|
 



     
|
 
 ± or postmodernism ±

is a term that is used to denote a particular style of film that

has developed mostly since about 1980.

Before we get to film, just a burst of background.

(as brief as possible, I promise)

|ost-modernism is a á 
á
± a way of thinking about and
looking at the world ± that developed long before films began to
express some of its ideas.

It is not necessary to understand the philosophy to be able to

discuss post-modernism in film, and if you find it difficult to
grasp, don't worry ± you are not alone.

One recent book on post-modern theory points out, "It is

difficult to talk about post-modernism because nobody really
understands it."

(|ost-modern films, on the other hand, are appreciated and

understood by their audiences.)

However, for those who would like to try, here goes:

 |ost-modern belief is that

 
 á  
 

 á



This is because

a. all truth is limited, approximate, and is constantly evolving;

b. no theory can ever be proved true ± we can only show

that a theory is false;

c. no theory can ever explain all things;

d. thus absolute and certain truth that explains all things is

unobtainable.
ctually, ristotle said the same thing more than 2000 years
ago:

V
 



   



  
 
 
 
  


Nothing's new!

|ost-modernism, then can be summed up

 in the immortal words of former US president Bill Clinton:

ã
á
 
 
    






These ideas can be seen to apply to a certain type
of post-modern film, such as Ë
 or 

, that question the very basis of so-
called realityËore about this later.

'|ost-modernism' as applied to the visual arts ± of which film is

one ± is also used in a slightly different way.

This can be seen most easily in

 .

(What follows is a bit over-simplified, but you will get the idea.)

|ost-modernism is exactly what it says: it is 'after modernism'.

The artistic movement before it was 'modernism'.

The one before that ± before modernism ± was the 



or '




 ,
in which  
  was given precedence over
utility in the hope of 'making life beautiful'.

   
Ë 
 was a direct response to this:
  
was favoured over decoration, and materials were left
bare so their purpose was displayed.

Beauty came from ' 

   
|
 
 was a revolt against the 'function over
form' approach, which often alienated the public.
Buildings can be attractive and functional.


  
 
 á 

K  something is done (or made) is as important as 

is done or made ± and the one does not necessarily serve
the other.

The key features of the wonderful Sydney Opera House are

the shell-like roofs above the Opera Theatre and Concert Hall
± a design which is post-modern because it

   
       of the concert halls below.
nother feature of post-modern architecture ± like post-
modern films ± is re-cycling the past, returning to decoration
and ornamentation and mixing styles from different periods
and places.

 building might mix elements

reminiscent of a number of architectural
styles ± Renaissance, Baroque,
neoclassical, Gothic, modernist ± in the
same façade.

In the same way, the Gotham City Bo

Welch created for Tim Burton's 

  (1992) includes references to
art deco and other architectural styles.
The dystopic Los ngeles of Ridley Scott's 
  
(1982) has often been cited as the epitome of the post-modern
city.
The film's production design gives evidence of numerous
historical influences; rather than a vision of ultramodern
skyscrapers and orderly, mechanised interiors, it is rather a
hodgepodge of recycled decay.
So to recapitulate:
the post-modern film as a created work of art is as important
as the story it is telling.

Instead of character, settings, cinematography, music etc being

there to serve the story, to help tell it as effectively as
possible, they take on an importance of their own.

The film-maker who so chooses has total freedom to create a

cinematic world ± a diegesis ± that is idiosyncratic,
anachronistic, fantastic or whatever, and that does not
necessarily obey laws of logic.
Vor example
|eter Jackson's   trilogy was made with the
integrity of traditional film-making.

The diegesis is totally consistent, fully realised and completely

believable within the parameters of the story being told.

We do not question its reality while we watch the films.

Brian Helgeland's  
(2001), however, while set in
a supposedly medieval time setting ± and even with real
historical characters, such as the Black |rince ±
has its joust crowd singing along with 'We Will Rock You' by
Queen, and its leading lady in designer dresses that owe
more to the twentieth century than the fourteenth.
So basically it means that, whereas the media were previously
believed to   ,   or á
reality,

now the media are seen to constitute a new 


 
of
their own.

ã 

 
 

|ost-modern films ± and remember that only a small
percentage of the films being made can be labelled in this way
± are not necessarily creating (or recreating) a real world.

ã   
 
 
 

and we are likely to find that we are reminded constantly

that it is a movie we are watching.
as when special effects obtrude:

One of Clem's legs has disappeared as Joel's memory of this incident

starts to fade, in 6 
   
Ë
s another memory fades, the books on the shelves behind Joel
(Jim Carrey) and Clem (Kate Winslet) lose their titles and
covers.
or when characters break the 'fourth wall and speak directly to
the audience«

(Speaking directly to the audience isn't always an indicator

that a film is post-modern ± it goes back to Shakespeare
and even earlier ± but it is one of the techniques that post-
modern films make use of. Remember: just because a dog
has four legs doesn't make everything with four legs a dog.)
wirector John Hughes often has his characters talking directly to
the camera but Verris Bueller (Ëatthew Broderick) may be the
definitive narrator, commentator, and chastiser; like nimal in
ã
  he even tells the audience to go home at the
end.

Here he explains the

best ways to fake
sickness to get out of
going to school.

fter his parents leave the room, Verris looks us in the eye
and says "Incredible! One of the worst performances of my
career and they never doubted it for a second."
Woody llen's  

(1977)

Woody llen brings Ëarshall ËcLuhan into the film to tell self-
important movie-goer Russell Horton, "You know nothing of my
work! How you got to teach anything is beyond me!"
Woody looks at us and says,

"Boy, if life were only like this!"

In the same movie, screen text shows what the characters
are really thinking even as they chat about other things.
In some post-modern films and TV shows, characters talk
about themselves as characters, or the movie they are in.



 
  



as in this example from w
  ± a very post-modern strip

It is a feature of a number
of TV programmes, such
as   
, when
references are made to
other episodes or even
seasons,

and  

 
, in which he would come out
and chat to the audience about
what was going to happen in the
day's episode.
In Ë
 (the series
which started Bruce Willis's
career) the two leads would
often discuss the episode and
the script-writing, complaining
if they weren't happy with
what they had had to do.
In movies, self-referencing was used in comedy long before
anyone started talking about post-modernism.

as in Ëel Brooks' 

(1974):

Cleavon Little
Hedley Lamarr (Harvey
Korman) ± named for
glamorous forties star
Hedy Lamarr ± says, "You
will be risking your lives,
whilst I will be risking an
almost-certain cademy
ward nomination for Best
Supporting ctor."

lone in his office, he looks into the camera, musing, "But where
would I find such a man? [pause] Why am I asking you?"

] 


   
 

ã    á
 


 
  


  

 

 
s in ü  ü
 (1992):

When Wayne holds a

|epsi and intones that it
is the "choice of a new
generation" with a wink
and a nod, it is doubly
postmodern:

it is an example of product placement* ± in which advertising,

entertainment, and 'art' are merged,

and at the same time it responds to the increasing cynicism

about such marketing ploys, letting the audience in on the
joke even while the film still benefits financially from it.

(* |roduct-placement is the practice of advertisers' paying film

producers to include their product in a prominent spot.)
So post-modern cinema can loosely be said to describe films in
which our

á
 
  is destroyed, or at the very
least toyed with,

not to spoil our enjoyment of the films, but to to free us up to

appreciate the works on other levels,

and to give the film-makers greater freedom in how they

express their ideas.

Now, just a quick bit of the history of post-modernism in the

cinema for those who are interested.

(If you're not, won't be long.)

|ost-modernism came into films via European
theatre, developing from the 'alienation effect'
developed by German playwright Bertolt Brecht.

Brecht said that the theatre should not be a place of wish-

fulfilment and escapism, but should challenge its audiences and
make them think.

|art of that challenge was to stop pretending plays were real,

and acknowledge that it was actors playing parts on stage.

In his plays, actors might step out of character, speak directly

to the audience and sometimes involve the audience.
Some European cinema directors, such
as Jean Luc Godard (Vrance) and Luis
Bunũel (Spain) adapted Brecht's ideas in
their films as early as the 1960s.

t a time when Hollywood movies

were all about escapism, these ideas
were seen as radical.

It was not until about 1980 that

English-language cinema began to be
seriously influenced by these ideas.
One of the first post-modern
English language films is  
     ü

(1981), based on the novel by
John Vowles.

The film has a dual narrative.

One narrative is that of the novel,

set in 1867 Lyme Regis; a young
man abandons his fiancée when he
falls in love with a mysterious
woman.
in the other narrative, Ëeryl Streep
and Jeremy Irons play the actors
who are making the movie of the
novel.
Just as their characters in the film begin an affair, so the actors
do in real life.

The film narrative moves back and forwards between the movie
story and that of the actors making the movie.

In other words, as you watch the film of ã

V


  


you also watch the story of the actors
who star in that film.
|ost-modern films, then, draw
attention to themselves as
artifices, as something created

they do not let you forget that

they are films and not reality
and in case you think that that means they are going to be
less enjoyable than purely escapist films, remember that
some of the most exciting and popular films since 1980 are
considered post-modern:


 

 Ë Ë$


   !
 $

  ! 

 

!


% # 

 "  
Ë

Ö 

  

 á
  
Ö  

 

—often tongue in cheek —insider jokes

—a deliberately artificial approach

—self-awareness
multiple styles
non-linear narratives

confusion between image and reality

—allusions to and quotations from old movies and other

modern films

even to other movies the actors have been in

Let's look at this question of quoting from or making reference
to other films, or to other media.

It is sometimes referred to as an 'hommage' (which is Vrench

for 'homage' and is pronounced 'omm-ahge').

nother term for this ± one you don't need to know but will
impress people if you use ± is 'bricolage'.
Here is an example of
'bricolage' from the world of
art.

The artist creates his works by

taking photographs of real
buildings, roads, parking
garages etc, chopping them
up, and then reassembling
them into hyper-real images
like this one.

"highway composition"
by Kazuhiko "|alla" Kawahara
other useful terms are ' 
 
'
 
 



á
 

and á

  

á
 
refers to the use of various styles, genres, or texts for
a critical purpose

á

   is simply the mimicking of past forms without an
underlying critical perspective: 'neutral mimicry without
parody's ulterior motives'

Of course, whether a particular borrowing is seen as parody or

pastiche may well be a matter of opinion.
The main purpose ± apart from reminding us that every film is
made in the context of the films that have gone before ± is to
cast doubts on the reality of the story being told,

or to provide greater depth to the fictional reality. Viewers who

recognise the references will have this experience enriched by
their knowledge of the previous work.
Vor example, when Quentin Tarentino cast the actress |am
Grier in ]#  (1997),

it was because of her past image as a sex symbol in 1970s

blaxploitation films such as ] (1973) and V

(1974), and he wanted to channel that legacy into his own film.
Let's see how 
 
works in action.

Ä ü   (2000)

Written and directed by the

Coen Brothers, it is the tale
of three chain-gang escapees
in 1930s Ëississippi.
âThe title comes from a 1941 movie called Ö 
ã, in
which a Hollywood director goes looking for the 'real merica' so
he can make a film called 'O Brother, Where rt Thou?'
âËany of the things Sullivan does in the film are also done by
the three escapees: he rides a freight train,
â walks the road,

sleeps rough, goes to the movies,

gets sent to prison«
But the Coens don't just quote from one film.

They also make many links to the ancient Greek poem, ã




Their hero, brilliantly played by George Clooney,

is called Ulysses Everett ËcGill;

Ulysses is the Roman name for Odysseus,

the protagonist of ã
.
Like Odysseus (Ulysses), Everett and his friends encounter

sirens,

a blind prophet

and a one-eyed giant (the Cyclops),

played here by John Goodman.
They also encounter Governor |appy O'waniel (Charles wurning),
who is campaigning for re-election.

âHe is based on W. Lee (|appy) O'waniel who really served as

Governor ± though of Texas and not Ëississippi ± from 1938
to 1942. Like the film's |appy, he owned flour mills.
 âThey pick up Tommy Johnson
(Chris Thomas King) at a
cross-roads in the middle of
nowhere.

âHe is based on a famed blues guitarist of the same name who,

according to folk legend, sold his soul to the wevil at the
crossroads in exchange for his prodigious talent.
The film does not just quote, it revises:

it is an archetypal scene of mericana ± the pie cooling

on the window sill
like the small boys in the stories, our boys steal the pie and
run
but then welmar's face appears ± and he has a bank note in his
hand
the traditional story has been revised ± the pie is stolen but it
is also paid for, which the Tom Sawyers never did.
Baz Luhrmann's Ë
 (2001) is a treasury of references
to literature, to history, to musicals and other movies; and to
modern pop music.

Its story comes from opera (

 and ã  ) and
from Greek mythology;

among the characters is the artist

Toulouse-Lautrec, who painted the
dancers at the real Ëoulin Rouge in
the late nineteenth century, and Sate,
the composer;

the music is a mixture ± from wavid Bowie's 'Nature Boy' to

'The Sound of Ëusic' to Ëadonna's 'Like a Virgin'.
Satine (Nicole Kidman) sings as her opening number a song
originally sung by Ëarilyn Ëonroe in 

!

(1953),
'wiamonds are a
Girl's Best Vriend'
with snippets of
Ëadonna's 'Ëaterial
Girl' added.
but her costume is like the one Ëarilyn wore in Ö (1956).
The top hat she wears is an allusion to Ëarlene wietrich, a big
star of the thirties
and the glorious red dress to Rita Hayworth, glamorous star of
the forties.

± thus investing Kidman's Satine with the glamour of the big

stars of the Golden ge of Hollywood.
Luhrmann even makes allusion to his own work. The red
'L'mour' sign on the side of the building

appears in his film "#  , and was part of the stage

set for his production of 
for ustralian Opera.
!
 $

(1998): firemen rescue a cat from a tree in a

tableau that mimics the great Iwo Jima memorial in Washington.
Ëargaret (Ëarley Shelton) tempts wavid with an apple in a
gentle parody of dam and Eve in the Garden of Eden
and the great mural painted by Ër Johnson (Jeff waniels) is a
nod to the
controversial ± and destroyed ± mural painted by wiego Rivera
in the Rockefeller Centre in the 1930s

and so likens the impact of the !
  mural to that of the
Rivera mural, which outraged the Establishment of the time.
Even  # parodies the fight scenes in  Ë ± one
post-modern film parodying another.
 Ë (1999) is rich in post-modern allusions, from  



 to Ovid's  
from Greek Ëythology
to the Bible and the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

The Oracle, who shares many of the attributes of the original

Greek oracle, also shares the colour scheme of Ëichelangelo's
welphic Oracle on the great ceiling,

and so is imbued with the authority and

  of ancient wisdom.
|

  , remember, describes the combining together of
different styles and content from different periods within the
same text,

such as when a music video uses a montage of images from

classic films, advertising, television, or rap,

or when a movie director chooses to use a number of

different styles within the one film.
Quentin Tarentino's 



(2003) is
a pastiche of a wide variety of sources,
genres and styles, mostly taken from
the movies he watched as a kid.

‡ Hong Kong kung-fu films,

‡ grindhouse style fight scenes,

‡ comic book set-ups

‡ spaghetti westerns

‡ Chinese and Japanese films

‡ horror

"I steal from every single movie ever made. If people don't like
that, then tough tills, don't go and see it, all right? I steal from
everything. Great artists steal; they don't do hommages."
6  magazine interview, 1994
It is Tarentino who is credited with
bringing post-modernism into
mainstream film-making. Before !
V  
, it was the preserve of
independent and 'art-house' films.

!
 (1994) is full of references
to other films, including to John Travolta,
one of its stars, in his earlier movie
Ö $ 
V

The use of allusion and quotation

mocks the whole idea of a single
version of reality.

This fragmentation and focus on surface images is a comment

on the film itself: it both reflects on the lack of coherent
meaning, as well as providing an ironic humour.
But there is far more than inter-textual references to the
post-modernism of !V  


You'll remember that the basic tenet of the post-modern

philosophy is that there is no absolute truth. Everything is
relative.

One of the way films demonstrate this idea is through nonlinear

storytelling,

which is where the narrative is presented out of sequence, or

where it defies linear logic;

or via multiple storylines.

If you tell the same story from more than one perspective ± and
sometimes out of order ± then you get relative truth, since no
two experiences are the same.
In a way that has become the trademark of Tarentino's films,
!V  
tells its three stories in a non-linear, indeed a
circular, narrative, so that it finishes where it started.
Some other examples:

6 
   
Ë and Ë
 both
± for quite different reasons ± tell their stories backwards, so
the viewer must constantly re-evaluate what has been learned.

% (1998) gives
two contrasting versions of
what happens to London
publicist Helen (Gwyneth
|altrow):

once when she catches a

train, and the alternative
version when she misses it.
Woody llen is the quintessential post-modern director. His
films frequently question the validity or truth of a simple reality.

%   (1997) ± its

very title suggests post-modernism ±
embodies the idea of multiple
perspectives that often marks his
movies.
Harry is a writer who has written a
book based on his life, infuriating his
family and friends (and especially his
ex-wives), who saw the events he
writes about in quite different ways.

The movie cuts between real time and

outrageously embellished versions of
stories from his life as told in his book.
Woody llen's Ë
Ë
 (2004) tells the story of
Ëelinda,
once as a comedy

and once as a drama.

Tom Twyker's  
 (1998) presents three different
scenarios for Lola's quest to take money across the city to save
her boyfriend.

In each version, a variable

changes, and so the course of
events is different.

It has been suggested that it has

the logic of a video game rather
than a typical feature film.
In  
(2006), Will Verrell is an IRS
agent who discovers he's
actually a character in a novel
being written by Emma
Thompson.

Worse than that, he realises

she is looking for ways to kill
him off ± and he sets out to
try to change her mind.

Very clever, very funny!



 (2003) is one
of the most fascinating post-
modern films.

It combines several levels of reality.

It tells the story of Harvey |ekar, a

clerk who began to create a comic
strip out of his own dull life.
Because he couldn't draw, he got
several other artists to draw the
strips. Their styles are all different
and this is reflected in the film.

Harvey is played by |aul Giamatti

and his wife by Hope Lange; but
the real Harvey and his wife appear
in the film also, as do the comic
versions of them.
 (2002) is written by Charlie
Kaufman and his twin brother wonald
Kaufman.
It is about Charlie's failed attempts to
write a screenplay of a book called ã


ã
Charlie's frustration is
contrasted with his brother's success in
writing a popular screenplay.

Both characters are played by Nicolas

Cage.

Except there is no wonald; Charlie

doesn't actually have a brother
(except in the movie).

The film also includes the writer of ã


ã
(played by
Ëeryl Streep) ± a real book ± and the orchid thief himself (Chris
Cooper), who is a character in her book.
In many ways, Robert ltman's brilliant satire of the film
industry  !
  (1992) sums it all up.

It is a prime example of
  

  

.

It is set in a film studio, and opens with a clapper-board,

signifying that it is film about making films.
Its opening shot lasts an astonishing nine minutes and tracks
various characters as they move about at the start of the day.
wialogue is all improvised and
includes a discussion on the
previously longest tracking
shot in cinema, Orson Welles'
3 minute opening shot in 
ã
6 .
The film features cameos by about 40 Hollywood stars as
themselves,

ngelica Huston
Jack Lemmon

Burt Reynolds
as well as Julie Roberts and Bruce Willis acting in a scene
from a movie being made.

nd in the end, we find that the whole film is about the making of
the film we have been watching.
nd one last word about ã
  ; as with !V  

there is far more to it as a post-modern text than inter-textual
references.
Neo has discs hidden inside a book,
which is a copy of Ö 
Ö  
, by Vrench
philosopher Jean Baudrillard.
When Ëorpheus says to Neo, "Welcome to the desert of the real",

he is quoting Baudrillard.
The film has attempted to give visual expression to Baudrillard's
ideas by having two worlds: the 'real' world and the digital world,
which we all think is real.

ã
   is of course not the only film to raise questions
about what is real and what is illusion in our world.

Others include  
(1998)

and Ë (2002).

nother important aspect of post-modernism is that film is just
one among many types of media: TV, music videos, comic
strips, graphic novels etc

—|opular culture interacts with and feeds off other examples of

the genre and indeed other types of culture:

‡ films feed off films, off television, off music

‡ advertising feeds off films,

‡ off music,

‡ off rap,

and they in turn use and quote and allude to the others.
The advent of the wVw has added yet another dimension.

Now directors can show scenes they had to leave out but don't
want to lose;

>can talk about the film, in a director's commentaries etc

>extras can explain special effects, and so on«

  
 á
 


Vinally, here are a few other post-modern movies that

are worth a look.