Postmodernist film is a classification for works that articulate the themes and ideas of postmodernism through the medium of cinema. Some of the goals of postmodernist film are to subvert the mainstream conventions of narrative structure and characterization, and to test the audience's suspension of disbelief. Typically, such films also break down the cultural divide between high and low art and often upend typical portrayals of gender, race, class, genre, and time with the goal of creating something that does not abide by traditional narrative expression.
Specific elements Modernist film came to maturity in the era between WWI and WWII with characteristics such as montage and symbolic imagery, and often took the form of expressionist cinema and surrealist cinema (as seen in the works of Fritz Lang and Luis Buñuel) while postmodernist filmsimilar to postmodernism as a wholeis a reaction to the modernist works and to their tendencies (such as nostalgia and angst). Modernist cinema has been said to have "explored and exposed the formal concerns of the medium by placing them at the forefront of consciousness. Modernist cinema questions and made visible the meaning-production practices of film."Beginning Postmodernism, Manchester University Press: 1999 by Tim Woods The auteur theory and idea of an author creating a work from their singular vision was a cultural advancement that coincided with the further maturation of modernist cinema. It has been said that "To investigate the transparency of the image is modernist but to undermine its reference to reality is to engage with the aesthetics of postmodernism." The modernist film has more faith in the author, the individual, and the accessibility of reality itself than the postmodernist film, and is generally more sincere in tone.
Postmodernism is in many ways interested in the liminal space that would be typically ignored by more modernist or traditionally narrative offerings. Henri Bergson writes in his book Creative Evolution:
Postmodernist film is often separated from modernist cinema and traditional narrative film by three key characteristics. One of them is an extensive use of homage or pastiche. The second element is meta-reference or self-reflexivity, highlighting the construction and relation of the image to other images in media and not to any kind of external reality. A self-referential film calls the viewer's attentioneither through characters' knowledge of their own fictional nature, or through visualsthat the film itself is only a film. This is sometimes achieved by emphasizing the unnatural look of an image which seems contrived. Another technique used to achieve meta-reference is the use of intertextuality, in which the film's characters reference or discuss other works of fiction. Additionally, many postmodern films tell stories that unfold out of chronological order, deconstructing or fragmenting time so as to highlight the fact that what is appearing on screen is constructed. A third common element is a bridging of the gap between highbrow and lowbrow activities and artistic styles, e.g. a parody of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling in which Adam is reaching for a McDonald's burger rather than the hand of God. The use of homage and pastiche can, in and of itself, result in a fusion of high and low art. Lastly, contradictions of all sortswhether it be in visual technique, characters' morals, etc.are crucial to postmodernism.
Specific postmodern examples
Once Upon a Time in the West Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West has often been referred to by critics as an example of a postmodern Western. The 1968 spaghetti Western revolves around a beautiful widow, a mysterious gunslinger playing a harmonica, a ruthless villain, and a lovable but hard-nosed bandit who just escaped from jail. The story was developed by Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Dario Argento by watching classic American Westerns, and the final product is a deliberate attempt to both pay homage to and subvert Western genre conventions and audience expectations. Among the most notable examples of intertextuality are the plot similarities to Johnny Guitar, the visual reference to High Noon of a clock stopped at high noon in the middle of a gunfight, and the casting of Henry Fonda as the story's sadistic antagonist which was a deliberate subversion of Fonda's image as a hero established in such films as My Darling Clementine and Fort Apache, both directed by John Ford.
Blade Runner
Ridley Scott's Blade Runner might be the best-known postmodernist film. Scott's 1982 film is about a future dystopia where "replicants" (human cyborgs) have been invented and are deemed dangerous enough to hunt down when they escape. There is tremendous effacement of boundaries between genres and cultures, and styles that are generally more separate, along with the fusion of disparate styles and times, a common trope in postmodernist cinema. The fusion of noir and science-fiction is another example of the film deconstructing cinema and genre. This embodies the postmodern tendency to destroy boundaries and genres into a self-reflexive product. The 2017 Academy Award-winning sequel Blade Runner 2049 also tackled postmodern anxieties.
Pulp Fiction
Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction is another example of a postmodernist film.Tincknell, Estella (2006). "The Soundtrack Movie, Nostalgia and Consumption", in Film's Musical Moments, ed. Ian Conrich and Estella Tincknell (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press). King, Geoff (2002). Film Comedy (London: Wallflower Press). Wood, James (November 12, 1994). The Guardian. The Palme d'Or-winning film tells the interweaving stories of gangsters, a boxer, and robbers. The 1994 film breaks down chronological time and demonstrates a particular fascination with intertextuality: bringing in texts from both traditionally "high" and "low" realms of art. This foregrounding of media places the self as "a loose, transitory combination of media consumption choices." Pulp Fiction fractures time (by the use of asynchronous time lines) and by using styles of prior decades and combining them together in the movie. By focusing on intertextuality and the subjectivity of time, Pulp Fiction demonstrates the postmodern obsession with signs and subjective perspective as the exclusive location of anything resembling meaning.
Other selected examples
Aside from the aforementioned works, modern and postmodern cinema includes films such as:
20th century
Blackmail (1929) Rynox (1932)The Postmodern Mystery, list by Graham Williamson Hellzapoppin' (1941)Postmodernism, list by RYM Unofficial The Big Sleep (1946) Out of the Past (1947) Duck Amuck (1953) Glen or Glenda (1953) All That Heaven Allows (1955) Bride of the Monster (1955) Written on the Wind (1956) Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) A Movie (1958) Touch of Evil (1958) Night of the Ghouls (1958) Hiroshima mon amour (1959) Breathless (1960)Модернизм, Постмодернизм и Метамодерн в кино на примере сигарет за 17 минут L'Avventura (1960) Psycho (1960) The Sinister Urge (1960) Blast of Silence (1961) Last Year at Marienbad (1961) West Side Story (1961) Vivre sa Vie (1962) Cherry Town (1962)Шостакович: сумбур и музыка 8½ (1963) Le Mepris (1963)A Postmodern Consideration of Jean-Luc Godard's Le Mépris Scorpio Rising (1963) The Raven (1963)Американская готика Фрэнсиса Форда Копполы Dr. Strangelove (1964)Fragments of Tragedy in Postmodern Film – Google Books (ch.3) Woman in the Dunes (1964) A Fistful of Dollars (1964)ПОСТМОДЕРН ИЛИ МЕТАМОДЕРН: кино после конца истории Pierrot Le Fou (1965) Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures (1965) Juliet of the Spirits (1965) Alphaville (1965) Persona (1966) Batman (1966) Blowup (1966) Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (1967)Пять вещей о постмодернизме, которых вы не знали Weekend (1967) Branded to Kill (1967) Casino Royale (1967) Playtime (1967)Постмодернизм в отечественном кинематографе Spider Baby (1967) Yellow Submarine (1968) The Movie Orgy (1968) Night of the Living Dead (1968) Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968) Targets (1968) Teorema (1968) Death by Hanging (1968) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)Circles, Myth, and Darwinism: Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and ... The Color of Pomegranates (1969) Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) The Diamond Arm (1969) Fellini Satyricon (1969)Review: Redefining Black Film by Mark A. Reid The Honeymoon Killers (1970) Performance (1970) The Conformist (1970) El Topo (1970) A Clockwork Orange (1971) Necromania (1971) Pilate and Others (1972)Как экранизировать "Мастера и Маргариту"? The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) Badlands (1973) The Holy Mountain (1973) Johnny Corncob (1973) The Long Goodbye (1973) Mean Streets (1973) Ivan Vasilievich changes his profession (1973) Amarcord (1973) F for Fake (1973) Blazing Saddles (1974) Pastoral: To Die in the Country (1974) Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974) Chinatown (1974) Coonskin (1975) Tommy (1975) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Hedgehog in the Fog (1975)«Ежик в тумане» и «Длинный мост в нужную сторону» как русский постмодернизм в мультипликации Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) Taxi Driver (1976) Star Wars (1977) The American Friend (1977) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) House (1977) Dawn of the Dead (1978) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) Getting to Know the Big, Wide World (1978) Piranha (1978) All That Jazz (1979) Alien (1979) Stalker (1979) Die Ehe der Maria Braun (1979) Apocalypse Now (1979) Mad Max (1979) The Ninth Configuration (1980) The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) The Shining (1980) The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (1980) Raging Bull (1980) Dressed to Kill (1980) The Falls (1980) Diva (1981) Escape from New York (1981) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) The Evil Dead (1981) and Evil Dead II (1987) The Howling (1981) Ms. 45 (1981) Ragtime (1981) Blow Out (1981) Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981) Lili Marleen (1981) Kamikaze 1989 (1982) The Thing (1982) The Atomic Cafe (1982) Veronika Voss (1982) Koyaanisqatsi (1982) Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) Fall Guy (1982) Liquid Sky (1982) The Entity (1982) The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)Screening Modernism - Cineaste Magazine Sans Soleil (1983) Videodrome (1983)Secret Agency in Mainstream Postmodern CinemaPostmodern Hollywood - Google Books (pgs.34-35)Secret Agency in Mainstream Postmodern Cinema Zelig (1983) Love Streams (1984) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Repo Man (1984)David and David at the Movies: Sorry to Bother You - Indiana University Cinema Streets of Fire (1984) Stop Making Sense (1984)Speaking in Tongues: Stop Making Ends as a Postmodern Artifact (PDF)Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990 – Lehmann Maupin Radioactive Dreams (1984) The Terminator (1984) This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) Werewolf Paramedics (1984) After Hours (1985) The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) When Father Was Away on Business (1985) Brazil (1985) Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) Shoah (1985) Tampopo (1985) Terrorizers (1986)Exiles in Modernity - Chicago Reader Mauvais Sang (1986) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) Blue Velvet (1986) Salvador (1986) The Name of the Rose (1986) A Zed and Two Noughts (1986)Circles, Myth, and Darwinism: Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Peter Greenaway's A Zed and Two Noughts (ZOO) - Offscreen Kin-dza-dza! (1986)Георгий Данелия: «Тостуемый пьет до дна» Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)Ranking The ‘Friday The 13th’ Films: A Sacred Walloween Listicle Something Wild (1986)What Was Postmodern Cinema? Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)“Ferris Bueller's Day Off” postmodern hedonism and the Reagan era's neoliberal morality Repentance (1987)Культурная война и её участники Tractors (1987)