theorists for postmodernism

Jacques Derrida proposed that a text cannot belong to no genre, it cannot be without... a genre. Every text participates in one or several genres, there is no genreless text

(Derrida 1981, 61).

Levi Strauss and his theory of 'binary opposites', he also however developed the theory of 'bricolage'.

Baudrillard's idea of hyperreality was heavily influenced by phenomenology, semiotics, and Marshall McLuhan who coined the phrase 'the medium is the message'. By this he means that the manner in which the message is shown becomes more important than the meaning of the message itself.
Some examples are simpler: the McDonald's "M" arches create a world with the promise of endless amounts of identical food, when in "reality" the "M" represents nothing, and the food produced is neither identical nor infinite.

Frederic Jameson sees postmodernism as vacuous and trapped in circular references. Nothing more that a series of self referential 'jokes' which have no deeper meaning or purpose.

Jean-François Lyotard

rejected what he called the “grand narratives” or universal “meta-narratives.”

Grand narratives refer to the great theories of history, science, religion, politics. For example, Lyotard rejects the ideas that everything is knowable by science or that as history moves forward in time, humanity makes progress. He would reject universal political ‘solutions’ such as communism or capitalism. He also rejects the idea of absolute freedom.

In studying media texts it is possible also to apply this thinking to a rejection of the Western moralistic narratives of Hollywood film where good triumphs over evil, or where violence and exploitation are suppressed for the sake of public decency.

Lyotard favours ‘micronarratives’ that can go in any direction, that reflect diversity, that are unpredictable.

Rosenau (1993)
1. Its anti-theoretical position is essentially a theoretical stand.
2. While Postmodernism stresses the irrational, instruments of reason are freely employed to advance its perspective.
3. The Postmodern prescription to focus on the marginal is itself an evaluative emphasis of precisely the sort that it otherwise attacks.
4. Postmodernism stress intertextuality but often treats text in isolation.
5. By adamently rejecting modern criteria for assessing theory, Postmodernists cannot argue that there are no valid criteria for judgment.
6. Postmodernism criticizes the inconsistency of modernism, but refuses to be held to norms of consistency itself.
7. Postmodernists contradict themselves by relinquishing truth claims in their own writings.

david fincher - fight club

Filmography

• Alien 3 (1992)
• se7en (1995)
• the game (1997)
• fight club (1999)
• panic room (2002)
• zodiac (2007)
• the curious case of benjamin button (2008)
• the social network (2010)
• the girl with the dragon tattoo (2011)

The Dust Brothers

inglourious basterds paragraphs

in inglourious basterds there are many different links intertextualities to other films, all of the clothing and setings are spotless, the scene is revealed and so on... all of these elements make the film postmodernism. in the film Aldo's clothing at the end are spotless and he has been dragged on the floor and also sat in the back of a truk that would have been used for trnasporting troops, this would mean that the inside of the truck would be filthy, but when he gets out his suit is spotless and also not a single hair is out of place, this is postmodern as it is not true becuase Aldo's clothes would be filthy and it contrasts to what the typical idea for war is as it is a dirty and mucky job.




the film is mainly a Homage to the war as it does not take the mick out of anyone exept for hitler, who no one likes as he started the war trying to wipe oput all of the jews. Although the film does not follow the direct path of what happened it ends in the killing of hitler.

the storyline of this film seems to be more of a fairytale as it begins with once upon a time and it also has an ending in a forrest, which is stereotypical for a fairytail. this is a nother postmodern element as it is contradiction the typical war film story plot.

inglourious basterds hitler pastiche

the next element of postmodernism in inglourious basterds is when hitler has a big paddy like a child and this is a complete cntrast to what the war is as hitler is acting like a child not getting what they want (this is taking the piss out of hitler)

another example of a pastiche to hitler would be when he gets the red ring of death on his xbox 360

link to youtube film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J_1yEXrWtk

herer is the clip of hitler having the paddy from inglourious basterds:

song in inglourious basterds

Inglourious basterds is postmodern because it has intertextuality in it such as the songs as there is elements of there being spaghetti western songs as shown below:




here is the song in a spaghetti western:



this song that is in inglourious basterds seems out of place and this is a postmodern thing to do as it tells the audience how clever and origional the director is

Inglourious Basterds theory applied

the theorist Fiske could be applied to Inglourious Basterds as the 35MM Nitrate film print is originally used for entertaining an audience, however it is used as a weapon to kill all of the nazis in the cinema and this is taking the original contextual meaning of a nitrate film print and giving it a new meaning, in this case for a weapon and that is one of Fiske's theories.

inglourious Basterds Homage or Pastiche?

although inglourious basterds does not follow the correct path of what happened in WW2 they have followed the main story line and that is that Hitler is killed and his top officers were also killed, this finished the war.

so this means that Inglourious Basterds is a homage, making a tribute to all of the people who lost their lives to hitler and the nazi army, this is shown when the two american jewish soldiers are over killing hitlers corpse as shown below:

this could be shown as their revenge to hitler as you can see all of the anger in the mans face when he is shooting

Inglourious Basterds post modern elements

Quentin Tarantino's foot fetish is shown when Bridget Von Hammersmark is being interrogated by LT. Aldo Raine and also when she is killed by Col. Hans Landa as seen below in the YouTube clip

another postmodern element would be when Samuel Jackson is giving a small introduction to the nitrate tapes

also when there is the scene of Shosanna getting ready the camera reveals the set letting the audience know that they are watching a film and this is very postmodern

here is the link to the youtube clip, (play the video from 2:00 into the youtube clip) and you will see the set being revealed to the audience:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBk0-43GIdY

task 3 a look into kick ass songs

originally from:

task 3

the film kick ass uses intertextuality of varios media, but i will be looking into the songs / sound tracks that are used. below is an example of the song from when big dady is killing all of frank domeagos men in the ware house:

task 2 - key words

simulacra

simulation

hyperreality

bricolage

addition

deletion

substitution

transposition

pastiche

homage

grand narratives / meta narratives

paradox

pluralism

relativism

task 1 (Levi Strauss)

Bricolage:
this is when traditional objects or language are given a new meaning and context

an example of this would be in inglorious baserds as there is a baseball bat that has a meaning of sprotsman ship and fun, but it is being used as a weapon to kill nazis.

task 1 (Jacques Derrida)

a text cannot be genreless and that every text participates in one or several genres

this means that the text will always have a genre, even if it has several like a postmodern film pastiche or hommage

an example of this would be scary movie as this is supposed to have no genre because it is a postmodern pastiche and it has references form almost every genre of films that are out, although it falls into the comedy side of the genre

this is what Derrida means as the film is aimed at being genreless, but it fits in to the comedy genre so the text of scary movie is comedy



another example would be the waiters in inglourios basterds

lesson 1 (Fiske)

"we make codes to create the meaning."

this means that we use other examples of media to create the meaning of something that is happening or has already hapened. For example:

when drey is talking about some body who stole all of their coke and the gang members think say that he looked like bat man

example of a postmodern film (pasteche)

theory lesson 1

Fiske
The viewer of a film knows what a car chase scene is by relating it to a car chase scene that they have previously seen, therefore although they have not experianced a car chase they know what one is

derrida


Levi - Strauss
Writers constructed texts form other texts (intertextuality) by a proccess of:
addition, deletion, substitution, transpostion

Baudrillard
developed the idea of simulation and simulacra simulation
- the representations become more important than the real thing

the order of simulation:

1. signs thought of as refelecting reality:re-presenting "objective"Truth
2. signs mask reality: reinformces notion of reality
3. signs mask the absence of reality, e.g. disney world, watergate, LA life, jogging Phychotherapy, organic food
4. signs become....

simularcra - have no relation to reality (simulate a simulation)

the gulf wars has became a video game, 9/11 has become a coverage
- they are not the events anymore

A look into Quentin Tarantino

Bibliography
At the age of 16 Tarantino left school to join a full time acting class, he then gave up the acting class and said that he admired directors more than actors. He also worked in a video rental store before becoming a film maker, he paid close attention to the genres of films that people liked.
He was born on March 27, 1963, in Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.


Filmography
1987 My Best Friend's Birthday

1992 Reservoir Dogs

1994 Pulp Fiction

1995 Four Rooms

1997 Jackie Brown

2003 Kill Bill: Vol. 1

2004 Kill Bill: Vol. 2

2005 Sin City

2007 Death Proof

2009 Inglourious Basterds


TV series
1995 ER

2004 Jimmy Kimmel Live!

2005 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation


Reviews of Inglourious Basterds
It has an 88% rating
Audience rating: A brilliant rebound with a wonderfully complex story, a great cast, and a score that's really up to par with Tarantino's standards...

If you love Quentin, get ready for a hell of a ride!

Magnificent

By far the best World War II film I've ever seen.


Music used in the film.

• The Green Leaves of Summer – Nick Perito – From the movie The Alamo
• The Verdict – Ennio Morricone – From the movie The Big Gundown
• L’incontro Con La Figlia – Ennio Morricone – From the movie The Return of Ringo
• White Lightning – Charles Bernstein – From the movie White Lightning
• Il Mercenario (Reprisa) - Ennio Morricone – From the movie Il Mercenario
• Slaughter - Billy Preston – From the movie Slaughter
• Algiers, November 1954 – Ennio Morricone & Gillo Pontecorvo – From the movie The Battle of Algiers
• The Surrender (La resa) – Ennio Morricone – From the movie The Big Gundown
• One Silver Dollar (Un Dollaro Bucato) – Gianni Ferrio – From the movie Blood for a Silver Dollar
• Bath Attack – Charles Bernstein – From the movie The Entity
• Davon geht die Welt nicht unter – Zarah Leander – From the movie Die große Liebe
• The Man With The Big Sombrero – June Havoc – From the movie Hi Diddle Diddle
• Ich wollt ich wär ein Huhn – Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch – From the movie Glückskinder
• Main Theme From Dark of the Sun – Jacques Loussier – From the movie Dark of the Sun
• Cat People (Putting Out Fire) – David Bowie – From the movie Cat People
• Mystic and Severe – Ennio Morricone – From the movie Death Rides a Horse
• The Devil’s Rumble – Mike Curb and The Arrows – From the movie Devil’s Angels
• Zulus – Elmer Bernstein – From the movie Zulu Dawn
• Tiger Tank – Lalo Schifrin – From the movie Kelly’s Heroes
• Un Amico – Ennio Morricone – From the movie Revolver
• Eastern Condors – Sherman Chow Gam – Cheung – From the movie Eastern Condors
• Rabbia e Tarantella – Ennio Morricone – From the movie Allonsanfàn

From: http://reelsoundtrack.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/inglourious-basterds-soundtrack/

Description of Blaxploitation.
Blaxploitation is a film genre that emerged from the united states, 1971. Blaxploitation was aimed at the black, urban population. They were the first genre of films to feature sound tracks of funk and soul music. The stars in the main cast were either all or mainly black.


Description of Spaghetti Western and Western.
The spaghetti western genre of film is all about cowboys and Indians, the main set for a cowboy western is either in a desert or in Texas and the storyline is always about a treasure such as gold
Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western film that emerged in the mid-1960s, so named because most were produced and directed by Italians, usually in co-production with a Spanish partner and in some cases a German partner. The partners would insist some of their stars be cast in the film.
Originally, spaghetti westerns were characterized by their production in the Italian language, low budgets, and a recognizable highly fluid and minimalist cinematography which eschewed (even "demythologized") many of the conventions of earlier Westerns. This was partly intentional and partly the context of a different cultural background.


Ennio Morricone

Mini biography

A classmate of director Sergio Leone with whom he would form one of the great director/composer partnerships (right up there with Eisenstein & Prokofiev, Hitchcock & Herrmann, Fellini & Rota), Ennio Morricone studied at Rome's Santa Cecilia Conservatory, where he specialized in trumpet. His first film scores were relatively undistinguished, but he was hired by Leone for A Fistful of Dollars (1964) on the strength of some of his song arrangements. His score for that film, with its sparse arrangements, unorthodox instrumentation (bells, electric guitars, harmonicas, the distinctive twang of the jew's harp) and memorable tunes, revolutionized the way music would be used in Westerns, and it is hard to think of a post-Morricone Western score that doesn't in some way reflect his influence. Although his name will always be synonymous with the spaghetti Western, Morricone has also contributed to a huge range of other film genres: comedies, dramas, thrillers, horror films, romances, art movies, exploitation movies -making him one of the film world's most versatile artists. He has written nearly 400 film scores, so a brief summary is impossible, but his most memorable work includes the Leone films, Gillo Pontecorvo 's The Battle of Algiers (1966) , Roland Joffé's The Mission (1986), Brian De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) and Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (1988), plus a rare example of sung opening credits for Pier Paolo Pasolini's Uccellacci e uccellini (1966).

Prizes and awards:

• 1965 — Nastro d'Argento for A Fistful of Dollars
• 1967 — Diapason d'Or
• 1969 — Premio Spoleto Cinema
• 1970 — Nastro d'argento for Metti una sera a cena
• 1971 — Nastro d'argento for Sacco e Vanzetti
• 1972 — Cork Film International for La califfa
• 1979 — Oscar Nomination for Days of Heaven
• 1979 — Premio Vittorio de Sica
• 1981 — Premio della critica discografica for Il prato
• 1984 — Premio Zurlini
• 1985 — Nastro d'argento and BAFTA for Once Upon A Time In America
• 1986 — Oscar Nomination, BAFTA and Golden Globe Award for The Mission
• 1986 — Premio Vittorio de Sica
• 1988 — Nastro d'argento, BAFTA, Grammy Award and Oscar Nomination for The Untouchables
• 1988 — David di Donatello for Gli occhiali d'oro
• 1989 — David di Donatello for Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
• 1989 — Ninth Annual Ace Winner for Il giorno prima
• 1989 — Pardo d'Oro alla carriera (Locarno Film Festival)
• 1990 — BAFTA, Prix Fondation Sacem del XLIII Cannes Film Festival and David di Donatello for Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
• 1991 — David di Donatello for Stanno tutti bene
• 1992 — Oscar Nomination for Bugsy
• 1992 — Pentagramma d'oro
• 1992 — Premio Michelangelo
• 1992 — Grolla d'oro alla carriera (Saint Vincent)
• 1993 — David di Donatello and Efebo d'Argento for Jonas che visse nella balena
• 1993 — Globo d'oro Stampa estera in Italia
• 1993 — Gran Premio SACEM audiovisivi
• 1994 — ASCAP Golden Soundtrack award (Los Angeles)
• 1995 — Premio Rota
• 1995 — Leone d'Oro Honorary award (Venice Film Festival)
• 1996 -- Premio citta' di Roma
• 1996 — Premio Cappelli
• 1996 — Premio Accademia di Santa Cecilia
• 1997 — Premio Flaiano
• 1998 — Columbus Prize
• 1999 — Erich Wolfgang Korngold Internationaler Preis für Film
• 1999 — Exsquibbidles Film Academy lifetime achievement award
• 2000 — Golden Globe Award for The Legend of 1900 (1998)
• 2000 — David di Donatello for Canorne inverso
• 2000 — Oscar nomination for M alèna
• 2002 — Honorary Degree by the "Seconda Università" of Rome
• 2003 — Golden Eagle Award for 72 Meters
• 2003 — Honorary Senator of the Filmscoring Class of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München
• 2006 — Grand Officer award from President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
• 2007 — Honorary Academy Award for career achievement
• 2007 — The Film & TV Music Award for Lifetime Achievement
• 2008 — Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental, performed by Bruce Springsteen
• 2008 — Knight in the Order of the Legion of Honor
• 2009 — Medal of Merits for Macedonia
• 2009 — America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation
• 2010 — Polar Music Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of the Arts

A simple WW2 Timeline:

1939

• Hitler invades Poland on 1 September. Britain and France declare war on Germany two days later.

1940

• Rationing starts in the UK.
• German 'Blitzkrieg' overwhelms Belgium, Holland and France.
• Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain.
• British Expeditionary Force evacuated from Dunkirk.
• British victory in Battle of Britain forces Hitler to postpone invasion plans.

1941

• Hitler begins Operation Barbarossa - the invasion of Russia.
• The Blitz continues against Britain's major cities.
• Allies take Tobruk in North Africa, and resist German attacks.
• Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, and the US enters the war.

1942

• Germany suffers setbacks at Stalingrad and El Alamein.
• Singapore falls to the Japanese in February - around 25,000 prisoners taken.
• American naval victory at Battle of Midway, in June, marks turning point in Pacific War.
• Mass murder of Jewish people at Auschwitz begins.

1943

• Surrender at Stalingrad marks Germany's first major defeat.
• Allied victory in North Africa enables invasion of Italy to be launched.
• Italy surrenders, but Germany takes over the battle.
• British and Indian forces fight Japanese in Burma.

1944

• Allies land at Anzio and bomb monastery at Monte Cassino.
• Soviet offensive gathers pace in Eastern Europe.
• D Day: The Allied invasion of France. Paris is liberated in August.
• Guam liberated by the US Okinawa, and Iwo Jima bombed.

1945

• Auschwitz liberated by Soviet troops.
• Russians reach Berlin: Hitler commits suicide and Germany surrenders on 7 May.
• Truman becomes President of the US on Roosevelt's death, and Attlee replaces Churchill.
• After atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrenders on 14 August.

A quote from Derrida

"The centre is not the centre. The concept of a centred structure is...contradictorily coherent. And as always, coherence in contradiction expresses the force of desire"