb]

History

The term was coined by author Alissa Quart, who used the term in her review of the film Happy Endings (2005) for the film journal Film Comment in 2005.{{cite journal

|last=Quart

|first=Alissa

|author-link=Alissa Quart

|title=Networked

|journal=Film Comment

|volume=41

|issue=4

|pages=48–5

|date=Jul–Aug 2005

|url=http://alissaquart.com/networked_don_roos_and_happy_e/

|access-date=January 28, 2014

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203214153/http://alissaquart.com/networked_don_roos_and_happy_e/

|archive-date=February 3, 2014

|df=mdy-all

}} Film critic Roger Ebert popularized the term when reviewing the film Syriana in 2005.{{cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |date=December 9, 2005 |title=Syriana |work=Reviews |publisher=rogerebert.com |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/syriana-2005 |access-date=July 25, 2007}} These films are not hypermedia and do not have actual hyperlinks, but are multilinear in a more metaphorical sense.

In describing Happy Endings, Quart considers captions acting as footnotes and split screen as elements of hyperlink cinema and notes the influence of the World Wide Web and multitasking. Playing with time and characters' personal history, plot twists, interwoven storylines between multiple characters, jumping between the beginning and end (flashback and flashforward) are also elements. Ebert further described hyperlink cinema as films where the characters or action reside in separate stories, but a connection or influence between those disparate stories is slowly revealed to the audience; illustrated in Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu's films Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), and Babel (2006).

Quart suggests that director Robert Altman created the structure for the genre and demonstrated its usefulness for combining interlocking stories in his films Nashville (1975) and Short Cuts (1993).Ebert, Roger (2006). Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2007. Andrews McMeel Publishing. p. 100. {{ISBN|0-7407-6157-9}} However, his work was predated by several films, including Satyajit Ray's Kanchenjunga (1962),{{cite web|url=http://www.amc.com/movie/1962/Kanchenjungha|title=Kanchenjungha |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151211105908/http://www.amc.com/movie/1962/Kanchenjungha |archive-date=2015-12-11|work=AMC}} Federico Fellini's Amarcord (1973),{{cite web |url=http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/20-great-examples-of-hyperlink-cinema-every-film-buff-must-watch/|title=20 Great Examples of Hyperlink Cinema Every Film Buff Must Watch |website=Taste of Cinema |date=September 4, 2015}} and Ritwik Ghatak's Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (1973),{{Cite book |last1=Ghatak |first1=Ritwik |year=2000 |title=Rows and Rows of Fences: Ritwik Ghatak on Cinema |publisher=Ritwik Memorial & Trust Seagull Books |isbn=81-7046-178-2 |pages=ix & 134–36}} all of which use a narrative structure based on multiple characters.

Quart also mentions the television series 24 and discusses Alan Rudolph's film Welcome to L.A. (1976) as an early prototype. Crash (2004) is an example of the genre,{{Cite web |last=Willmore |first=Alison |date=February 23, 2009 |title="Crossing Over" and Hyperlink Cinema |url=https://www.ifc.com/2009/02/crossing-over-and-hyperlink-ci |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410023913/https://www.ifc.com/2009/02/crossing-over-and-hyperlink-ci |archive-date=April 10, 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=July 12, 2022 |website=IFC}} as are Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (2000), Fernando Meirelles's City of God (2002), Stephen Gaghan's Syriana (2005) and Rodrigo Garcia's Nine Lives (2005).

The style is also used in video games. French video game company Quantic Dream has produced games, such as Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human, with hyperlink cinema style storytelling, and the style has also influenced role-playing games such as Suikoden III (2001) and Octopath Traveler (2018).{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Analysis

The hyperlink cinema narrative and story structure can be compared to social science's spatial analysis. As described by Edward Soja and Costis Hadjimichalis spatial analysis examines the "'horizontal experience' of human life, the spatial dimension of individual behavior and social relations, as opposed to the 'vertical experience' of history, tradition, and biography."{{cite journal |last1=Soja |first1=Edward W. |last2=Hadjimichalis |first2=Costis |year=1979 |title=Between Geographical Materialism and Spatial Fetishism: Some Observations on the Development of Marxist Spatial Analysis |journal=Antipode |volume=17 |issue=2–3 |pages=59–67 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8330.1985.tb00334.x }} English critic John Berger notes for the novel that "it is scarcely any longer possible to tell a straight story sequentially unfolding in time" for "we are too aware of what is continually traversing the story line laterally."

An academic analysis of hyperlink cinema appeared in the journal Critical Studies in Media Communication, and referred to the films as Global Network Films. Narine's study examines the films Traffic (2000), Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), Beyond Borders (2003), Crash (2004; released 2005), Syriana (2005), Babel (2006) and others, citing network theorist Manuel Castells and philosophers Michel Foucault and Slavoj Žižek. The study suggests that the films are network narratives that map the network society and the new connections citizens experience in the age of globalization.{{cite journal |last=Narine |first=Neil |title=Global Trauma and the Cinematic Network Society |journal=Critical Studies in Media Communication |volume=27 |issue=3 |year=2010 |pages=209–234 |doi=10.1080/15295030903583556 |s2cid=143671583}}

Alberto Toscano and Jeff Kinkle have argued that one popular form of hyperlink cinema constitutes a contemporary form of it-narrative, an 18th- and 19th-century genre of fiction written from the imagined perspective of objects as they move between owners and social environments.{{cite book|first1=Alberto|last1=Toscano|author-link=Alberto Toscano|first2=Jeff|last2=Kinkle|title=Cartographies of the Absolute|publisher=Zero Books|year=2015|page=192}} In these films, they argue, "the narrative link is the characters' relation to the film's product of choice, whether it be guns, cocaine, oil, or Nile perch."

Examples

= Films =

{{main category|Hyperlink films}}

{{Div col|colwidth=18em}}

  • Grand Hotel (1932){{cite web|url=https://www.flickchart.com/genre/Hyperlink+Film |title=Hyperlink Film |website=Flickchart}}
  • Dinner at Eight (1933){{cite web|url=https://www.flickchart.com/Charts.aspx?genre=Hyperlink+Film&decade=1930 |title=The Best Hyperlink Films of the 1930s |website=Flickchart}}
  • The Rules of the Game (1939){{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4vAp1JNyyQkC&dq=rules+of+the+game+hyperlink+film&pg=PT282 |last=Newman |first=Michael Z. |year=2011 |title=Indie: An American Film Culture |publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231513524 |via=Google Books}}
  • Kanchenjunga (1962)
  • Is Paris Burning? (1966){{cite web|url=https://www.flickchart.com/Charts.aspx?genre=Hyperlink+Film&decade=1960 |title=The Best Hyperlink Films of the 1960s |website=Flickchart}}
  • Amarcord (1973)
  • Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (1973)
  • The Phantom of Liberty (1974)
  • Zavallilar (1974){{cite book|last=Özguc |first= Agah |title=Bütün Filmleriyle Yilmaz Güney |language=tr}}
  • Nashville (1975)
  • Welcome to L.A. (1976)
  • Ganadevata (1978){{cite web|title=Ganadevata |publisher=Upperstall.com |url=http://www.upperstall.com/films/1978/ganadevata |access-date=2014-04-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140426201107/http://www.upperstall.com/films/1978/ganadevata |archive-date=26 April 2014 |df=dmy }}
  • Yol (1981)
  • Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
  • Do the Right Thing (1989){{cite web|url=https://www.flickchart.com/Charts.aspx?genre=Hyperlink+Film&decade=1980 |title=The Best Hyperlink Films of the 1980s |website=Flickchart}}
  • Mystery Train (1989){{cite web|url=https://www.aperfectprescription.com/blog/its-a-sad-and-beautiful-world-music-from-the-films-of-jim-jarmusch |title=It's a Sad and Beautiful World: Music From the Films of Jim Jarmusch |website=A Perfect Prescription |date=March 15, 2016}}
  • Grand Canyon (1991){{cite web|url=https://www.flickchart.com/Charts.aspx?genre=Hyperlink+Film&decade=1990 |title=The Best Hyperlink Films of the 1990s |website=Flickchart}}
  • Slacker (1991)
  • Dazed and Confused (1993)
  • Short Cuts (1993)
  • Three Colours: Red (1993)
  • Before the Rain (1994){{cite web|last=Kipp |first=Jeremiah |date=August 12, 2008 |url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/before-the-rain/3718 |title=Before the Rain Film Review |website=Slant Magazine |access-date=March 3, 2010}}
  • Exotica (1994){{Cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=March 11, 2009 |title=Exotica |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/exotica-1994}}
  • Pulp Fiction (1994){{cite book|last=Booker |first=M. Keith |year=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QluEtNUBblUC&pg=PA13 |title=Postmodern Hollywood: What's New in Film and why it Makes Us Feel So Strange |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group. |pages=12–21 |isbn=978-0-275-99900-1 |via=Google Books |access-date=October 18, 2008}}[https://www.slashfilm.com/764836/how-quentin-tarantino-broke-the-mold-for-anthology-movies-with-pulp-fiction/ How Quentin Tarantino Broke The Mold For Anthology Movies With Pulp Fiction|/Film]
  • Gummo (1997)
  • Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
  • The Opposite of Sex (1998)
  • Happiness (1998)
  • Playing by Heart (1998){{cite web|last=Holden |first=Stephen |author-link=Stephen Holden |date=January 22, 1999 |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/film/012299heart-film-review.html |title='Playing By Heart': In a Cocktail of Romance, Different Flavors of Love |website=The New York Times |access-date=March 3, 2010}}
  • Go (1999){{Cite web |date=March 17, 2018 |title=Top 10 Greatest Films of 'Hyperlink Cinema' |url=https://moviebabblereviews.com/2018/03/17/top-10-greatest-films-of-hyperlink-cinema/ |website=moviebabble.com}}
  • Magnolia (1999){{cite web|url=https://the-artifice.com/hyperlink-cinema-stories/ |title=Hyperlink Cinema and the Prevalence of Intertwining Stories |date=January 17, 2017 |website=The Artifice}}
  • Code Unknown (2000){{Cite web |title=CODE INCONNU |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/5141/year/2000.html |website=Festival de Cannes}}
  • Timecode (2000)
  • Amores perros (2000)
  • Snatch (2000)
  • Traffic (2000)
  • Lantana (2001){{Cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=January 18, 2002 |title=Lantana |work=Reviews |publisher=rogerebert.com |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/lantana-2002 |access-date=February 14, 2009}}
  • Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001)
  • City of God (2002)
  • 11:14 (2003){{Cite web |last=Cochran, Dechlan |title=11:14, an obscure gem of a movie (review) |url=http://www.devon-cornwall-film.co.uk/2012/04/12/1114-an-obscure-gem-of-a-movie-review/ |website=D&CFilm|date=April 12, 2012}}
  • Elephant (2003)
  • Love Actually (2003){{Cite web |last=Barber |first=Nicholas |date=March 17, 2015 |title=Fragmentation games: the return of the portmanteau film |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/mar/17/portmanteau-films-wild-tales-pulp-fiction-short-cuts}}
  • 21 Grams (2003)
  • Cape of Good Hope (2004){{Cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=January 6, 2006 |title=Cape of Good Hope |work=Reviews |publisher=rogerebert.com |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/cape-of-good-hope-2006 |access-date=February 8, 2008}}
  • Crash (2004)
  • Happy Endings (2005)
  • Syriana (2005)
  • Nine Lives (2005){{cite web|url=http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2019/the-15-best-glenn-close-movie-performances |date=March 8, 2019 |title=The 15 Best Glenn Close Movie Performances |website=Taste of Cinema}}
  • Sin City (2005){{cite web|last=Page |first=Matt |date=June 20, 2005 |url=http://www.openheaven.org/news/243 |title=Film Review: Sin City |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725031520/http://www.openheaven.org/news/243 |archive-date=July 25, 2008 |website=Open Heaven Church |access-date=January 8, 2011}}
  • Inland Empire (2006){{Cite news |last=Jerslev |first=Anne |title=The post-perspectival: Screens and time in David Lynch's Inland Empire |journal=Journal of Aesthetics and Culture |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273009950 |date=March 2012}}
  • Look Both Ways (2006){{Cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |title=Look Both Ways |work=Chicago Sun-Times |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/look-both-ways-2006 |date=April 27, 2006 |access-date=July 12, 2022}}
  • Babel (2006){{Cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |date=September 22, 2007 |title=Babel |work=Reviews |publisher=rogerebert.com |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/babel-2006 |access-date=February 8, 2008}}
  • The Edge of Heaven (2007){{cite web|last=Skinner |first=Marjorie |date=September 4, 2008 |url=http://www.portlandmercury.com/film/the_celestial_prophecy/Content?oid=886902 |access-date=September 5, 2008 |title=The Celestial Prophecy : Living on The Edge of Heaven |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081215075725/http://www.portlandmercury.com/film/the_celestial_prophecy/Content?oid=886902 |archive-date=December 15, 2008 |url-status=dead |website=Portland Mercury}}
  • Rendition (2007){{cite web |last=Gandert |first=Sean |date=October 18, 2007 |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/action/article/5503/review/film/rendition |title=Rendition |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080224064922/http://www.pastemagazine.com/action/article/5503/review/film/rendition |archive-date=February 24, 2008 |work=Paste |access-date=February 8, 2008}}
  • Trick 'r Treat (2007)
  • You, the Living (2007)
  • The Air I Breathe (2008){{cite news|last=Holden |first=Stephen |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/movies/25brea.html |title=The Air I Breathe – Movie – Review |work=The New York Times |date=January 25, 2008 |access-date=May 13, 2008}}
  • Gomorrah (2008)
  • Vantage Point (2008){{cite web|last=Chang |first=Justin |author-link=Justin Chang |date=February 21, 2008 |url=https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117936282?refcatid=31 |title=Vantage Point |website=Variety |access-date=January 3, 2011}}
  • Ajami (2009){{cite web|last=Snider |first=Eric D. |date=February 16, 2010 |url=http://www.cinematical.com/2010/02/16/portland-film-fest-review-ajami/ |title=Portland Film Fest Review: Ajami |website=Cinematical |access-date=March 3, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100218124337/http://www.cinematical.com/2010/02/16/portland-film-fest-review-ajami/ |archive-date=February 18, 2010}}
  • Powder Blue (2009){{cite web|last=Anderson |first=Melissa |date=May 8, 2009 |url=https://variety.com/2009/film/reviews/powder-blue-1200507170/ |title=Powder Blue Review |website=Variety |access-date=July 21, 2010}}
  • Watchmen (2009){{cite news|last=Hiscock |first=John |date=February 25, 2009 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/4804627/Watchmen-film-review.html |title=Watchmen: the 'unfilmable' on screen |work=The Daily Telegraph |access-date=January 8, 2011 |url-access=registration}}{{cite web|last=Perkis |first=Ed |date=May 17, 2016 |url=https://www.cinemablend.com/dvds/Watchmen-Director-Cut-Blu-ray-4038.html |title=Watchmen Director's Cut Blu-ray Review |website=CinemaBlend |access-date=January 8, 2011}}
  • Hereafter (2010){{Cite news |title=REVIEW: Hereafter |work=Marshall and the Movies |url=http://marshallandthemovies.com/2010/11/04/hereafter/ |date=November 4, 2010}}
  • Answers to Nothing (2011){{Cite news |last=Osenlund |first=R. Kurt |date=December 2, 2011 |title=Answers to Nothing |work=Slant Magazine |url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/answers-to-nothing/ |access-date=October 16, 2019}}
  • Contagion (2011){{Cite web |last=Wickman |first=Forrest |date=September 9, 2011 |title=Steven Soderbergh's Contagion |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2303397/ |website=Slate}}
  • Cloud Atlas (2012){{cite news|last=LaSalle |first=Mick |author-link=Mick LaSalle |date=October 25, 2012 |url=http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Cloud-Atlas-review-Baring-your-soul-3981566.php |title='Cloud Atlas' review: Baring your soul |work=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=June 8, 2013}}
  • Disconnect (2012){{Cite news |last=Hachard |first=Thomas |date=April 7, 2013 |title=Disconnect |work=Slant Magazine |url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/disconnect |access-date=August 16, 2016}}
  • The Big Short (2015){{Cite web |last1=Kermode |first1=Mark |author-link=Mark Kermode |date=January 24, 2016 |title=The Big Short review – life with the Wall Street sharks |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/24/the-big-short-review-crash-riveting-steve-carell-christian-bale |work=The Guardian}}
  • Masaan (2015)
  • Dunkirk (2017)
  • Tumi Ashbe Bole (2021) {{Cite web|title=A conversation with Bonny and Koushani|url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/entertainment/a-conversation-with-bonny-sengupta-and-koushani-mukherjee/cid/1804219|access-date=2021-03-25|website=www.telegraphindia.com|archive-date=7 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210307062547/https://www.telegraphindia.com/entertainment/a-conversation-with-bonny-sengupta-and-koushani-mukherjee/cid/1804219|url-status=live}}
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022){{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/movies/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-review.html |title='Everything Everywhere All at Once' Review: It's Messy, and Glorious |website=NY Times |date=March 24, 2022}}
  • Bullet Train (2022){{cite web|url=https://screenhub.blog/2022/08/11/bullet-train-spoiler-free-review-screenhub-review/|title='Bullet Train' Spoiler Free Review - ScrenHub Review - ScreenHub Entertainment|date=August 11, 2022 }}
  • Sila Nerangalil Sila Manidhargal (2022){{cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/tamil/movie-reviews/sila-nerangalil-sila-manidhargal/movie-review/89138704.cms|title='Sila Nerangalil Sila Manidhargal' Review:A heartwarming tale about regret, remorse and realisation}}
  • Chow Chow Bath (2024)[https://www.timesnownews.com/entertainment-news/kannada/exclusive-kannadas-first-hyperlink-romcom-chow-chow-bath-completes-50-days-article Exclusive! Kannada's First Hyper-Link Rom-Com, Chow Chow Bath, Completes 50 Days - Times Now][https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/kenja-chethan-kumar-on-his-kannada-film-chow-chow-bath-it-is-a-hyperlink-film/article67941865.ece Kenja Chethan Kumar on ‘Chow Chow Bath’: It is a hyperlink film - The Hindu]

{{div col end}}

= Video games =

  • Suikoden III (2001){{Cite web|title=Suikoden III in-depth review|url=https://www.ignboards.com/threads/suikoden-iii-in-depth-review.28745817/|access-date=December 28, 2020|website=IGN Boards|date=October 11, 2002 |language=en-US}}
  • Indigo Prophecy (2005){{Cite web|title=Indigo Prophecy Review|url=https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/indigo-prophecy-review/1900-6134083/|date=September 21, 2005|access-date=December 28, 2020|website=GameSpot|language=en-US}}
  • Heavy Rain (2010){{Cite web|title=Interview: David Cage of Quantic Dream and Heavy Rain|url=https://www.engadget.com/2009-05-27-interview-david-cage-of-quantic-dream-and-heavy-rain.html|date=May 27, 2009|access-date=November 4, 2020|website=Engadget|language=en}}
  • Resident Evil 6 (2012){{Cite web|title=Resident Evil 6 HD Remaster Review – Not Worth The Replay Value|url=https://gamingbolt.com/resident-evil-6-hd-remaster-review|date=April 4, 2016|access-date=January 26, 2021|website=gamingbolt.com}}
  • Until Dawn (2015){{Cite web|date=August 31, 2015|title=Tips on how to save, or lose, all eight characters in Until Dawn|url=https://venturebeat.com/2015/08/31/tips-on-how-to-save-or-lose-all-eight-characters-in-until-dawn-massive-spoilers/|access-date=November 4, 2020|website=VentureBeat|language=en-US}}
  • Octopath Traveler (2018){{cite web|url=https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/octopath-traveler-forgettable-stories/ |title='Octopath Traveler' tells eight stories, and they're all forgettable |website=Digital Trends |date=July 18, 2018}}
  • Detroit: Become Human (2018){{Cite web|title=Detroit: Become Human Story and Ending Explained - Here's What Happened|url=https://gadgets.ndtv.com/games/features/detroit-plot-story-ending-spoilers-ps4-detroit-become-human-1857515|date=May 28, 2018|access-date=October 31, 2020|website=NDTV Gadgets 360|language=en}}

=Directors associated with hyperlink cinema=

See also

References

{{Reflist|30em}}

External links

  • [http://www.kottke.org/06/02/syriana Jason Kottke's explanation of the origin of the term]

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