Amber Jackson

POST MODERNISM AND FILM

Postmodernism can be described as:

“Style developed in reaction to modernism: a style in architecture, art, literature, and criticism

developed after and often in reaction to modernism, characterized by reference to other periods or styles in a self-conscious way and a

rejection of the notion of high art”To expand upon the sentence above, taken from the dictionary. It talks about how the film industry has adapted to suite the publics desires, according to what critiques say in other media mediums. It goes on to say that films have moved on because directors have taken ideas from previous eras and morphed them into something that will be enjoyed, this is called paying homage.

Postmodernism films have elements that can be categorised, in the following ways:

1. Meta Narratives • Challenges conventional narratives and representations.

For example, making the antagonist a female or telling us if the way our society is moving forward is a good or bad thing.

• Usually post modern films criticises our way of life and make us think about it by emotionally attaching us through the help of music, unpleasant shots or characters emotions that we get caught up in.

• Another technique is the use of non liner narratives, this is when they scramble the order of the scenes to disrupt the natural flow of the sequence. Also ‘Anti-Narratives’ freeze the moment in a freeze frame, slow to also make us think about, why?

This image relates to meta narrative as it represents a female being in a manly position and wanting to be the dominant protagonist by suggesting she doesn't’t need any help from anyone just because she is a woman.

Her facial expression looks more manly compared to the woman next to her with defined cheek bones which implies she is a manly type of woman as well.

1. Intertextuality/PasticheReferencing (pastiche) to other films to create an effect. For example, coping exactly the same from a scene in another film. Within intertextuality is ‘Bricolage’ meaning to ‘steal’ objects or images from different genre’s of film to create a new meaning. ‘Homage’ is another one, which is when the director of a film wants to give respect to the film that they have copied, also so that the audience will interact and relate the two films together. ‘parody’ is used in comical programs taken from other types of media, creating a critical point of view.

Intertextuality is show in this image by showing that The Simpsons was copied by another film by what the characters are holding, or vise versa. The comical “The Simpsons” makes it funny where as the naturalistic shots make the action seem more scary.

This shows the animation is making fun of our society and represents what we see as ‘normal’ now.

3. HyperrealityTo make the audience aware that they are only watching a scripted piece of film, rather then being immersed and being tricked into reality. They do this by challenging the normal conventions such as breaking the 4th wall (talking to the audience, down the lens) or time mapping (high art style – looking into mixing different conventions together) where by they fast forward parts to show that a long period of time has passed, so instead of having an hour long game, they show important snippets and fast forward the rest.

This image represents hypereality as it shows the wings flapping in such a way that no one would be able to see with their eyes. The camera has captured and slowed down that proses of the bird flying and caught it mid flight, this also stylises the shot to classes as ‘High Art’.