2. Postmodernism
A critical approach to Film
What is
Postmodernism?
- An Oxymoron?
- An overused & meaningless term?
- A bunch of nonsense?
- A “response” (or, “responses”) to modernism.
3. Postmodernism
A critical approach to Film
What is
Modernism?
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or
practice.
Modernism explicitly rejects the ideology or realism, and makes use of the
works of the past, through the application of reprise, incorporation, rewriting,
recapitulation, revision and parody in new forms.
The term modernism encompasses the activities and output of those who felt
the “traditional” forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social
organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic,
social, and political conditions of an emerging fully industrialized world.
4. Postmodernism
A critical approach to Film
Postmodernism is
therefore…
5. Postmodernism
A critical approach to Film
Postmodernism is
therefore…
In Film…
Postmodernist films upsets the mainstream
conventions of narrative structure and
characterisation and destroys the audience‟s
suspension of belief.
6. Features of postmodern
films
• They don‟t pretend to wholly works, and often draw
attention to the fact they are in fact fictitious. For
instance, characters might stop and talk directly to the
audience.
• They often re-arrange or disrupt strict linear narratives,
instead using circular narratives and open ended
closures.
• They often involve characters that feel disconnected or
alienated from their environment and distrust authorities.
7. Genres of Postmodern
• Pastiche: Self referential, tongue-in-cheek,
rehashes of classic pop culture.
• Flattening of Affect: Technology, violence,
drugs, and the media lead to detached,
emotionless, unauthentic lives.
• Hyper reality: Technologically created
realities are often more authentic or desirable
than the real world.
8. Genres of Postmodernism
• Time Bending: Time travel provides another way
to shape reality and play “what if” games with
society.
• Altered states: Drugs, mental illness and
technology provide a dark, often psychedelic,
gateways to new internal realities.
• More Human than Human: Artificial intelligence,
robotics and cybernetics seek to enhance, or
replace, humanity.
9. Analysis of a flattening affect
Film
• Fight Club a synopsis: A ticking-time-bomb
insomniac and a slippery soap salesman
channel primal male aggression into a
shocking new form of therapy. Their
concept catches on, with underground
"fight clubs" forming in every town, until an
eccentric gets in the way and ignites an
out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.
10. Fight club
Analysis
• The main protagonist‟s journey from a depressed insomniac to, to an
unhinged violent psychopath, Is according to the postmodernism theory,
the characterization of a protagonist who is disconnected from wider
society, this is a key feature of a postmodern film.
• In Fight Club the movie uses a narrator through out the film who is one
of the main protagonist this is another postmodern concept. This type of
cinematography disrupts the linear sequence of the narrative and
instead creates a circular narrative in which parts of the film are cliff
hangers where the audience does not know what‟s happening next
mirroring the actions of the main protagonist. Broadcast media bulletins
are used to create suspense and tension. A dark color scheme
connotes to the audience that this film is going to be violent and scary.
This film is a classic example of the postmodernist theory.
11. Taking Postmodernism
further…
Intertextuality
This is when one media text references another
Intertextuality mixes forms, genre, conventions, media; It dissolves
boundaries between high and low art, between the serious and the
comic.
13. Postmodernism in
Society
What would it look like?
- The breakdown of the distinction between
culture & society
- An emphasis on style at the expense of
substance & content.
- The breakdown of a distinction between high
culture (art) and popular culture
- Confusion over time & space
- The decline of the meta-narrative or grand
narrative (i.e. the absolute universal and all
embracing claims to knowledge like science or
religion)
14. Postmodernism in
Society
The breakdown of the distinction
between culture & society
- Mass culture is now so influential it is no longer „holding a
mirror up to society‟ – it IS society.
- The distinction between media and reality has collapsed
- So new art/media artifacts are influenced by ones previous to
it.
- Simulacrum – a copy of a copy (of a copy)
- Intertextuality – Using other texts in a „new‟ one
15. Postmodernism in
Society
Simulacru
“A copy of a copy of a copy”
“There is no such thing as originality”
m
Bo
Diddley
Chuc
k
Outkast Mick Jagger Berry
“The distinction between media &
reality has collapsed”
18. Postmodernism in
Society In MODERNITY there is PARODY,
Pastich which ridicules by exaggerating the
distance of the original text from
“normal” discourse.
e In POSTMODERNITY, there is
PASTICHE, a “blank” parody; there‟s
no sense of a distance from any
norm.
Blue Harvest
19. Postmodernism in
Society
Confusions over time and space
- Travel across the globe is swift, inexpensive and possible for
most people
- Most people have a fair knowledge of other cultures due to
news/documentaries
- The internet has broken down space and time barriers
- 24hr cities
21. Postmodernism in
Society
An emphasis on style at the expense
of substance and contnet
- The visual and stylistic impact becomes more important than
the meaning/message
- Media texts which defy interpretation
- Retro/Nostalgia
- Shallow –Empty?
23. Postmodernism in
Society
The breakdown of a distinction
between high culture (art) and pop
culture
- Postmodernists – High and low cultrue are =
- Against the „elitism‟ of high modernism
- Text which contain elements of high and low culture
- Treating „low art‟ or „pop culture‟ as if they were high art
pieces.
24. Postmodernism in
Society
The breakdown of a distinction
between high culture (art) and pop
culture
HIGH ART LOW ART
Fine art Advertising
Opera Pop Music
Ballet Genre Films
Classical Music Television
Classic Literature Trashy Novels
Art Cinema Music videos
Sculpture
26. Postmodernism in
Society
The decline of the meta-narrative
- A meta-narrative is a narrative or story which claims to
explain something totally – ie christianity, marxism
- Because society is so fragmented, we live by individual,
„hand picked‟ beliefs rather than collective ones
- Post modern texts reflect this state of being by being
ambiguous in their meaning/message. They defy an
„absolute truth‟.
27. Taking Postmodernism
further…
The A Postmodern Case Study
Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action
film written and directed by
Larry and Andy Wachowski
and starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence
Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe
Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving.
It was first released in the USA on March 31,
1999, and is the first entry in The Matrix
series of films, comics, video games, and
animation.
28. Taking Postmodernism
further…
A Postmodern Case Study
Box Office
Info $171 million in the U.S. and $460 million
• It earned
worldwide, and later became the first DVD to sell more
than three million copies in the U.S.
• The Ultimate Matrix Collection was released on HD
DVD on May 22, 2007 and on Blu-ray on October 14,
2008.
• The movie is also scheduled to be released stand
alone in a 10th anniversary edition on Blu-ray in the
Digibook format on March 31, 2009, 10 years to the
day after the movie was released theatrically.
29. Taking Postmodernism
further…
A Postmodern Case Study
In Postmodern thought, interpretations of The
Matrix often reference Baudrillard's philosophy
to demonstrate that the movie is an allegory for
contemporary experience in a heavily
commercialized, media-driven society,
especially of the developed countries. This
influence was brought to the public's attention
through the writings of art historians such as
Griselda Pollock and film theorists such as
Heinz-Peter Schwerfel.
30. Taking Postmodernism
further…
A Postmodern Case Study
The Wachowski Brothers were keen that all
involved understood the thematic
background of the movie. For example,
the book used to conceal disks early in
the movie, Simulacra and Simulation, a
1981 work by the French philosopher
Jean Baudrillard, was required reading
for most of the principal cast and crew.
31. Taking Postmodernism
further…
A Postmodern Case Study
• The Matrix makes many connections to Simulacra and
Simulation. In an early scene, Simulacra and Simulation is
the book in which Neo hides his illicit software. In the film,
the chapter 'On Nihilism' is in the middle, rather than the
end of the book.
• Morpheus also refers to the real world outside of the Matrix
as the "desert of the real", which was directly referenced in
the Slavoj Žižek work, Welcome to the Desert of the Real. In
the original script, Morpheus referenced Baudrillard's book
specifically.
• Keanu Reeves was asked by the directors to read the book,
as well as Out of Control and Evolution Psychology, before
being cast as Neo.
32. Taking Postmodernism
further…
A Postmodern Case Study
Merrin –
„Baudrillard and the Media‟ (2005 p131)
The Matrix has us. Our consumption of the films, the
merchandise, and the world and myth the
Wachowskis sell us, and our collective orgasm
over the effects and phones, guns, shades and
leather, represent our integration into the virtuality
it promotes. The Matrix became a viral meme
spreading through and being mimetically
(mimicked i.e. copied) and absorbed into modern
culture, extending our virtualisation.
33. Taking Postmodernism
further…
A Postmodern Case Study
Merrin cont.
Just as the film offered the stark choice of being
inside or outside the matrix so you were either
inside or outside the zeitgeist (the spirit of the
times). To paraphrase Morpheus: The Matrix is
everywhere. As Baudrillard makes clear, however,
its fans and public are caught in a similarly
invisible matrix that is far greater than depicted in
the film, and that the film itself is part of and
extends.
34. Taking Postmodernism
further…
A Postmodern Case Study
Other Postmodern Influences
The film describes a future in which reality perceived by
humans is actually the Matrix: a simulated reality
created by sentient machines in order to pacify and
subdue the human population while their bodies' heat
and electrical activity are used as an energy source.
Upon learning this, computer programmer "Neo" is drawn
into a rebellion against the machines. The film contains
many references to the cyberpunk and hacker
subcultures; philosophical and religious ideas; and
homages to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Hong
Kong action cinema and Spaghetti Westerns.
35. Taking Postmodernism
further…
A Postmodern Case Study
Challenging Film Making
Conventions
The film is known for popularizing the use of a visual effect known as "bullet
time", which allows the viewer to explore a moment progressing in slow-
motion as the camera appears to orbit around the scene at normal speed.
One proposed technique for creating these effects involved propelling a high
speed camera along a fixed track with a rocket to capture the action as it
occurred. However, this was discarded as unfeasible, because not only
was the destruction of the camera in the attempt all but inevitable, but the
camera would also be almost impossible to control at such speeds.
Instead, the method used was a technically expanded version of an old
art photography technique known as time-slice photography, in which a
large number of cameras are placed around an object and triggered
nearly simultaneously.
36. Taking Postmodernism
further…
A Postmodern Case Study
• The evolution of photogrametric and image-based
computer-generated background approaches in The
Matrix's bullet time shots set the stage for later
innovations unveiled in the sequels The Matrix
Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Virtual
Cinematography (CGI-rendered characters, locations,
and events) and the high-definition "Universal Capture"
process completely replaced the use of still camera
arrays, thus more closely realizing the "virtual camera".
• This film overcame the release of Star Wars Episode I:
The Phantom Menace by winning the Academy Award
for Visual Effects
