Anthology film
Encyclopedia
An anthology
film (also known as an omnibus film, package film, or portmanteau film) is a feature film
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 film
s, 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.
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 Actors 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), Creepshow
, Flesh and Fantasy (1943), Dead of Night (1945), and The Illustrated Man
(1968). The former helped to popularise 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. Another variation is when different sub-narratives share a common incident (usually a turning point), as in Amores perros
.
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 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.
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.
Other anthology films are Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her
and Nine Lives
both by writer-director Rodrigo García.
released in 1939, was the first anthology film in India.
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.
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. 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.
compilation of short subject
s in animation
. Adoor Gopalakrishnan
's Malayalam film Naalu Pennungal
(Four Women; 2007) is based on four different short stories, but had common elements and characters. Marathi film Gandh (The Smell; 2009), by Sachin Kundalkar is also a compilation of three short stories.
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
film (also known as an omnibus film, package film, or portmanteau film) is a feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
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
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
. These differ from "revue films" such as Paramount on Parade
Paramount on Parade
Paramount on Parade is a all-star revue released by Paramount Pictures, directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, Rowland V. Lee, A. Edward Sutherland, Victor Heerman, Lothar Mendes, Otto Brower, Edwin H...
(1930)—which were common in Hollywood in the early sound film
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
era to show off their stars and related vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
-style acts—composite film
Composite film
A composite film is a feature film whose screenplay is composed of two or more distinct stories. More generally, composite structure refers to an aesthetic principle in which the narrative structure relies on contiguity and linking rather than linearity...
s, and compilation films.
Sometimes there is a theme, such as a place (e.g. New York Stories
New York Stories
New York Stories is a 1989 anthology film; it consists of three shorts with the central theme being New York City.The first is Life Lessons, directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Richard Price and starring Nick Nolte. The second is Life Without Zoë, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and written by...
, Paris, je t'aime
Paris, je t'aime
Paris, Je t'aime is a 2006 anthology film starring an ensemble cast of actors of various nationalities. The two-hour film consists of eighteen short films set in different arrondissements...
), a person (e.g. Four Rooms
Four Rooms
Four Rooms is a 1995 portmanteau comedy film telling four stories set in a hotel in the US city of Los Angeles on New Year's Eve. Tim Roth stars as the principal character of the frame tale; he also takes part to some degree in all four stories....
), or a thing (e.g. Twenty Bucks
Twenty Bucks
Twenty Bucks is a 1993 film that follows the travels of a $20 bill from a crisp new note from the ATM in downtown Minneapolis through various transactions and incidents from person to person through the city....
, Coffee and Cigarettes
Coffee and Cigarettes
Coffee and Cigarettes is the title of three short films and a 2003 feature film by independent director Jim Jarmusch. The 2003 film consists of 11 short stories which share coffee and cigarettes as a common thread, and includes the earlier three films....
), that is present in each story and serves to bind them together. Two of the earliest films to use the form were Edmund Goulding
Edmund Goulding
Edmund Goulding was a British film writer and director. As an actor early in his career he was one of the 'Ghosts' in the 1922 British made Paramount silent Three Live Ghosts alongside Norman Kerry and Cyril Chadwick. Also in the early 20s he wrote several screenplays for star Mae Murray and...
's Grand Hotel
Grand Hotel (film)
Grand Hotel is a 1932 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding. The screenplay by William A. Drake and Béla Balázs is based on the 1930 play of the same title by Drake, who had adapted it from the 1929 novel Menschen im Hotel by Vicki Baum...
(1932), released by MGM with an all-star cast; and Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
's If I Had a Million
If I Had A Million
If I Had a Million is a Paramount Studios anthology film. There were seven directors: Ernst Lubitsch, Norman Taurog, Stephen Roberts, Norman Z. McLeod, James Cruze, William A. Seiter, and H. Bruce Humberstone...
(also 1932), featuring segments helmed by a number of directors.
European directors such as Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Rossellini was one of the directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing films such as Roma città aperta to the movement.-Early life:Born in Rome, Roberto Rossellini lived on the Via Ludovisi, where Benito Mussolini had...
directed anthology films such as L'Amore
L'Amore (film)
L'Amore is an anthology film directed by Roberto Rossellini starring Anna Magnani and Federico Fellini. The two segments are "Il Miracolo" and "Una Voce Umana", the latter based on the play The Human Voice by Jean Cocteau...
(segments: "Il Miracolo" and "Una voce umana") (1948), Les Sept péchés capitaux (segment: "Envie, L'Envy") (1952), Siamo donne
Siamo donne
We, the Women is a 1953 Italian pormanteau film divided into five segments and directed by five different directors. Four of these segments focus upon alleged events in the private lives of the film actresses Alida Valli, Ingrid Bergman, Isa Miranda, and Anna Magnani...
(segment: "Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
") (1953), and Amori di mezzo secolo (segment: "Napoli 1943") (1954). American studios soon followed with films like Quartet (1948
1948 in film
The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :...
) based on stories by W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...
. This led to two sequels, Trio
Trio (1950 film)
Trio is a 1950 British anthology film based on three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham: "The Verger", "Mr. Know-All" and "Sanatorium". Ken Annakin directed "The Verger" and "Mr...
(1950) and Encore
Encore (1951 film)
Encore is a 1951 anthology film composed of adaptations of three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham:*"The Ant and the Grasshopper", directed by Pat Jackson and adapted by T. E. B...
(1951), as well as imitators like O. Henry's Full House
O. Henry's Full House
O. Henry's Full House is an anthology film made by 20th Century Fox, consisting of five separate stories by O. Henry. The film was produced by André Hakim and directed by five separate directors from five separate screenplays. The music score was composed by Alfred Newman...
(1952) and Actors and Sin (1952).
Sometimes there is one "top-level" story, a framing device
Framing device
The term framing device refers to the usage of the same single action, scene, event, setting, or any element of significance at both the beginning and end of an artistic, musical, or literary work. The repeated element thus creates a ‘frame’ within which the main body of work can develop.The...
, which leads into the various "sub-stories", as in Tales of Manhattan
Tales of Manhattan
Tales of Manhattan is a 1942 American anthology film directed by Julien Duvivier. Thirteen writers, including Ben Hecht, Alan Campbell, Ferenc Molnár, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Donald Ogden Stewart worked on the six stories in this film.-Cast:...
(1942), Creepshow
Creepshow
Creepshow is a 1982 American horror anthology film directed by George A. Romero and written by Stephen King. The film's ensemble cast included Ted Danson, Leslie Nielsen, Hal Holbrook, E.G...
, Flesh and Fantasy (1943), Dead of Night (1945), and The Illustrated Man
The Illustrated Man
The Illustrated Man is a 1951 book of eighteen science fiction short stories by Ray Bradbury that explores the nature of mankind. While none of the stories has a plot or character connection with the next, a recurring theme is the conflict of the cold mechanics of technology and the psychology of...
(1968). The former helped to popularise the format for horror films—although they had existed as far back as Unheimliche Geschichten (1919)—and British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
company Amicus
Amicus Productions
Amicus Productions is a British film production company, based at Shepperton Studios, England. It was founded by American producer and screenwriter Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg.-Horror:...
made several such films in the 1960s and 1970s. Another variation is when different sub-narratives share a common incident (usually a turning point), as in Amores perros
Amores perros
Amores perros is a 2000 neorealist Mexican film, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Amores Perros is the first movie in Iñárritu's trilogy of death, and was followed by 21 Grams and Babel. It is a triptych; an anthology film, sometimes referred to as the "Mexican Pulp Fiction," containing...
.
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
's 1988 musical-fantasy film Moonwalker
Moonwalker
Moonwalker, also known as Michael Jackson: Moonwalker, is an American anthology film released in 1988 by singer Michael Jackson....
consisted of six short films, each based on a song from his album Bad
Bad (album)
Bad is the seventh studio album by American songwriter and recording artist Michael Jackson. The album was released on August 31, 1987 by Epic/CBS Records, nearly five years after Jackson's previous studio album, Thriller, which went on to become the world's best-selling album...
. The centerpiece of the film is the short film Smooth Criminal which is based on the song by the same name
Smooth Criminal
"Smooth Criminal" is the seventh single from Michael Jackson's 1987 Bad album. The song contains a fast-paced beat intertwined with Jackson's lyrics about a woman named Annie, who has been attacked in her apartment by a "smooth" assailant. It was released as a single on October 24, 1988 and peaked...
. Joe Pesci
Joe Pesci
Joseph Frank "Joe" Pesci is an American actor, comedian, and musician.He is known for playing a variety of different roles, from violent mobsters to comedic leads to quirky sidekicks...
co-stars in Smooth Criminal. The film was never released in theaters in the United States but it did run in theaters elsewhere.
The Red Violin
The Red Violin
The Red Violin is a 1998 Canadian drama film directed by François Girard. It spans three centuries and five countries as it tells the story of a mysterious violin and its many owners...
(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
The Yellow Rolls-Royce
-External links:, a promotional short subject for the film...
follows the owners of the titular vehicle.
Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
's 1956 all-dance film Invitation to the Dance
Invitation to the Dance (film)
Invitation to the Dance is a 1956 anthology film consisting of three distinct stories, all starring and directed by Gene Kelly.The film is unusual in that it has no spoken dialogue, with the characters performing their roles entirely through dance and mime...
consisted of three distinct stories, each different in tone and with its own plot line. Kelly appeared in each of the stories.
Four Rooms
Four Rooms
Four Rooms is a 1995 portmanteau comedy film telling four stories set in a hotel in the US city of Los Angeles on New Year's Eve. Tim Roth stars as the principal character of the frame tale; he also takes part to some degree in all four stories....
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
Please Do Not Disturb
Please Do Not Disturb is a 2010 tri-segmented Iranian anthology film written and directed by Mohsen Abdolvahab, starring Baran Kosari in the lead role. It is produced and cinematographed by Mohammad Ahmadi...
(2010) was a widely acclaimed tri-segmented Iranian anthology film.
Other anthology films are Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her
Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her
Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her is a film written and directed by Rodrigo García starring an ensemble cast. Garcías debut film was shown at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and won the Un Certain Regard Award...
and Nine Lives
Nine Lives (2005 film)
Nine Lives is a 2005 American drama film written and directed by Rodrigo García. The screenplay, an example of hyperlink cinema, relates nine short, loosely intertwined tales with nine different women at their cores. Their themes include parent-child relationships, fractured love, adultery,...
both by writer-director Rodrigo García.
In India
Sirikkathe, a Tamil filmTamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
released in 1939, was the first anthology film in India.
Chithramela
Chithramela
Chithramela is a 1967 Malayalam anthology film directed and produced by T .S. Muthiah. It was Malayalam cinema's first anthology film, consisting of three short films. The cast includes Prem Nazir, Sharada, Sheela, K. P. Ummer, Kottayam Chellappan, S. P...
, a Malayalam film directed by T. S. Muthaiah, and Kathasangama, a Kannada film directed by Puttanna Kanagal
Puttanna Kanagal
Puttanna Kanagal was one of the most prominent Kannada film directors of the 1960s and the 70s. Although the majority of his films were on offbeat or taboo subjects, he endeared himself to both the critics and ordinary film goers alike. He also directed a handful Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and...
in 1975, are some of the earliest portmanteau films from India.
Recent Anthology films from Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
include Ram Gopal Varma
Ram Gopal Varma
Ram Gopal Varma is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer...
's Darna Mana Hai
Darna Mana Hai
Darna Mana Hai is a Bollywood Anthology film, released on 25 July 2003. It was considered a unique and innovative attempt by producer Ram Gopal Varma and director Prawal Raman to provide Indian audiences with a horror film which consists of six different short stories...
and its sequel Darna Zaroori Hai
Darna Zaroori Hai
Darna Zaroori Hai is a Bollywood Anthology film released on 28 April 2006. It was considered a prequel to Darna Mana Hai which was also produced by RGV...
. Dus Kahaniyaan
Dus Kahaniyaan
Dus Kahaniyaan is a 2007 anthology Indian film comprising ten short films telling ten different stories which are directed by a host of six directors...
is also a noted portmanteau film from Bollywood.
In Tamil movies, Aayutha Ezhuthu, directed by Mani Ratnam and starring Suriya, R. Madhavan
R. Madhavan
R. Madhavan is an Indian actor, writer, film producer and television host. Madhavan has received a Filmfare Award, an award from the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards alongside recognition and nominations from other organisations...
, and Siddharth
Siddharth Narayan
Siddharth Suryanaraynan , popularly known and credited as Siddharth, is an Indian film actor, playback singer and screenplay writer. After his business management studies, Siddharth chose to work in film making and worked as an assistant director before making his acting debut in the 2003 Tamil...
in the lead roles, is also an anthology film.
An Indian Malayalam movie, Kerala Cafe
Kerala Cafe
Kerala Cafe is a Malayalam anthology film produced by Ranjith and directed by a team of ten directors including Lal Jose, Shaji Kailas, Anwar Rasheed, Shyamaprasad, B. Unnikrishnan, Revathy, Anjali Menon, M. Padmakumar, Shankar Ramakrishnan, and Uday Ananthan. For the first time in the history of...
(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. Yauvanam/Vandikkari (1974) and Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Moutatthu "Adoor" Gopalakrishnan Unnithan is an Indian film director, script writer, and producer. Adoor Gopalakrishnan had a major role in revolutionizing Malayalam cinema and is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of India.. Adoor's first film Swayamvaram pioneered the new wave cinema...
's Naalu Pennungal
Naalu Pennungal
Naalu Pennungal is a 2007 Malayalam film produced and directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan based on four short stories written by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai. The film stars Padmapriya, Geethu Mohandas, Manju Pillai, and Nandita Das in the major roles, and KPAC Lalitha, Mukesh, Manoj K...
(2007) are two other portmanteau films in Malayalam.
In Telugu movies, Vedam
Vedam (film)
Vedam is a 2010 Telugu drama film written and directed by Krish, starring Allu Arjun, Manoj Kumar Manchu, Anushka Shetty, Manoj Bajpai,Saranya Ponvannan, Deeksha Seth, Lekha Washington, and Siya Gautham. The film was critically acclaimed, received several accolades including four Filmfare Awards...
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.
Package film
Package film is a film consisting of several short films, often a feature-lengthFeature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
compilation of short subject
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
s in animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
. Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Moutatthu "Adoor" Gopalakrishnan Unnithan is an Indian film director, script writer, and producer. Adoor Gopalakrishnan had a major role in revolutionizing Malayalam cinema and is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of India.. Adoor's first film Swayamvaram pioneered the new wave cinema...
's Malayalam film Naalu Pennungal
Naalu Pennungal
Naalu Pennungal is a 2007 Malayalam film produced and directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan based on four short stories written by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai. The film stars Padmapriya, Geethu Mohandas, Manju Pillai, and Nandita Das in the major roles, and KPAC Lalitha, Mukesh, Manoj K...
(Four Women; 2007) is based on four different short stories, but had common elements and characters. Marathi film Gandh (The Smell; 2009), by Sachin Kundalkar is also a compilation of three short stories.
See also
- Composite filmComposite filmA composite film is a feature film whose screenplay is composed of two or more distinct stories. More generally, composite structure refers to an aesthetic principle in which the narrative structure relies on contiguity and linking rather than linearity...
- Hyperlink cinemaHyperlink cinemaHyperlink cinema is a term coined by author Alissa Quart, who used the term in her review of the film Happy Endings for the film journal Film Comment in 2005. Film critic Roger Ebert popularized the term when reviewing the film Syriana in 2005...
- Frame tale
- List of animated package films