Through a Glass Darkly

One of my favorite series of books as a child was the collection Choose your Own Adventure, where you choose the direction the plotline would take. If you choose correctly, there was a happy ending. If you choose poorly, well you might end up dead.

Film has great power in that it can show us different perspectives. In real life, we are locked into our bodies and confined to viewing the world through our own eyes. Movies can release us from that restriction and show us things through other characters’ perspectives.

For example, the great Christopher Nolan film Memento has an unusual perspective of telling the story backwards from a character suffering from short-term memory loss.

The following is a list of movies that distort normal perspective:

Melinda and Melinda – Characters sitting around a dinner table debate whether life is a comedy or tragedy. To illustrate each other’s point, they tell a simple story; one from a comedic point of view, and on the flip side, a tragic point of view. Directed by Woody Allen.

Rashomon – Classic movie directed by Akira Kurosawa. A murder takes place in ancient Japan, and four different viewpoints are given, each with a different perspective. This movie begs the question – what is truth?

Run Lola Run – A young lady has twenty minutes to pay back money owed to some gangsters, or her boyfriend will be killed. The film presents us with three different scenarios. With only an 88 minute running time, this movie is extremely fast-paced.

The Usual Suspects – Great caper-gone-wrong film taken from the point of view from one of the suspects. I won’t spoil anymore plot details, but put this on your NetFlix if you have not seen it yet.

Short Cuts –Intersecting day in the life tales of Los Angeles residents, woven together by the late Robert Altman.

Blow Up – A 60's mod London photographer bored with his life thinks he has witnessed a murder captured in a picture he has taken. With each enlargement of the negatives, he slowly puts together the puzzle.

Being John Malkovich – A movie that literally gets inside a character’s head; real life actor John Malkovich.

Sliding Doors – Everyone’s life can be dramatically changed if your timing was off for just a few seconds. A great ‘what if’ movie starring Gwenyth Paltrow that shows two parallel stories; each showing a different decision.

No telling what my life would be like if I had chosen puppeteering as my profession.