Postmodernism Through Film

Postmodernism is a style or concept of art that shies away from big ideologies and tries to satire society. Postmodernism started in the late 20th century and since then postmodernism has made a significant impact on all forms of art, including film.

Postmodernism has been showing up in film for quite some time, with many saying Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975) was one of the first films to successful pull off a postmodernism feel. In order for a film to be postmodern it needs to use certain techniques that separate them from most films.

One example of these techniques used in Monty Python and The Holy Grail is the use of meta-storytelling. If a movie has meta-storytelling then it means the film is aware of itself, and Monty Python pulls this off beautifully. The Holy Grail is filled with hyper-unrealistic situations used by the filmmakers to pull the characters and the audience out of the movie. This technique was very rarely used prior and helped turn this movie into an instant classic.

Another technique is non-linear storytelling. This technique can be found in films like Pulp Fiction and Memento. The split up timeline of Memento is a postmodernism tactic that perfectly captures the struggles of memory loss and contradicts modern storytelling norms. This is also effective in Pulp Fiction. Tarantino is considered the master of postmodernist cinema. All of his films have some sort of a postmodern element to them. In Pulp Fiction, the linear storyline is replaced with a chapter system, like novels. This system affects the linear story of the film, but instead gives you a series of interconnecting stories. This technique allowed Tarantino to have one chapter end with the death of a main character near the middle of the film, and have that some character walk into the sunset at the end.

Satire is another key technique used in postmodern films. A great example is The Big Lebowski. This film takes shots at the structures of modern films. The character "The Dude" often quotes other when trying to make a point, indicating a lack of originality in the modern world. The film also has many wild, intriguing, and beautiful scenes, pointing at the modern filmgoer's obsessions with visual aspects of film. Finally the movie ends leaving many questions unanswered, this was used to break free from the classic style of storytelling, ending in a resolution.

Postmodernism in film is a growing technique that that has only improved over the years with films like Inception and Her. Its techniques and fresh ideas are essential to the modern film industry to break the norms and provide new experiences