tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post222804911813592841..comments2024-03-28T06:25:00.013-04:00Comments on Cockeyed Caravan: Storyteller's Rulebook #123: There’s More Than One Type of Storytelling IronyMatt Birdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07319984238456281734noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13294573.post-77429233059206875442012-02-27T22:22:24.636-05:002012-02-27T22:22:24.636-05:00Thanks for another classic and ridiculously useful...Thanks for another classic and ridiculously useful post, Matt.<br /><br />This weekend I saw an Austrian art film called MICHAEL that depended almost entirely on irony to keep the audience watching. The film is bleak procedural portrait of five months in the life of a seemingly average and boring insurance executive...who happens to be secretly keeping a kidnapped boy in his basement.<br /><br />The protagonist is the most chilling and repulsive kind of psychopath, a man who views everyone in his life as either an obstacle or a plaything and hides his sickness in plain sight behind the mask of normalcy. He could be your next door neighbor. <br /><br />So, short of Adolf Hitler, he's pretty much the most detestable and least relatable protagonist in the history of cinema.<br /><br />But the filmmaker keeps the audience hooked by inverting the standard dynamics of a paranoid thriller -- where the hero alone knows the truth and the rest of the world is some combination of ignorant and in-on-it. In MICHAEL, only the audience knows that the hero is living a lie and so we can't wait for the truth to out him and put an end to his abhorrent deeds.<br /><br />The irony of his evil secret imbues every single scene with an oppressive dread and a palpable suspense. A simple chat with coworkers or a side trip to the local store plays out like a nail-biting set piece.<br /><br />Every moment matters...As long as he keeps getting away with it, as long as he keeps his secret, we keep watching. Because we need him to get caught so badly.j.s.noreply@blogger.com