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| ± or postmodernism ±
á
á
This is because
V
Nothing's new!
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.
(What follows is a bit over-simplified, but you will get the idea.)
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.
| 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.
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
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,
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):
The film narrative moves back and forwards between the movie
story and that of the actors making the movie.
!
$
!
!
"
Ë
Ö
á
Ö
self-awareness
multiple styles
non-linear narratives
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.
"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'
sirens,
a blind prophet
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.
(2003) is
a pastiche of a wide variety of sources,
genres and styles, mostly taken from
the movies he watched as a kid.
spaghetti westerns
"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
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):
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.
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;
á