How about The Diary of Anne Frank?
Or Watchmen?
yes, that would count.
i’m not sure why this is in ‘garage’ though – it’s simply another topic / call for film lists…
the diary format is used so extensively that it’d be interesting to explore it by picking out a good few. it’s interesting from a structural view point, historically and also simply because some of the most beautiful stories have been told through this device.
Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest and Pickpocket.
Paul Schrader’s Light Sleeper and the screenplay he wrote for Scorsese’s Taxi Driver
Isn’t A Man Escaped also based on a diary?
Yeah, it was.
Bent Hamer’s Factotum is another.
David Holzman’s Diary is one of most interesting films from the late-60’s, if viewed through a modern lens… the proto-“mumblecore” film, and harbinger of all things webcam.
coppola’s The Outsiders. i like factotum.
you beat me to it Eraserhead . . . "when I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house . . . " and then that tune pops into my head!!! blast! it’ll be in there for days!
yes, david holzman’s diary was well ahead of its time in a way – it kind of predicted how we’d take portable cameras to the extreme. would be great to do a remake, and adapt it to today’s times… he’d be posting all the clips of his girlfriend on youtube, for sure.
other diary films – badlands is told through an invisible diary, right?
Warren Sonbert — Carriage Trade
Maybe Henry and June. It’s based on the book by famous diarist Anais Nin, but I don’t recall if she narrates the film as a diary.
Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation
VVS
Can you think of diary films, and films that use ‘the diary’ as a narrative device. What comes to mind?
I could start with:
Shirley Clarke – Portrait of Jason
Jim McBride – David Holzman’s Diary
Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez – The Blair Witch Project
Jonas Mekas – Walden (and everything else he does)
Ian Breakwell – his video diaries
John Smith – Hotel Diaries
William Wyler (and subsequent directors) – Wuthering Heights
Carol Morley – The Alcohol Years