Stylish, narrative-light movies?
June 7, 2023 12:10 AM Subscribe
My favourite kind of comfort movie is visually and musically stylish, flows well, but is light on narrative. Exemplars are Luc Besson's Subway (1985), and Antonioni's Blow Up (1966). What other movies fit this vibe?
Edge case: The Blues Brothers (1980) looks and sounds great, is a great ride, but is possibly too narratively cohesive for what I'm trying to pin down here.
Where the story arrives at the end should almost not matter.
The Fifth Element! The plot is as dumb as hell but the costumes and sets, my goodness.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 1:13 AM on June 7, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 1:13 AM on June 7, 2023 [8 favorites]
The Limits of Control? The plot is Issach de Bankolé looks great in a suit and drinks espresso, exchanges matchboxes with & has cryptic conversations with people.
posted by juv3nal at 1:21 AM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by juv3nal at 1:21 AM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
In the Mood for Love is a gorgeous, quiet film without a lot of plot. The two leads and their outfits are so enjoyable to watch.
posted by emd3737 at 1:40 AM on June 7, 2023 [10 favorites]
posted by emd3737 at 1:40 AM on June 7, 2023 [10 favorites]
I see I'm not the only one here who immediately thought of Jim Jarmusch. Your mention of Subway also puts me in mind of Diva (1981), as they were both part of a mini-movement in 80s French film called 'cinéma du look'.
posted by theory at 1:46 AM on June 7, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by theory at 1:46 AM on June 7, 2023 [6 favorites]
I'm watching Fame (1980) right now.
It's a series of vignettes, without a ton of narrative cohesion. And while it's not a spectacle, it has a strong aesthetic.
posted by champers at 2:20 AM on June 7, 2023 [5 favorites]
It's a series of vignettes, without a ton of narrative cohesion. And while it's not a spectacle, it has a strong aesthetic.
posted by champers at 2:20 AM on June 7, 2023 [5 favorites]
Cléo de 5 à 7!
posted by lokta at 2:47 AM on June 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by lokta at 2:47 AM on June 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
Bleu, part of Kiezlowski's Three Colors trilogy might fit.
posted by vacapinta at 3:04 AM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by vacapinta at 3:04 AM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
No Country for Old Men is visually and aurally stunning (although not so much with music as with the soundscape).
There is a plot and narrative, but there are also ambiguities and the ending really doesn't matter. Plenty of periods of silence and subtle, hard-to-read facial expression changes. I've watched it repeatedly just for the silent aesthetic.
posted by underclocked at 3:16 AM on June 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
There is a plot and narrative, but there are also ambiguities and the ending really doesn't matter. Plenty of periods of silence and subtle, hard-to-read facial expression changes. I've watched it repeatedly just for the silent aesthetic.
posted by underclocked at 3:16 AM on June 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
Blue in the Face is a companion piece to Smoke, but its much more little vignettes about the cigar store and the characters. Light and charming.
I was also thinking about Peter Greenaway's films, although I wouldn't call them comfort watching because the themes are often very dark, but they have a tremendous visual style, great music, and the plot is very much an afterthought. I'd maybe try Drowning by Numbers or The Draughtsmans Contract.
posted by crocomancer at 3:58 AM on June 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
I was also thinking about Peter Greenaway's films, although I wouldn't call them comfort watching because the themes are often very dark, but they have a tremendous visual style, great music, and the plot is very much an afterthought. I'd maybe try Drowning by Numbers or The Draughtsmans Contract.
posted by crocomancer at 3:58 AM on June 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
Tampopo sounds like what you’re looking for
After Hours is one of my all-time favorites
I know The Age of Innocence has a solid plot, but I can’t remember it mattering as much as the overwhelming Wharton of it all.
If kids movies are allowed, then Babe.
posted by Mchelly at 4:47 AM on June 7, 2023 [6 favorites]
After Hours is one of my all-time favorites
I know The Age of Innocence has a solid plot, but I can’t remember it mattering as much as the overwhelming Wharton of it all.
If kids movies are allowed, then Babe.
posted by Mchelly at 4:47 AM on June 7, 2023 [6 favorites]
My Neighbour Totoro
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:59 AM on June 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:59 AM on June 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
What about the entirely narrative-free Qatsi trilogy? Documentary with stunning imagery, albeit very slow-moving, scored to a fantastic soundtrack by Philip Glass.
Others that may fit the bill is Run Lola Run (almost a music video) and Paris, Texas (beautiful blues guitar soundtrack by Ry Cooder).
Definitely Jim Jarmusch movies, such as Night On Earth and Stranger Than Paradise. But you might find them too slow.
Someone has already mentioned In the Mood for Love. You can also try other Wong Kar-wai films like Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, and 2046.
If anime is an option, try Birth (1984) by Shinya Sadamitsu. It's almost narrative-free, just amazing kinetic imagery and a great soundtrack by Studio Ghibli veteran Joe Hisaishi.
And the animated short The Monk and the Fish – it's just 6 minutes long, but I could play this on repeat for an hour.
posted by snarfois at 5:10 AM on June 7, 2023 [7 favorites]
Others that may fit the bill is Run Lola Run (almost a music video) and Paris, Texas (beautiful blues guitar soundtrack by Ry Cooder).
Definitely Jim Jarmusch movies, such as Night On Earth and Stranger Than Paradise. But you might find them too slow.
Someone has already mentioned In the Mood for Love. You can also try other Wong Kar-wai films like Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, and 2046.
If anime is an option, try Birth (1984) by Shinya Sadamitsu. It's almost narrative-free, just amazing kinetic imagery and a great soundtrack by Studio Ghibli veteran Joe Hisaishi.
And the animated short The Monk and the Fish – it's just 6 minutes long, but I could play this on repeat for an hour.
posted by snarfois at 5:10 AM on June 7, 2023 [7 favorites]
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
posted by phunniemee at 6:08 AM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 6:08 AM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
Waking Life.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 6:44 AM on June 7, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 6:44 AM on June 7, 2023 [6 favorites]
Picnic at Hanging Rock, 1975 by Peter Weir. Some schoolgirls go on a picnic in Australia. Near a rock. If there was a plot I don't recall it.
2001: A Space Odyssey is slow, gorgeous, and mostly incomprehensible.
posted by trevor_case at 6:52 AM on June 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
2001: A Space Odyssey is slow, gorgeous, and mostly incomprehensible.
posted by trevor_case at 6:52 AM on June 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
I like Lost in Translation for this sort of feel.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:23 AM on June 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:23 AM on June 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
I’m a bit baffled by some of the answers here. OK, Diva and Lost In Translation I can totally understand, given that Subway is one of OP’s examples. In the kinda-roughly the same vein, I might suggest Les Amants du Pont Neuf - on the grounds that for all of those movies, the over-riding sense is of a mood, rather than a narrative.
But, The Third Man? In the Mood for Love?? Those are two of the most emotionally dense & gripping stories I’ve ever seen in the movies. You could probably let them both slide over you, as you bask in the images & the soundtrack? But, you’d be wasting them. Take them seriously.
posted by Puppy McSock at 7:55 AM on June 7, 2023 [6 favorites]
But, The Third Man? In the Mood for Love?? Those are two of the most emotionally dense & gripping stories I’ve ever seen in the movies. You could probably let them both slide over you, as you bask in the images & the soundtrack? But, you’d be wasting them. Take them seriously.
posted by Puppy McSock at 7:55 AM on June 7, 2023 [6 favorites]
IMO Go and Swingers have this vibe. The end of Swingers is about a guy getting a date. That's a pretty light story. It's also musically driven, if you can handle the new-swing music in it.
Go is about a group of people who work at a grocery store. Some of them go to a rave, so that's the style of music played throughout. It's a 'day in the life' sort of story, like Pulp Fiction.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:08 AM on June 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
Go is about a group of people who work at a grocery store. Some of them go to a rave, so that's the style of music played throughout. It's a 'day in the life' sort of story, like Pulp Fiction.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:08 AM on June 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
My narrative-light comfort film is David Byrne's True Stories (trailer).
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 8:27 AM on June 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 8:27 AM on June 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
If Blues Brothers is an Edge case then Empire Records should be juuuust inside.
posted by wellifyouinsist at 8:42 AM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by wellifyouinsist at 8:42 AM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
Lots of Guy Maddin would work, especially The Saddest Music in the World. Or Baz Luhrman, especially Strictly Ballroom.
posted by miles per flower at 8:51 AM on June 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by miles per flower at 8:51 AM on June 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
A Room With a View
Pride and Prejudice with Matthew McFadden is beautiful.
posted by Enid Lareg at 10:01 AM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
Pride and Prejudice with Matthew McFadden is beautiful.
posted by Enid Lareg at 10:01 AM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
It’s been a while but Elvira Madigan (1967)? Danish tightrope dancer meets married Swedish cavalry officer and they run away together. Sunlit meadows, straw hats, Mozart. Subtitles; the English dubbed version is awful.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 11:29 AM on June 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by TWinbrook8 at 11:29 AM on June 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Easy Rider was stylish on both counts for 1969, and is definitely narriatively ambiguous.
posted by credulous at 1:58 PM on June 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by credulous at 1:58 PM on June 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'd suggest Allegro Non Troppo, Bruno Bozzetto's response to Fantasia— equally stunning, and not so cloying.
A lot of the suggestions here seem to not so much "no plot" as "you can ignore the plot and just groove on the visuals"; in that spirit you could try Blade Runner or Princess Mononoke.
Oh, and more Besson: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. It's beautiful, just ignore the dialog.
posted by zompist at 2:23 PM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
A lot of the suggestions here seem to not so much "no plot" as "you can ignore the plot and just groove on the visuals"; in that spirit you could try Blade Runner or Princess Mononoke.
Oh, and more Besson: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. It's beautiful, just ignore the dialog.
posted by zompist at 2:23 PM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
Stylish: City of Lost Children, and "Brazil."
posted by Rash at 2:34 PM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Rash at 2:34 PM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
And for light on narrative, how about Stalker?
posted by Rash at 2:38 PM on June 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Rash at 2:38 PM on June 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Moulin Rouge and Velvet Goldmine come to mind. Boogie Nights is my favorite "stylish" comfort movie. The plot is actually pretty good but it takes a backseat to the visuals/soundtrack/characters.
posted by Jess the Mess at 3:06 PM on June 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Jess the Mess at 3:06 PM on June 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
FWIW, Smokey and the Bandit has almost no plot and barely any scripted dialogue, though *I* would not call it stylish.
posted by credulous at 8:39 PM on June 7, 2023
posted by credulous at 8:39 PM on June 7, 2023
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posted by charles kaapjes at 12:28 AM on June 7, 2023 [3 favorites]