Rebecca Dickinson

"Postmodern media manipulate time and space". To what extent does this definition apply to texts you have studied?
Postmodernism heavily relies on the use of sampling, bricolage and parody. Postmodern media manipulates space and time in several different ways such as the use of music, intertextual references, bricolage and hyper reality. Postmodern media often uses different types of media from different decades or genres in the style of a bricolage. In Quentin Tarantinos Inglourious Basterds, which is set in the early 1940s during World War II, a short clip of David Bowies 1982 single Cat People (Putting out Fire) is played whilst Shoshanna is getting ready for the movie premiere of Nations Pride at her cinema. She is wearing red which symbolises danger. This is a manipulation of time in a way that a song from the 1980s is used in a 1940s set film. It is using material from different eras in order to create a mysterious mood which shows that she is about to kill the Nazis located in the cinema during the film. This is also a manipulation of space because it fills a space that could have been fitted with a 1940s wartime music has been changed to early 1980s music. Similarly, when the German soldier was scalped, spaghetti western music was used to dramatize the scalping. This manipulates space because the use of western music in a war film. The space is manipulated to include the elements for each genre, war and western in order to form the comedic postmodern theme that Jameson suggested that postmodernism as a whole was. The whole storyline of Inglourious Basterds can be very confusing and focuses of the characters more than the storyline. Another manipulation of time is shown in Inception. The main song used in inception is Edith Piafs Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien at different speeds during the movie. This is a manipulation of time as it is stretched, to emphasise the stretch of time in each layer of the dream. This song is often used to symbolise the kicks in the dreams in inception.

Intertextual references
In Inglourious Basterds, a Once upon a time storybook theme is used in the film. This is a pastiche to a fairy-tale story that is commonly read by children. A film within a film, the showing of Nations Pride is also used in the film. Shoshannas almost 3D cackling before the cinema almost resembles a witch character in a fairy-tale. This is showing the manipulation and use of space to create a virtual storybook and a film within a film. Normally a book ends in a happy ending, but in this film, the opposite, as Shoshanna gets killed in the process by Frederick Zoller. She was overcome by trauma in her life. Tarantinos text used in his films was a nod to his other films. He is paying a homage to himself by using his trademark yellow font to translate foreign languages and to introduce the characters. The space taken up by the font is manipulated to tell the story of the film, as shown in the book. LaPadites house at the beginning of the film is a reference to The Sound of Music (1961) and The Searchers (1956), both released later than the film. This is used as a bricolage of different decades,

Rebecca Dickinson along with David Bowies 1982 single, Cat People, in order to manipulate the space taken up by modern films into an overall up to date postmodern feature film.

Hyper reality
Slow Motion is used a lot in postmodern media, especially action films like Inception. Slow motion is used in a kick in a dream, especially when the van is falling into the river, often cutting to other layers of the dream to dramatize and exaggerate that the kick is about to happen as a form of narrative. Space is manipulated in a way that what would be in a modern film as just a straight bit of footage is of a fragmented narrative. Another example of the use of slow motion is the showing of Shoshanna falling to her death after being shot by Frederick Zoller. She was seen as a sort of heroine in the film and the exaggeration of her falling to her death is a manipulation of time as it is being stretched by the slow motion. The space is also manipulated in the sense that In Inception in a dream, Paris is shown to be closing in on itself in some form of apocalyptic theme. This could symbolise self-reflection of some sort, that maybe Cobbs guilt over the death of his wife, Mal, and having to leave his children is destroying him. Here, the space is manipulated to be closing in on itself like a book, maybe indicating that Cobb has to move on from his guilt. This is hyper real as it is also an exaggeration of the fact that Cobb is closing a chapter over the death of his wife and the use of inception on her. Flashbacks and fragmented narrative are a major theme in both Inception and Inglourious Basterds, but more so in inception. Not only are there cuts between the layers of the dream, there are also flashbacks of Cobbs wife and his children walking away from him as shown as a hallucination, which is a manipulation of space because they appear in Cobbs view, like he is there in the dream and is viewing his guilt in his subconscious mind. This is also shown in Inglourious Basterds when Stiglitz was shown killing a Nazi. The main antagonists of Inglourious Basterds, such as Hitler, Aldo Raine and Hans Landa are humorous parodies. This is a manipulation of space because these characters in real life would be evil, but in this film, they are seen as more humorous figures. Hitler is seen shouting Nein! Nein! Nein! in an exaggerated tone and volume of voice. Aldo has a very strong American accent and always has immaculate clothes and hair even after fighting. This is hyper real as realistically hair gets ruffled and clothes get creased and dirty, but not Aldo. Finally Landa is seen as a snidely humorous character, often acting over the top in instances such as drinking the milk unrealistically loud and all in one gulp at LaPadites house. This is a manipulation of space as the characters that should have been portrayed as the evil characters are in fact the humorous ones that bring wit to what should have been a war film. It has the comedy element as well as the war genre. There is not any real battles going on in the film. The only element that keeps it real is the blood and gore in the film shown in the scalping, the slitting of the throat and the shooting. It is almost a sadistic comedy. Neither films are replicas of a true story. In Inglourious Basterds Hitler was killed in Shoshannas (Emmanuelle Mimieux) cinema in 1944 which ended the war in the film which didnt happen in real life. Secondly in Inception there are no elements of a real story in the film, only intertextual references to Citizen Kane (1941) with the dream within a dream theme. This manipulates time and space in Inglourious Basterds as it is a distortion of a real historical event in an alternative take, and a manipulation of time that is caused by the dates being somewhat different to real life. In inception, the dreams are a manipulation of time because it is stretched in the dream. Cuts are used regularly to show different layers of the major dream in the film.

Rebecca Dickinson In Inglourious Basterds the viewer can see set of the film when Shoshanna is getting ready for the premiere. This Manipulates space to show that the film is not real but an interpretation of Tarantinos that is used for entertainment. In Inception, the storyline is a very deep and personal one in relation to the main character, Cobb. He is an extractor and uses shared dreaming in order to extract information out of the subconscious of their targets. He has had to leave his children and Saito, who this operation did not work on as he had a flashback of his dead wife, Mal, who committed suicide after they ended up in limbo for over 50 years and when they woke up only a few hours had passed. Mal thought she was still dreaming and threw herself off of a building. Cobb was charged with her murder. Saito gave Cobb the task of planting an idea info Fishers sons mind to end his energy conglomerate and if he succeeds, he will be cleared of murder as he did not murder her and he can see his children. He has hallucinations of his children walking away from him on several occasions during the movie. This rejects Jamesons theory that a postmodern film lacks depth, as this film has a lot of depth. This story manipulates space by using a deep and personal storyline in an otherwise depthless film. There is a strong basis of dreams versus reality in this film. Secondly in Inception, there is the intertextual reference of a dream within a dream as used in Citizen Kane in 1941. There are 5 layers of a dream and time is manipulated to be longer in a dream. In reality, the plane journey is 10 hours long. The city is one week. The hotel is 6 months long. The Snow Fortress is 10 years long. Finally, Limbo, a shared area when any idea can be placed in the subconscious of a person and can last for several years, sometimes forever, as proved when Cobb and Mal were shown walking hand in hand as elders several Limbo years later. Time is heavily manipulated in this film because it is the main basis of these dreams. It is manipulated to be extended in each stage of the dream. The fact that Edith Piafs song, Non Je Ne Regrette Rien is slowed down shows that time is being stretched in each layer of the dream, especially coming up towards the Kicks which bring the team back to reality on the plane. This is hyper reality as the space in this film was manipulated to be of parallel editing and slowed down music. The phrase applies in a large extent to the texts that I have studied, Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Inception (2010). Inceptions use of stretching time in the layers of the dreams is a large manipulation of the use of time. It also has motifs of Cobbs children and the totem that spins in a dream and falls in reality takes up a large space in the film. In Inglourious Basterds, the unique layouts of the storybook theme, Tarantinos trademark font that is used in his other films and the film within a film are a large manipulation of space in the film as well as the parodies of the main war antagonists, such as Hitler. Finally the incorrect date of the war ending and the slow motion editing are heavy manipulations of time.