{"product_id":"the-cinema-of-converging-lives-lucy-fischer-9780197768662","title":"The Cinema of Converging Lives: Complex Films and Intersecting Stories in an Isolated World","description":"What happens when strangers meet in film? \u003cem\u003eThe Cinema of Converging Lives\u003c\/em\u003e explores a group of films within an important category of complex film, a genre that critics have hailed as proliferating worldwide in the 1980s and 1990s and continuing today. Lucy Fischer examines a recurring trope within this category which portrays disparate characters, mostly unacquainted and introduced separately, who eventually and often unexpectedly cross paths.\u003cbr\u003eThe book focuses on underlying causes in each movie that drive the intersection of characters forward. It looks to 23 films by a diverse and international group of directors to consider how chance, coincidence, accident, history, geography, and the supernatural, as well as formal structures like metafiction and the circulation of possessions, drive these narratives. The book also highlights the irony of our clear interest in stories of converging lives on screen in an age of increasing isolation and loneliness. Finally, it offers a new look at complex film as a genre, including a discussion of the wide variety of plot patterns beyond those defined in this book. Providing in-depth case studies of this vital form of contemporary movie, a new conceptual approach to the investigation of the complex film, a summary of prior academic work on the topic, and important socio-cultural insight into the opposing notions of convergence and isolation, \u003cem\u003eThe Cinema of Converging Lives\u003c\/em\u003e will appeal to students and experienced film scholars alike.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Lucy Fischer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0197768660\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780197768662\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/17\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 232\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback","brand":"Lucy Fischer","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47243968053503,"sku":"9780197768662","price":39.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_c6d667db-e04c-4655-8865-949d28c9a6ab.jpg?v=1758134610","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-cinema-of-converging-lives-lucy-fischer-9780197768662","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}