Now that the holidays are approaching, many people will be settling down to watch those movies which most consistently bring their viewers comfort. One of the most notable examples of this type of film is A Christmas Story, which only seems to grow more popular every year.
In addition to being a very self-aware form of fairy-tale holiday, the movie is also notable for its extensive use of a framing device. This is a convention that it shares with a number of other notable movies, all of which use some sort of narrative device to draw attention to the constructed-ness of stories.
The Princess Bride (1987)
Streaming On Disney+
The Princess Bride remains one of the most beloved movies of the 1980s. It’s easy to see why this might be the case, as it mixes together the classic elements of the fairytale with a winking knowingness toward the audience.
This is particularly evident in the framing device, which has a grandfather (played by the great Peter Falk) reading the story to his grandson (Fred Savage). It’s charming and touching in all the best ways, and the frame story reminds the audience that stories of this sort are enduringly popular precisely because they provide readers with an escape from the limits of the real world.
Big Fish (2004)
Stream On Prime Video
The best Tim Burton movies are those which combine the strange with the heartfelt, and this is precisely what makes Big Fish such a great part of his filmography. The frame story has a father relating his life to his son as he lays dying, and so the movie is about the latter’s attempt to determine just which parts of the story are true, particularly as they are so fantastical.
The movie skillfully blends together the whimsical and the evocative, and the ending in particular, which reveals that the stories are, in fact, true, is designed to be both heartbreaking and beautiful. In the end, the movie is about the tense relationships that often exist between children and their parents.
A Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Stream On Disney+
The Muppets are, of course, widely beloved, and they have been in many great movies. Arguably one of the best is A Muppet Christmas Carol which, as its title implies, is an adaptation of Charles Dickens's classic story.
Indeed, the entire movie is framed by Gonzo–-in his guise as Charles Dickens–who relates the story to Rizzo. There is something a little quaint and lovable about this particular framing device, particularly since it features the very wry and amusing banter between Gonzo and Rizzo. It is also what allows this to be one of the best, and most faithful, retellings of this most famous of Christmas stories.
The French Dispatch (2021)
Stream On Hulu
Wes Anderson has directed many great movies, and each time he imbues his movies with his own distinct visual style. There is always something quirky yet also heartfelt about his productions, and this is true of The French Dispatch.
All of its various stories are ed together by the framing device of the fictional Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, which is preparing for its final issue. In using this particular narrative conceit, the movie doubles as an homage to the pioneering work of journalists of the past, as well as the lost world of print culture and newspapers.
The Hours (2002)
Stream On Paramount+
The Hours is a truly haunting movie and is, in its own way, one of the best films of the 2000s. Like the novel on which it’s based, it is inspired by Virginia Woolf, in particular her novel Mrs. Dalloway, and the story is bookended by the author’s death by suicide.
Alternating as it does between various storylines and characters, the movie is actually quite thematically coherent. In particular, it highlights the many pressures that its female characters face as they contend with the ways that women are often delegitimized in various aspects of society and culture.
Synecdoche, New York (2008)
Stream On Vudu
The power of film lies, in part, in its ability to blur the boundaries between the real and the fictional. While this is often the subtext of film as a form, it is the centerpiece of the entire story of Synecdoche, New York, which focuses on a director whose commitment to realism in his productions forces both him and the viewer to interrogate the boundaries between the real and the unreal.
Among other things, the movie features a dynamic performance from the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. Its framing device allows it to interrogate the very meaning of individual life, and it encourages the viewer to do so as well.
Citizen Kane (1941)
Stream On HBO Max
Citizen Kane is often regarded as one of the best movies of all time. With an unforgettable performance from Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane, it is a searing investigation of American culture’s love of the individual.
However, its true brilliance lies in its framing device, which has a reporter attempting to get to the truth of who Kane truly was. The movie is, therefore, an interrogation of not just Kane the individual but also of the very mechanisms by which American culture fetishizes and lionizes its icons, and its unique narrative structure is an expansion of what the film medium can achieve.
Atonement (2008)
Stream On Prime Video
Atonement is a movie designed to break the viewer’s heart. At first, it seems as if it is a straightforward story about two lovers who are parted by are eventually reconciled, given the happy ending so common in Hollywood.
It turns out, however, that the entire film has, in fact, been the final novel of Briony, the sister of one of the two star-crossed lovers whose false testimony led to their separation. Suffering from dementia, she wishes to give her late sister and her lover the union they never achieved in life. It’s a framing device that is both absolutely brilliant and shattering at the same time.
The Lion King 1 1/2 (2004)
Stream On Disney+
For many, The Lion King ranks as among Disney’s best movies. It has been succeeded by several sequels, as well as a prequel/midquel, The Lion King 1 ½, which features Timon and Pumbaa watching the original movie and editorializing what they were doing at the same time.
It’s a very funny take on the original movie, and it punctures the self-importance and pompousness that sometimes accrues to The Lion King. What’s more, it’s fascinating to see just what two of the most beloved Disney sidekicks were doing while the heroes were occupying the center of the story.
