It probably helps that even non-interactive moving images (fka TV) became more puzzle-like thanks to VOD replayability and social viewing on the internet. Putting together Rick and Morty's convoluted story arcs is experientially not too different from playing Immortality.

Paolo Pedercini

@molleindustria

Believe the hype: Immortality is a unique cinematic experience, a compelling puzzle, and an incredible accomplishment in nonlinear storytelling!
http://halfmermaid.co/

9/12/2022, 8:34:26 AM

Favs: 121

Retweets: 19

link

Paolo Pedercini

@molleindustria

Compared to the predecessors Her Story and Telling Lies, the navigation by visual correspondences feels much more random, but only if you click on faces and obvious things.
The crucial stuff is reached by taking the idea of "match cut" seriously, and looking for symbolic objects

9/12/2022, 8:48:24 AM

Favs: 16

Retweets: 0

link

Paolo Pedercini

@molleindustria

Overall it felt a bit too much content to sift through, it's like assembling 5 jigsaw puzzles mixed together. Reconstructing the events and making sense of all the allusions requires repeated views of long clips in a sprawling archive. Exhausting, unless you are OBSESSED with it.

9/12/2022, 9:00:06 AM

Favs: 12

Retweets: 0

link

Paolo Pedercini

@molleindustria

But I respect the vision: the scale and lack of editing makes it feel like a real cache of found footage.
The mysteries/goals are conceptual and self-determined. I reached the credits after 9 hours with still a few questions, but it felt like a complete and fulfilling experience

9/12/2022, 9:13:00 AM

Favs: 11

Retweets: 0

link

Paolo Pedercini

@molleindustria

Academic note: Sam Barlow's works are not Full Motion Video (FMV), that is just a technique! They are closer to what Lev Manovich called Database cinema or Soft cinema, a format that has been around for at least 2 decades, but only in experimental film and video art circles...

9/12/2022, 9:17:24 AM

Favs: 33

Retweets: 4

link

Paolo Pedercini

@molleindustria

...these interactive/dynamic film experiments remained marginal because of the non-standard format, and bc honestly: who wants to watch a deconstructed film without agency, without a goal?
By positioning his work in (or adjacent to) games, Barlow kind of fixed both problems...

9/12/2022, 9:25:09 AM

Favs: 14

Retweets: 2

link

Paolo Pedercini

@molleindustria

It probably helps that even non-interactive moving images (fka TV) became more puzzle-like thanks to VOD replayability and social viewing on the internet. Putting together Rick and Morty's convoluted story arcs is experientially not too different from playing Immortality.

9/12/2022, 9:36:24 AM

Favs: 10

Retweets: 0

link

Paolo Pedercini

@molleindustria

*And sorry for the old habit of attributing everything to the individual writer/director. Immortality seems like a monumental production effort, and the quality of the live action scenes, acting and all, is unprecedented in games.

9/12/2022, 9:49:35 AM

Favs: 13

Retweets: 1

link