Postmodernist film

Postmodernist film like postmodernism itself is a reaction to modernist cinema and its tendencies. Modernist cinema, "explored and exposed the formal concerns of the medium by placing them at the forefront of consciousness. Modernist cinema questions and made visible the meaning-production practices of film." The auteur theory and idea of an author producing a work from his singular vision guided the concerns of modernist film. "To investigate the transparency of the image is modernist but to undermine its reference to reality is to engage with the aesthetics of postmodernism. The modernist film has more faith in the author, the individual, and the accessibility of reality itself than the postmodernist film.
Postmodernism is in many ways interested in the liminal space that would be typically ignored by more modernist or traditionally narrative offerings. The idea is that the meaning is often generated most productively through the spaces and transitions and collisions between words and moments and images. Henri Bergson writes in his book Creative Evolution, "The obscurity is cleared up, the contradiction vanishes, as soon as we place ourselves along the transition, in order to distinguish states in it by making cross cuts therein in thoughts. The reason is that there is more in the transition than the series of states, that is to say, the possible cuts--more in the movement than the series of position, that is to say, the possible stops."The thrust of this argument is that the spaces between the words or the cuts in a film create just as much meaning as the words or scenes themselves.
Postmodernist film typically has three key characteristics that separate it from modernist cinema or traditional narrative film. 1) The pastiche of many genres and styles. Essentially, this means that postmodern films are comfortable with mixing together many disparate kinds of film(styles, etc.) and ways of film-making together into the same movie. 2) A self-reflexivity of technique that highlights the construction and relation of the image to other images in media and not to any kind of external reality. This is done by highlighting the constructed nature of the image in ways that directly reference its production and also by explicit intertextuality that incorporates or references other media and texts. The deconstruction and fragmentation of linear time as well is also commonly employed to highlight the constructed nature of what appears on screen. 3) An undoing and collapse of the distinction between high and low art styles and techniques and texts.This is also an extension of the tendency towards pastiche and mixing. It typically extends to a mixing of techniques that traditionally come with value judgments as to their worth and place in culture and the creative and artistic spheres.
Lastly, contradictions among technique, values, styles, methods, and so on are important to postmodernism and are many cases irreconcilable. Any theory of postmodern film would have to be comfortable with the possible paradox of such ideas and their articulation.

POSTMODERN FILMS

Jean Baudrillard and Fredric Jameson

Jean Baudrillard born on 27 July 1929 and died 6 March 2007. He was a French sociologist, philosopher, cultural theorist, political commentator, and photographer. His work is frequently associated with postmodernism and specifically post-structuralism. Jean Baudrillard has 3 main theories hyper-reality, sign value and simulacrum. His theory of hyper reality is an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, hyper reality is seen as a condition in which what is real and what is fiction are seamlessly blended together so that there is no clear distinction between where one ends and the other begins. Sign value denotes and describes the value accorded to an object because of the prestige that it imparts upon the possessor, rather than the material value and utility derived from the function and the primary use of the object. Jean Baudrillard proposed the Theory of Sign Value as a philosophic and economic counterpart to the dichotomy of exchange-value vs. use-value, which Karl Marx recognized as a characteristic of capitalism as an economic system. Simulacrum is a representation or imitation of a person or thing. Postmodernist French social theorist Jean Baudrillard argues that a simulacrum is not a copy of the real, but becomes truth in its own right: the hyperreal.

 

Fredric Jameson born 14 April 1934, is an American literary critic and Marxist political theorist. He is best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends. He once described postmodernism as the spatialization of culture under the pressure Postmodernists claimed that the complex differentiation between "spheres" or fields of, and between distinct classes and roles within each field, had been overcome by the crisis of foundationalism. Jameson argued, against this, and could have been understood successfully within a modernist framework; the postmodern failure to achieve this understanding implied an abrupt break in the dialectical refinement of thought. In his view, postmodernity's merging of all discourse into an undifferentiated whole was the result of the colonization of the cultural sphere, which had retained at least partial autonomy during the prior modernist era. Jameson discussed this phenomenon in his critical discussion of architecture, film, narrative, and visual arts, as well as in his strictly philosophical work. Two of Jameson's best-known claims from Postmodernism are that postmodernity is characterized by pastiche and a crisis in historicity. Jameson argued that parody was replaced by pastiche. Jameson's analysis of postmodernism attempted to view it as historically grounded; he therefore rejected any moralistic opposition to postmodernity as a cultural phenomenon. His failure to dismiss postmodernism from the onset, however, was perceived by many as an implicit endorsement of postmodern views

Identifying the characteristics of a postmodern film

Playfulness and self reference:

Firstly when viewing a classical narrative, the narrative will try to hide the fact that its a fictional product, the film is usually edited in away to get viewers to forget about any editing transitions etc which has actually taken place. Compared to a classical/modern film, a postmodernist film will jump up and down to draw attention to itself and its modes of construction. Thomas Tykwer's film, Run Lola Run plays with its narrative structure, delivering a similar scenario three times with different conclusions. Its cinematic style which includes animation, both video and film stock, colour changes, whip pans(where the camera whips sideways), crash zooms which quickly focuses on experimental editing. It also never lets you forget that its a highly constructed film using a number of storytelling devices. The film also makes references to other forms of popular culture, such as music videos and computer games and also positions itself in context of other media products. The message of the film is basically not to take the film seriously which is done through the audience distancing itself from the media representations etc which are found in the film. Compared to a classical movie, a postmodernist films include texts which keep us at arms length by reminding us that its a constructed or simulated reality which we experience in order to communicate to audiences that the text being conveyed through the movie isn't real whereas a classical narrative draws the audience into the storyline of the film and attempts to create a belief in the characters and their experiences. Postmodernist film is also known to challenge the mainstream conventions of narrative structures and characterization, while also destroying the audiences suspension of disbelief in order to create a work in which a less recognizable internal logic forms the mediums means of representation and expression. For the film to convey their desired meaning, they are also known to maintain conventional elements to help orient the audience. Another example of where the film plays around with its narrative structure, is the film, The Time Travellers Wife, which plays around the narrative as Eric Bana's character goes back and forth in time, trying to reach different conclusions within his life with his family.

Postmodernist films also include concepts such as pastiche, flattening of affact, hyperreality, time bending, altered states and more human then human. Pastiche is self referential, tongue in cheek, rehashes of classic pop culture. Flattening of affect involves technology, violence, drugs and the media lead to detached, emotionless, unauthentic lives. Hyperreality is described in relation to where technology creates realities which are original or more desirable then the real world. Time bending is used to connote the importance of time travel, as it relates to how time travel provides another way to shape reality. Whereas altered states involves mental illness, drugs and technology which provide a dark gateway to internal realities. Whereas Human more human involves artifical intelligence, robotics and cybernetics, which seeks to replace or enhance humanity.

Generic blurring and intertexuality:

This is where films often cross boundaries between different genres an example of this is Pans Labyrinth, which clearly has different film genres included within the film such as it creates scenes of horror, tragedy, adventure and fantasy with elements of a fairy tale like story line combined with elements of military history when combined with the topic of the Spanish civil war and it also explores the themes of obedience, religion, politics, war and imagination. Intertexuality is also, where the film makes reference to any other medium formats, such as Toy Story 2 refers to the shortage of Buzz Lightyear toys as an intertexual joke, which is connected to the manufacturers underestimated demand for the toy. This postmodern tendency towards generic cross reference and intertexuality creates a relationship with the audience by both playing with and complementing their knowledge of film. Another example of this is in South park, when they make intertexual references to Harry Potter, The Lords of The Rings and the Dark Knight, when Cartman dresses up as the Coon to make a mockery out of the Dark Knight. Pans Labyrinth also uses intertexual references to Del Toro's film, The Devils Backbone and Narnia etc, which Guillermo Del Toro uses to combine pieces of his favourite writers to compromise the story which is original and to explore the figure of the god, pan and its symbolic nature of the Labyrinth.

Popular and commercial media meets High Culture: This were the film or another type of media format uses popular culture is combines with high culture, which can be done through various ways such as having parts of high culture such as literature, art forms etc combined with popular culture such as computer games etc. An example of this is Pan's Labyrinth which contains cultural styles and times which are combined with each other, as it challenges the chronological history as it includes scenes of Captain Vidal involved in fascism and while at the same time addressing Ofelia's innocence when completing Pans tasks. These could be considered as high culture elements and the text can be perceived as postmodern as it involves this and can be considered modern because its enjoyed by the masses. The OC is also another example of where it combines the Cohens, high cultural lifestyle with that of Ryan's, whose from Chino.

Fragmentation and the death of representation:

This is were films, use a range of fragments from other texts, genres and cultural influences, this fragmentation also applies to representation. Captain Vidal representation of someone who is perceived as violent as it can be argued that there's a death of representation as his constructed to be like a monster and the audience make a connection with fairy tale monstrous characters, which Ofelia faces and see's as an uncertain threat, the same can be said about how the antagonist in The lovely Bones.

Uncertainty and the loss of context: This can result in a sense of uncertainty and the shaking up of previously understood beliefs and roles. Postmodernist films can also make the audience feel their are no generic rules and that representations only make reference to other representations. Postmodernist filmmakers such as Christopher Nolan, Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch etc challenge aspects of life or belief systems. This can be said of Nolan's film, Inception, When the audience are made to decide if DiCaprio's character is trapped in reality or a simulated/constructed reality or The Simpsons which challenges law enforcement, science and the American Dream.

Other characteristics which are sometimes used in postmodernist films

Postmodernist films are also known to include other key concepts when its comes to them being embedded into films. Such as postmodern films also include concepts like a pre-fabrication which is similar to how simulation is used in movies but this draws the audience closer to already existing and noticeable scenes, and these are basically reused in narratives, dialogue etc. A bricolage is also used, which is where a person such as a producer, editor or director usually builds a film like a collage of different film styles and genres. It also includes metafiction which is were someone within a film write someone writing within a film to demonstrate its fictionality and is used for shifts in narrative, impossible jumps in time or to mainatin emotional distance for the narrator. Historic metafiction is a technique refering to novels that fictionalise actual historical events and characters. Temporal distortion is the jumping of time backwards and forwards. Minimalism is a technique used to demonstrate characters that are unexceptional and events which usually occur. Postmodernist films are also known to use other characteristics such as technoculture, paranoia, maximalism, faction, participation and magical realism.

Modern v postmodern dichotomy

Modern vs postmodern

Modernism	Postmodernism
Master Narratives and metanarratives of history, culture and national identity as accepted before WWII (American-European myths of progress). Myths of cultural and ethnic origin accepted as received. Progress accepted as driving force behind history.	Suspicion and rejection of Master Narratives for history and culture; local narratives, ironic deconstruction of master narratives: counter-myths of origin. "Progress" seen as a failed Master Narrative
Faith in "Grand Theory" (totalizing explanations in history, science and culture) to represent all knowledge and explain everything.	Rejection of totalizing theories; pursuit of localizing and contingent theories.
Faith in, and myths of, social and cultural unity, hierarchies of social-class and ethnic/national values, seemingly clear bases for unity.	Social and cultural pluralism, disunity, unclear bases for social/national/ ethnic unity.
Master narrative of progress through science and technology.	Skepticism of idea of progress, anti-technology reactions, neo-Luddism; new age religions.
Sense of unified, centered self; "individualism," unified identity.	Sense of fragmentation and decentered self; multiple, conflicting identities.