Diorama Movies
POSTED BY: JEWELSTAITEFAN
UPDATED: Friday, August 25, 2023 06:10
VIEWED: 2395
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Films with a scenes in one setting.
The most recent one I have seen in Cinema:
The Outfit (2022) starring Mark Rylance.
I enjoyed it. But I think I only saw it once.
I will also start a list of others I recall, plus others mentioned in this thread.
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I do believe I coined that term. 
Other movies:
Circle
Devil
Phone Booth
Inside
I know there's more I enjoyed. Those are the ones coming to my mind now.
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How you do anything is how you do everything.
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I never seen Phone Booth or The Outfit I might give them a watch.
A small stage, drama with a replicated scene, a small scifi or horror or drama set sometimes the movie seems to be what is enclosed in a glass showcase
The English Patient ... Diarrhea bowel Drama movements. I have never been able to watch it perhaps the movie can cure insomnia.
Blair Witch, personally I feel its crap I don't like it I think its a stupid film and someone with snot dripping out their nose in the woods.
The Platform I caught some of this and I think it was Spanish, I watched it for a bit its ok I didn't turn it off.
Rashomon mostly like a court room drama, psychological thriller-crime film the film flashes back and is re-told depending on the human persepective, their was either an assault or a rape or a bandit defends his own situation or there was a murdered samurai spending who is giving testimony...it had huge influence on story telling in Western movies
'Underwater' a good attempt, some interesting moment and has its bits of interesting sound, some good shots and fx and dialogue, not bad but not great either, enjoyable.
'Ghost Ship' kinda cheesy but has some horror jump scare ideas, I liked it.
'Misery' a miserable King story but great acting.
Truman Show a guy is raised inside a movie set, he becomes a tv hit but exploited to live inside a simulated reality.
Event Horizon, beyond weird and dark, if you never seen it maybe its like Hellraiser, Warhammer and Aliens all into one nu-horror genre and a blackhole dimension or lost ship plot.
Haunting of Hill House, a good tv show all set in one big house
2001 A Space Odyssey mostly on one ship, I think its a good movie and important movie but many hate it.
Solyaris, a Polish Soviet scifi drama, they are on space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris while the Living Planet might be distorting their mind causing hallucination. The movie was of political importance during its time it was remade in 2002 film with George Clooney, Natascha McElhone.
Rear Window almost all in one room an excellent movie even by today's standards
The second half of Hitchcock's Psycho is also mostly in one setting the Hotel.
'Jaws' the second half is mostly on one boat, a game of chess vs a monster the Shark
The Thing John Carpenter Remake stuck at the Pole with an Alien that can morph and mimic
The Hitcher, psychological horror and high-stakes drama mostly inside one car.
Locke ..a movie inside a car. Tom Hardy plays a character full of drama, leaves a construction site he's in the vehicle for the whole movie, lots of events and drama happening, difficult though for an actor to carry a film by himself yet he does but very good film
The Shining original mostly one weird supernatural drama horror hotel story, very well done.
Save the Green Planet a South Koreanfilm, beyond weird a loony-ish man with another loonish girl friend kidnap another man, they are convinced that the man they kidnapped is an alien
The Breakfast Club set in one 80s high school detention room.
Moon, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's energy needs.
The Lighthouse, two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity
Ron Howard's take on the historical events of 'Apollo 13' however they are in communication with ground control which makes it two settings not one.
Das Boot, War Drama but excellent movie
Also the more modern 'Hunter for Red October' or 'Crimson Tide'
I expect a Titan sub implosion movie soon
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Locke. Of course. Great example of a Diorama Movie.
I also just wrote that review for Alien Raiders in one of these threads a few weeks ago. Probably the low budget independent film thread. It had all the makings for something great, but fell on its face in the 3rd act.
Inside was last year with Willem Dafoe as an art thief that gets trapped inside a billionaire's apartment when he trips the security.
Devil took place almost entirely on an elevator. A rare M Knight Shamalyan movie that I liked, and I wouldn't have even watched it if it had his name on it but it came out when he'd been properly humbled.
Maybe you could put the Cube movies in here. It's a big spot, but every room looks the same pretty much.
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How you do anything is how you do everything.
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Quote:Yes, This thread is inspired by a post made by 6ix.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I do believe I coined that term.
Other movies:
Circle
Devil
Phone Booth
Inside
I know there's more I enjoyed. Those are the ones coming to my mind now.
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How you do anything is how you do everything.
Several years later.
I am not sure if Compliance qualifies. It takes place in a Fast Food Restaurant, but it does have more than one room. It was based upon a true story.
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There are likely quite a few sci-fi films with one setting, such as a spaceccraft. Alien might qualify, but not the sequels, I think.
ETA: This post originally said "Aliens" although I typed "Alien" - I have corrected it above.
The interview with Hugo Weaving - I don't recall if they ever left that room.
I have not seen Nefarious, but it sounds like almost all of it takes place in one room. And i still want to see it, it was out of theaters too quick.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
There are likely quite a few sci-fi films with one setting, such as a spaceccraft. Aliens might qualify, but not the sequels, I think.
The interview with Hugo Weaving - I don't recall if they ever left that room.
I have not seen Nefarious, but it sounds like almost all of it takes place in one room. And i still want to see it, it was out of theaters too quick.
I'm not really sure how to qualify this type of movie...
At first I'd say that Aliens doesn't fit the mold, but how could you say that when I consider Phone Booth part of the genre and although the protagonist is stuck in that booth all movie you also get constant shots of a few city blocks outside of the booth. Aliens probably would fit because of that feeling that you're trapped in the middle of space with no way out away from this thing. Paranoia and claustrophobia probably plays a big role in a lot of these movies, but not all of them. Locke had no reason to be paranoid about being in his car all movie.
Also, if Aliens doesn't fit, than that movie I watched recently called Alien Raiders wouldn't fit because it takes place inside a supermarket, and there are scenes in the back rooms.
But if Alien Raiders fits, than The Mist fits too...
And come to think of it, a movie like Speed could fit... although not the way that it was filmed with a lot of scenes from all around showing the outside of the bus, not to mention scenes of the police and Dennis Hopper outside of the bus. But had that movie been filmed in a way where the entire thing took place inside the bus after it started and you only saw their reactions to what Dennis Hopper and the police were saying to them over the phone?
I dunno. Maybe Phone Booth would be a subset of the genre? A place where movies like Aliens and Alien Raiders and The Mist could fit, but not make the genre too broad.
Circle, Devil and Locke absolutely fall into this genre.
And even though Willam Defoe's Inside takes place in the various rooms of a very rich person's very large high-rise condo, I still want to include that since besides a voice over the walkie talkie and a few moments inside of his head that might have just been false memories of a man who was driven insane by loneliness, I feel it still fits because the entire movie was just one man and his acting chops in that setting, and he was very much trapped inside even if he had a ton of room to lounge about and wait around until he starved to death or died of dehydration.
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How you do anything is how you do everything.
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Quote:I meant Alien. The sequel Aliens does not qualify, I think being on the Spacecraft, the planet surface, the planet headquarters, the planet Reactor, etc.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
There are likely quite a few sci-fi films with one setting, such as a spaceccraft. Aliens might qualify, but not the sequels, I think.
The interview with Hugo Weaving - I don't recall if they ever left that room.
I have not seen Nefarious, but it sounds like almost all of it takes place in one room. And i still want to see it, it was out of theaters too quick.
I'm not really sure how to qualify this type of movie...
At first I'd say that Aliens doesn't fit the mold, but how could you say that when I consider Phone Booth part of the genre and although the protagonist is stuck in that booth all movie you also get constant shots of a few city blocks outside of the booth. Aliens probably would fit because of that feeling that you're trapped in the middle of space with no way out away from this thing. Paranoia and claustrophobia probably plays a big role in a lot of these movies, but not all of them. Locke had no reason to be paranoid about being in his car all movie.
Also, if Aliens doesn't fit, than that movie I watched recently called Alien Raiders wouldn't fit because it takes place inside a supermarket, and there are scenes in the back rooms.
But if Alien Raiders fits, than The Mist fits too...
And come to think of it, a movie like Speed could fit... although not the way that it was filmed with a lot of scenes from all around showing the outside of the bus, not to mention scenes of the police and Dennis Hopper outside of the bus. But had that movie been filmed in a way where the entire thing took place inside the bus after it started and you only saw their reactions to what Dennis Hopper and the police were saying to them over the phone?
I dunno. Maybe Phone Booth would be a subset of the genre? A place where movies like Aliens and Alien Raiders and The Mist could fit, but not make the genre too broad.
Circle, Devil and Locke absolutely fall into this genre.
And even though Willam Defoe's Inside takes place in the various rooms of a very rich person's very large high-rise condo, I still want to include that since besides a voice over the walkie talkie and a few moments inside of his head that might have just been false memories of a man who was driven insane by loneliness, I feel it still fits because the entire movie was just one man and his acting chops in that setting, and he was very much trapped inside even if he had a ton of room to lounge about and wait around until he starved to death or died of dehydration.
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How you do anything is how you do everything.
If inside qualifies because it is in his mind, then Inception would be the same, and you said that jacob's Ladder was all in his drugged mind as well.
Passengers was on one ship, with 2 characters, although it was a huge craft, with many sets.
Castaway might qualify, although starting off on a runway and in a plane.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
I meant Alien. The sequel Aliens does not qualify, I think being on the Spacecraft, the planet surface, the planet headquarters, the planet Reactor, etc.
I meant Alien as well. If I typed Aliens by accident I didn't mean that. Aliens or Alien 3 or any of the other Aliens/Predator movies they made after that don't count.
Quote:
If inside qualifies because it is in his mind, then Inception would be the same, and you said that jacob's Ladder was all in his drugged mind as well.
That's not what I meant. 95% to 98% of the movie Inside takes place in that huge condo that he's trapped in. There are some "flashback" scenes that happen during the movie which is the only time you see any other actors beside Willem Dafoe. They seem more like dream sequences than something that happened in real life, and he only has these "memories" late into the movie when he's in really bad shape. These aren't scenes of him interacting with somebody while the events of the movie take place, and you get the feeling that they either didn't happen at all or they happened much differently than they're presented.
So no... Not like inception or Jacob's Ladder.
Come to think of it now though, it's a shame that maybe they didn't do more with the flashback scenes of Inside. In my review of the movie I said I wanted to love it, but I only liked it. It was too long. It seemed to have had all the pieces of a great movie but they just couldn't seem to put them together in the end. Perhaps a piece or two was missing. Maybe if they started putting some flashback scenes in there earlier that were quite normal and you were able to delve more into his gradual descent into insanity through his perception of past events it would have been the missing piece?
Quote:
Passengers was on one ship, with 2 characters, although it was a huge craft, with many sets.
Castaway might qualify, although starting off on a runway and in a plane.
I'm not familiar with Passengers. Castaway could probably fit.
I think the PERFECT diorama movie is hard to accomplish. There usually has to be some sort of establishing shots at some point. The movie Devil doesn't start with everyone in the elevator and focus only on the elevator the entire movie. Circle starts with everyone in one room and except for the last minute or so that is the focus of the entire movie.
Locke might be the only "perfect" diorama movie that i know... but then again, the complaint that I had about all the establishing shots outside of the bus on Speed is something Locke is guilty of too. The only visible acting taking place on Locke is the titular character talking on the phone to voices coming from the other end of his bluetooth radio the entire movie, but to break up the monotony of just one man acting in a car there are cuts to overhead scenes, filmed by helicopter or drone, of his car driving down the expressway. (And let's be real here... It's very likely not even shots of Tom Hardy driving a car.).
Maybe there needs to be some hard rules and soft rules made for the genre. Or like I suggested before several sub-categories for the genre. Because even in movies that I personally think are similarly great fits for the Diorama Movie label, they each have unique quirks that could qualify or disqualify other movies. And my opinion on these could be different than you opinions on them.
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How you do anything is how you do everything.
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Speed had early scenes at the High Rise Elevator rescue, then the Electrical Room, then at the villain's house, before Annie got on the bus.
While the bus circle the airport runway, they tracked down the villain elsewhere.
I was conjuring that you might fill me in with the criteria you envisioned for this category.
What rules make it the diorama film which you envisioned? What exceptions are allowable? How many exceptions?
Even panic Room started elsewhere.
The Outfit is currently the only one I can recall which was completely in on set - although there was more than one room, the door was almost always open from the filmed scene to the other room, in the background.
So, what way you?
That is the reason I have not listed any films. Waiting to iron out the criteria. Or the sub-criteria.
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