Expertise Project

The Mind-Game Film

Thomas Elsaesser

The Thesis: Mind game films are a phenomenon instead of a new genre in and of itself because they represent an evolution of the film genre. They expand on the solely visual narrative into a text that both shows a narrative and forces the audience to interact with the production, making mind game films an evolution of film as an art form (especially genres like science fiction, horror  teen film and film noir), not a genre of its own.

What is a mind game film?

There are two levels:

            1: Information is withheld or ambiguously presented in order to play games with the character (The Game, Se7en)

            2: Information is withheld or ambiguously presented in order to play games with the audience (The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, Memento)

            The film may also combine 1 and 2 to withhold from both the audience and the character (The 6^th Sense, The Others)

            This also refers to unreliable narrators that are mentally compromised

All mind game films intend to play a trick in some way on the viewer.

Motifs recognizable in Mind Game Film;

            -A suspension of cause and effect if not outright reversal of linear progression (Memento, Donnie Darko,Lost Highway)

            -Lines are blurred between reality and imagination, reality is questioned, said reality tends to be nothing more than a simulation. Sometimes protagonist has a friend, companion or mentor that turns out to be imagined (Fight Club, A Beautiful Mind, Donnie Darko)

            -Protagonist questions existence of himself (The Sixth Sense, The Others, Blade Runner)

            -A character is unsure or mistaken about the existence of parallel worlds based on mistaken cognitive perception. Character is often convinced by family, friends or doctors that someone, often a child, does not or did not exist.

A mind game film must suspend the contract between film and viewer, which is that the film will not “lie” to the spectator, but are truthful and self-consistent within the premises of their diegetic world.

Argument:

            A mind game film cannot be its own genre because it brings no new stories to the table, but presents them in a different way.  “Narratologists tend to perceive mind-game films either as occasions for refining existing classifications or as challenges to prove that there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to storytelling” (21)

“Computer driven and internet demands for more “dynamic” and “real-time” feedback and response are putting pressure even on (post)-modernist narrative.” (23).

Meaning the demand by consumers for surprises and interpretation to be readily available,; the consumer needs the film to ask them to rise to the challenge, but also to give a motivation to interact with the film.

The mind game film is advantageous for the young mind to interpret the world in varied ways. They teach appropriate ways to navigate issues of automated surveillance and control. (33)

The appeal stems from a duality of interpretation. These films can be viewed from an outsider looking in, academically dissecting the film and therefore the world it is situated in. It can also be discussed as its own world with presupposed rules that aren’t questioned. These discussions ignore the fictional contract and accept the world as real life, focusing on what internally goes on there, not addressing the world itself. (45)

Pathologies:

Often used as a device to “reboot” consciousness. What we later find out to be insanity is presented to the audience as normal. The audience originally accepts this unstable character’s perception and therefore the later discovery heightens the mind game.

3 Types:

            Paranoia

                        -Conspiracy theory movies. They can represent the “paranoid women” movies that the motif section discussed who are assured by family and friends nothing is abnormal, but the protagonist is suspicious. (The Forgotten, Flight Plan)

            Schizophrenia

                        -Where the protagonist’s delusional or imaginary world becomes melded with the “real” world. The audience, like the narrator is unable to distinguish between real and imaginary. (A Beautiful Mind)

            Amnesia

                        -An amnesiac hero is easy to program by other characters, he retains basic instincts and therefore can be used for others’ purposes. The audience, like the hero, is programmed to emotionally react with the hero and does not know they are being deceived until the hero does.

These disabilities are not always represented as hindrances, but advantages in the world the movie creates by tapping into some other world, intuitive thinking or protest movements. Within the world of the film, they are treated as “productive pathologies.”

In conclusion:

The new contract between audience and film no longer relies solely on passive voyeurism; instead it is based on engagement between film and audience where specific rules are established.