Anthology film
An anthology film (also known as an omnibus film, package film, or portmanteau film) is a subgenre of films consisting of several different short films, often tied together by only a single theme, premise, or brief interlocking event (often a turning point). Sometimes each one is directed by a different director. These differ from "revue films" such as Paramount on Parade (1930)—which were common in Hollywood in the early sound film era to show off their stars and related vaudeville-style acts—composite films, and compilation films.
Sometimes there is a theme, such as a place (e.g. New York Stories, Paris, je t'aime), a person (e.g. Four Rooms), or a thing (e.g. Twenty Bucks, Coffee and Cigarettes), that is present in each story and serves to bind them together. Two of the earliest films to use the form were Edmund Goulding's Grand Hotel (1932), released by MGM with an all-star cast; and Paramount's If I Had a Million (also 1932), featuring segments helmed by a number of directors.
Examples
European directors such as Roberto Rossellini directed anthology films such as L'Amore (segments: "Il Miracolo" and "Una voce umana") (1948), Les Sept péchés capitaux (segment: "Envie, L'Envy") (1952), Siamo donne (segment: "Ingrid Bergman") (1953), and Amori di mezzo secolo (segment: "Napoli 1943") (1954). American studios soon followed with films like Quartet (1948) based on stories by W. Somerset Maugham. This led to two sequels, Trio (1950) and Encore (1951), as well as imitators like O. Henry's Full House (1952) and Actor's and Sin (1952).
Sometimes there is one "top-level" story, a framing device, which leads into the various "sub-stories", as in Tales of Manhattan (1942), Flesh and Fantasy (1943), Dead of Night (1945), and The Illustrated Man (1968). Dead of Night helped to popularize the format for horror films—although they had existed as far back as Unheimliche Geschichten (1919)—and British company Amicus made several such films in the 1960s and 1970s.
Michael Jackson's 1988 musical-fantasy film Moonwalker consisted of six short films, each based on a song from his album Bad. The centerpiece of the film is the short film Smooth Criminal which is based on the song by the same name. Joe Pesci co-stars in Smooth Criminal. The film was never released in theaters in the United States but it did run in theaters elsewhere.
The 1989 film New York Stories consists of three segments directed by Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen.
The Red Violin (1998) could also be considered a portmanteau film, since the storylines revolve around the various owners of a precious sixteenth-century violin through the centuries. Similarly, 1964's The Yellow Rolls-Royce follows the owners of the titular vehicle.
Gene Kelly's 1956 all-dance film Invitation to the Dance consisted of three distinct stories, each different in tone and with its own plot line. Kelly appeared in each of the stories as different characters.
Four Rooms is also an anthology film which follows the protagonist and his misadventures in four different rooms of a hotel. The four different segments (or rooms) were all directed by different directors.
Mohsen Abdolvahab's debut Please Do Not Disturb (2010) was a widely acclaimed tri-segmented Iranian anthology film.
Anthology films are often mistaken with hyperlink cinema. Hyperlink cinema shows bits of many stories throughout the movie, whereas anthology films show story segments of one at a time. Some mistaken examples include Pulp Fiction and Amores Perros, distributing their storylines non-chronologically, separated by segments.
In India
Sirikkathe, a Tamil film released in 1939, was the first anthology film in India.
The 1961 Bengali film Teen Kanya by Satyajit Ray, based on three short stories by Rabindranath Tagore, belongs to this genre.
Chithramela, a Malayalam film directed by T. S. Muthaiah, and Kathasangama, a Kannada film directed by Puttanna Kanagal in 1975, are some of the earliest portmanteau films from India.
Recent Anthology films from Bollywood include Ram Gopal Varma's Darna Mana Hai and its sequel Darna Zaroori Hai. Dus Kahaniyaan is also a noted portmanteau film from Bollywood.
Love Sex aur Dhokha, directed by Dibakar Banerjee also belong to this genre of films. While the characters of the part 'Sex' work in the supermarket, the characters of 'Love' and 'Dhokha' visits the market and acquainted with the protagonists of 'Sex'.
In Tamil movies, Aayutha Ezhuthu, directed by Mani Ratnam and starring Suriya, R. Madhavan, and Siddharth in the lead roles, is also an anthology film.
An Indian Malayalam movie, Kerala Cafe (2009) includes 10 different stories packed up in a single movie by Ranjith, a well known Malayalam film director. The ten stories are directed by ten directors and more importantly, every film has a different team for its making. Another Malayalam Example is 5 Sundarikal which had 5 Different Short-Movies. It also pays tribute to Indian film industry on its centenary. Yauvanam/Vandikkari (1974) and Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Naalu Pennungal (2007) are two other portmanteau films in Malayalam.
In Telugu movies, Vedam is a commercially successful Anthology directed by Radhakrishna Jagarlamudi, which tried to combine 5 different plots with the grand theme of redemption among a section of indifferent Indians, looking to attain success & fame through shortcuts. It was remade in Tamil as Vaanam in 2011. Chandamama Kathalu is also a good anthology film made in 2013.
Bombay Talkies is an Indian anthology film consisting of four short films, directed by Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar. The film was released on May 3, 2013, to mark the centenary year of Indian cinema.
Package film
Package film is a film consisting of several short films, often a feature-length compilation of short subjects in animation.
See also
- Anthology series, in radio and television
- Composite film
- Hyperlink cinema
- Frame tale
- List of animated package films