Postmodernism Cinema New Hollywood Film Foundation Degree
Jan 16, 2016
Postmodernism Cinema
New HollywoodFilm Foundation Degree
Postmodernism Ideas
Postmodern Ideas• Elevates popular culture• State of simulacrum: Media and reality
distinctions is blurred – Big brother. • Society defined by images and representation
Postmodern Ideas
• No longer anything new to produce or distribute: recycling culture • Feelings or alienation, insecurity,
uncertainties• Society of the spectacle • Three minute culture - MTV• Sense of reality dominated by popular
media images
What does it mean for film studies?
• Range of ways of thinking about a film• Can be used to analyse film style
and production• Advent of a postmodern aesthethic
in film
Lego Movie Trailer
Postmodernist film style
Kill Bill trailer
Intertextuality Fragmentation of linear narrative hybridity Blending high art and
popular culture Parody Pastiche Irony Bricolage Surface style metafiction
Intertextuality
The Scream (1893), Edward Munch
The Persistent to Time (1931), Salavdor Dali
IntertextualityThe multiple ways in which a text is entangled with or contains references to other texts
Intertextuality
• Borrowing and transformation of a prior text on to another • Relies on the audience's
understanding of media texts and pop culture to make a new meaning • Parody and pastiche are examples of
intertextuality
What is the difference between parody and pastiche?
Intertextuality
Parody Pastiche
IntertextualityParodyImitation of another work, artist, or period often with satirical event
IntertextualityPasticheUses imitation as a form of flattery rather than mockery and from plagiarism in its lack of deceptive intent
Parody PasticheImitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule
Uses imitation as a form of tribute rather than mockery
Intertextuality
Analyse and compare the intertextuality of thetrailers Scary Movie and Kill Bill.
Parody or Pastiche?
Parody or Pastiche?
Scary Movie trailer Kill Bill trailer
Parody- Familiarity with a formula plot,
conventions and characters. - Violate genre expectations - Incorporate plot, characters and
conventions of dozens of filmsScary Movie trailer
Pastiche- Mixing and blurring of conventions and
boundaries. - Pays tribute to (imitating ) numerous
genres: pulp novels, blaxploitation, grind house, kung fu and western films
Kill Bill trailer
Discussion: Pastiche – controversial?Viewpoint 1Pastiche is just recycling of art thought of - and that it lacks creativity.
Viewpoint 2 Pastiche has a distinct purpose to put old and new things together to create.
Assembling artifacts from bits and pieces of other things- Genre Cross-over- Recycling old forms- Mixing high and low culture (kitsch)
Look at the following images. Bricolage? Why?
80’sPunks
90s Fashion
2000s Lady Gaga
In what era is the film in set? Look at costume and production design
Amelie trailer
Amelie’s trailer
Kill Bill clip Kill Bill scene
Something heterogeneous - from more than one source - in origin or composition
In one word…
HyperrealityTechnologically created realities are often more authentic or desirable than the real world. Reality and fiction are blended together – no distinction
Hyperreality
"The simulation of something which never really existed." (Baudrillard)
"The authentic fake." (Eco)
Las Vegas
Other examples of hyperreality...
• “Wild ice zest berry“ – flavor that doesn’t exist • A plastic Christmas tree, more real than the
real one• Almost all video games
Illustrate hyperreality in cinema and explainInception infinite steps Truman Shop final scene
Complete this presentation. Research the following postmodernism concepts and use examples to illustrate your points:
• Self-reflectiveness / self-referentiality & metafiction• Altered states• Flattening of affect• More human than human• Time bending
Self-reflectiveness / self referentiality & metafiction
Altered states
Flattening of affect
More human than human
Time Bending