ABSTRACT
Story progression in narrative cinema follows established sets of rules polished over decades of film practice, oriented at presenting verisimilar worlds. This production system follows a storytelling structure and economy based on cause-effect logic and efficiency. Play is a powerful way of interfering constructively with established cinematic conventions. Where causal logic calls for strict consequentiality, ludic filmmakers actively neglect taking cause-effect too seriously. Where narrative economy calls for precise and efficient filmmaking, playful filmmakers scatter their worlds with unjustified or digressive elements. Play, through its fundamental autotelic quality, is a unique way to confront and jestingly probe the filmic conventional structure – based on logical goal reaching paired with formal seamlessness and affected by growing stenosis. It is a form of resistance to rigidly structured narratives, it is not, however, a new genre or canon; on the contrary it proposes constant reinvention and it roams all possible genres. Ludic films present worlds no less convincing or evocative than classic realist works do, while sustaining a lively vision of story and inciting diversity of form and content.
