On postmodernism
I just watched a movie called 24 Hour Party People. Watching that movie I keep sayng to myself "This is postmodern film." What is that magic quality that makes me say that, what in that movie is so "postmodern"? Or is anything?
So this movie is about 70's and 80's Manchester, or Madchester as that eras Manchester is often referred to. Term Madchester comes from the youth movement of that time that was mainly canalized through music. The movie is about bands that made greatest appearence at that time and the movie is told using man called Tony Wilson as medium through which most of the bands at the era are connected. Tony Wilson was a central figure on promoting many huge bands such as Joy Division, New Order and Blue Monday.
Well, enough about the summation of the idea. Now, to the reasons why I consider this movie to be postmodern. Maybe these reasons somehow clear up at least my conception on postmodern as a concept. Firstly, this movie is eye-catchingly aware of its ways of expressing itself. Now I'm talking of this movie as if it is a person, but I refer to whole of the producing team, kinda. Well, what I mean by being aware of oneself is that the movie comes out as a self-ironic ensemble, constantly being conscious of the effects it uses. Michael Winterbottom, the director of the movie, I guess is the mastermind behind this. Tony Wilson was and is very self-conscious man and this movie tells the story from his angle very plausibly.
Secondly, the story is told in very fragmented way. And this fragmentation could be a negative statement but when it's handled very nicely, like in this movie, it's a great effect with wich you can sort of "bring the movie closer to the viewer". Here I compare Michael Winterbottoms outlook on cinema or movie making to that of Jean-Luc Godards. They both have this way of making moments count. These moments are then wowen together to this narrative texture, resembling the way how memory functions. This allows spectators to be embedded in the centre of the film and be living (in the stong sense of the word) throughout the movie. Someone might disagree totally with this comparison of these two great directors but I see many similarities (although also great discrepancies) between 24 Hour Party People and Pierrot le fou (translated in silly ways: "Crazy Pete" or "Pierrot goes wild") and the way that these movies confront the audiences imagination. Well, I got a little bit lost from the subject and this became more of a writing about cinema but still, I recommend these two films because they both add on the understanding of postmodernism and human beings life in general. Both being very different kind of films, they complete each other in nice ways. The humor, the fragmentation, the moment, that is to say, the human essence, is immanent in these movies. Nice.
So this movie is about 70's and 80's Manchester, or Madchester as that eras Manchester is often referred to. Term Madchester comes from the youth movement of that time that was mainly canalized through music. The movie is about bands that made greatest appearence at that time and the movie is told using man called Tony Wilson as medium through which most of the bands at the era are connected. Tony Wilson was a central figure on promoting many huge bands such as Joy Division, New Order and Blue Monday.
Well, enough about the summation of the idea. Now, to the reasons why I consider this movie to be postmodern. Maybe these reasons somehow clear up at least my conception on postmodern as a concept. Firstly, this movie is eye-catchingly aware of its ways of expressing itself. Now I'm talking of this movie as if it is a person, but I refer to whole of the producing team, kinda. Well, what I mean by being aware of oneself is that the movie comes out as a self-ironic ensemble, constantly being conscious of the effects it uses. Michael Winterbottom, the director of the movie, I guess is the mastermind behind this. Tony Wilson was and is very self-conscious man and this movie tells the story from his angle very plausibly.
Secondly, the story is told in very fragmented way. And this fragmentation could be a negative statement but when it's handled very nicely, like in this movie, it's a great effect with wich you can sort of "bring the movie closer to the viewer". Here I compare Michael Winterbottoms outlook on cinema or movie making to that of Jean-Luc Godards. They both have this way of making moments count. These moments are then wowen together to this narrative texture, resembling the way how memory functions. This allows spectators to be embedded in the centre of the film and be living (in the stong sense of the word) throughout the movie. Someone might disagree totally with this comparison of these two great directors but I see many similarities (although also great discrepancies) between 24 Hour Party People and Pierrot le fou (translated in silly ways: "Crazy Pete" or "Pierrot goes wild") and the way that these movies confront the audiences imagination. Well, I got a little bit lost from the subject and this became more of a writing about cinema but still, I recommend these two films because they both add on the understanding of postmodernism and human beings life in general. Both being very different kind of films, they complete each other in nice ways. The humor, the fragmentation, the moment, that is to say, the human essence, is immanent in these movies. Nice.
posted by Bloggari itse at 8:42 AM
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