*Mind Games and Puzzle Films* [Track S] Recent years have seen a surprising number of films gaining both popularity and critical acclaim which leave the spectators baffled, confused and unsure of whether what they saw was on the screen or in their minds. Films like Memento, The Sixth Sense, A Beautiful Mind, Bin-Jip, The Life of Pi, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Donnie Darko, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive and many others, feature convoluted plots and labyrinthine narratives, characters that seem neither alive nor dead, and visuals (whether generated digitally or shot on actual locations) that are as spellbindingly seductive as they are deceptive or indecipherable. A number of books have begun to investigate these films, focusing on parallel worlds, forking path narratives and puzzling storytelling. The course will examine and explore the complexities of these new cinematic fictional worlds. It will ask what can account for this interest in multiple storylines, and why do audiences enjoy being challenged in their perception of what is real, imagined or purposely misleading? If the impact of digital media is clearly one of the reasons, do these films also tell us something about the effects of social networks on interpersonal interaction and the ways we perceive the world? [Track S]