Talk:Postmodernist film

Metafiction or postmodernism
There's a confusion here of postmodernism with the devices of metafiction or mise en abyme or self-consciousness. The latter are just one example of postmodernism in the arts. Postmodernism has to be in some form historicized - it belongs to a period, that which is after modernism - whereas metafiction etc is an eternal feature of narrative.

And British people spell colour with a u but we don't use "whilst". Not since Woodrow Wilson's day. 217.154.102.195 (talk) 14:55, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

what is 'suspension of disbelief'? This is not clear and needs to be clarified to make the article readable and understandable. - 83.70.255.59 18:47, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
 * there is a wikipedia article actually devoted to the concept of the suspension of disbelief. a link to the phrase would be, i agree, very helpful for those who might not know what it means.

From the page: "Whilst academia has concentrated on art-house works, all the definitions of "Postmodernist Film" equally apply to many Hollywood musicals". First off, who had the nerve to use "whilst"? Second off, this ridiculous claim has *no sources*. A general problem for the page. Thomas1617 (talk) 22:18, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

There is a problem with any definition of postmodernism. It is a philosophy grown out of a misinterpretation of the original use of cultural relativism, a tool which allowed anthropologists to understand other cultures without applying their own cultural values to that understanding. This gave rise to the belief that there is no authoritative voice or correct point of view when cultural relativism met post-colonial guilt.

If there is no authoritative voice or correct point of view, how can you possibly have an authoritative reference? More importantly, how could anyone ever fail an examination on the subject? Other than writing something clear, concise and understandable of course. If you can find a clear and concise definition of postmodernism in any field, please let me know. All I have ever found is waffle, other than one:

Postmodernism: Surrealism without a sense of humour. Ceci n'est pas une pipe.

However, the following is more typical, and the fact that this person begins with 'in brief' underlines the problem.

"In brief, postmodernism may be thought of as an attitude which eschews an essential, transcendent subject, rejects teleology and historical destiny, and discredits faith in totalizing grand narratives." http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Postmodernism.html If anyone can work out what this actually means, please let me know. Personally, I think that postmodernism is simply an employment creation scheme for sociologists and cultural commentators left with nothing to do after the collapse of the iron curtain.

This article makes a great deal more sense.

When we watch a film, we know it isn't real. It's populated with actors and often shot on fake sets. Nevertheless, we pretend it's real to enjoy the pleasures and diversions the story offers.

A postmodernist film - like the current "Adaptation," a comedy about a man struggling to write the very movie we're seeing - doesn't even pretend to be real. It's aware that it's only a movie and in fact celebrates its unreality.

This isn't anything new. Jeanine Basinger, professor of film at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., notes that when silent film comics such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin broke from the action around them and stared directly into the camera, they were creating a postmodernist moment.

"In 'The Road to Morocco,' " Basinger said in a recent phone conversation, "Bob Hope and Bing Crosby get tied up in gunny sacks and thrown into the desert. In the next shot they're walking across the dunes and one of them says, 'Do you think the audience will wonder how we got out of those sacks?'

"That's postmodernism. Of course, the makers of those movies didn't use that phrase, which is something critics and scholars came up with in recent years to describe what they were seeing." http://www.temple.edu/ispr/examples/ex03_02_09b.html

Oh, and one more thing; the word 'whilst' is probably used by people who spell colour with a 'u', and not as I found recently in a postmodern dictionary, colour spelled 'vpi;pit'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.41.22.214 (talk) 15:10, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

"There is also an absence in this page of the discussion of modernism. There were some excellent comments before mine discussing the importance of remembering that Postmodernism at this point refers to a specific historical period. Not only is this true, but it is important to remember that postmodernism was also a reaction to the very specific credos and period of modernism. The word postmodernism means after modernism, and evident as this may be, it is important to remember the context under which postmodernism (postmodernity, etc.) was born."

"Other considerations to improve this page might be examples of postmodern cinema (or even postmodern works in other media that could be used for examples). Ambiguity is one of the highlights of the postmodern, but there are concrete examples that can and should be discussed and listed." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zac.allard (talk • contribs) 18:53, 6 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Yeaaaah, this ain't straight. There isn't a clear definition for "Postmodernist".  The three examples have very little in common. BradVesp (talk) 20:57, 30 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Too, the technology that allows for cinematography has only been around for 150 years. It seems to be a fairly modern art form (considering civilization and art's been around for thousands of years).  I think the whole medium needs more history for there to be a postmodernism.  Not that one can't apply the academic thought given to literature and painting to cinema.  The topic should really be postmodernism in storytelling or postmodernism in visual arts rather then in film.  Story telling and visual art have been round for millennia, film has been around for decades. BradVesp (talk) 14:47, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

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Examples
Some say that Shrek and Enchanted are postmodern. Legit? Espngeek (talk) 10:55, 27 April 2020 (UTC)
 * By the loose definition in this article, yeah. You could put every Disney movie, every Godzilla movie and every superhero movie because you have to suspend disbelief to watch those. BradVesp (talk) 14:42, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Is Stanley Kubrick considered postmodernist? Espngeek (talk) 21:58, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

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