Through scripting and directing, movies are able to break boundaries and push their industry further and further. One of these was Magnolia.
Contemporary cinematography contains a variety of narrative models. One of them, relationships structure, is considered to be sophisticated in a release.
A `domino effect` means when the lines intertwined, incurring consequences if the changes affect some of them.
In other words, we see how the heroes interacted in other episodes, time gaps and even countries, later connecting them together by accident or life.
Here each acting storyline value a lot, in consequence, generates the finale. This type of structure gives the audience a sense that our lives can be incredibly interconnected.
The causes and effects of actions influence the lives of other people. If we skip one storyline or character, the whole story won’t work.
A script with a structured relationship involves the audience, as it captures the reader from the very beginning, wondering whether the reality of these stories and characters are related.
Magnolia directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and released in 1999. This drama has a clear model of relationship structure technique.
It was a comprehensive story with eight others included. As a result, the chain occurring around the television society, like one common element, catches the attention.
Paul Anderson pushed the plot with the case of killing and suicide of a young man, who was seemingly killed accidentally by his mother while flying down from the roof of the building.
The Plot of Magnolia
A dying old man was dreaming to see his son for the last time. Many years ago, he left him with a severely ill mother.
For a long-time, this son (played by Tom Cruise) rejected the fact of a father escaping out of his biography, in revenge, became successful on TV – host and life coach, whose course forced the wildest instincts among other men.
A wife of this dying old man, who never met her stepson, found herself at the edge of suicide, realising an utter love for the dying husband.
She’s always considering that she got married to him because of the money and influence.
Simultaneously, a wife from another family refuses her husband, as he had seduced thoughts about their daughter. The daughter, who became addicted to heroin, started a relationship with a policeman.
Her father is a famous TV-host of the Q&A programme, where he’s been bumping the heads of adults and children.
A superstar of that programme, a boy, who keeps his hand to himself in the simple desire instead of playing a highly intellectual game. He wanted to go to the toilet, at least. But no one cares about that.
They all endure waiting for the highest boiling point and completing the bursting rage of patience extinguishes the rain of frogs.
The Effect of the Domino?
The film lasts three whole hours. One can understand the transformation of the plot under the influence of the heroes’ decisions. And what’s interesting is there are no protagonists and secondary roles.
We can see a symbolic picture of magnolia on the walls (well, yet we look attentively). Like a unifying prototype, it was something very similar as if the meetings take place according to the designated landmarks.
All could happen while everything is not an occasion.
The Frogs
OK, the rain of frogs. Who can even call the fact that amphibians are flying from the sky by chance?
Well, for example, such a phenomenon in history was described. From a philosophical point of view, the rain of frogs is nothing more than a coincidence of the unreal possibility – anything can happen.
Photos: Shutterstock
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