1. The Postmodern Attitude

2. Thesis: You live in the postmodern world, and prefer the aesthetics and values of postmodernism, whether you are aware of it or not. (You probably will like Run Lola Run more than Blue)

3. Thesis: The Hollywood Model is based upon modernism (but it is changing). 20 th Century capitalism Resolved linear narratives A center to the universe Respect for metanarratives Social decorum

4. Thesis: Not all parts of the world share the postmodern vision. Fundamentalist Islam Fundamentalist Christianity Ultra-Conservative Americans Ultra-Orthodox Jews Fundamentalist Hindi

5. Thesis: World cinema is a battleground between fundamentalism, modernism and postmodernism.

6. Agenda: What is postmodernism? What is modernism? What films reflect the postmodern vs. modern vision? How does the fact that we live in the postmodern era impact our ability to appreciate both postmodern and alternative cinema?

15. 1947

18. Modern or Postmodern?

23. US Steel Aluminum Company of America International Business Machines

29. Modern or Postmodern? A gay Southern Baptist who practices Buddhist meditation and believes in the Big Bang theory.

34. From Realism to Hyperreality by Way of Postmodernism (It’s a European thing)

35. “European cinema’s defining aesthetic is realism. [It] has pre-cinematic origins in the nineteenth century European realist novel and in pre-twentieth century Western visual arts…as progressive attempts to represent a concrete ‘reality.’ The ideology of ‘realism’ is one of the means by which European cinema has traditionally sought to differentiate itself from Hollywood.” --Shohini Chaudhuri, Contemporary World Cinema

36. Social Realism in Crime Films: Hollywood vs. Europe Part III 4:291990 HQ2:28

37. The Origins of Realism (It’s a European thing)

38. History of European Art n Rooted in the “classics” and Scripture (metanarratives) n Formal and stylized n “High art” n Modernist, rational view based upon the principles of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment n Depictions of the ideal n God at the center

39. The Modernist View  God, reason and progress  Twin pillars of the Judeo Christian tradition and Greek/Roman culture  There was a center to the universe.  Progress is based upon knowledge, and man is capable of discerning objective absolute truths  Modernism is linked to capitalism— progressive economic administration of world  Modernization of 3rd world countries (imposition of modern Western values)

40. Liberal Humanism: View of Literature & Art n Good literature is of timeless significance. n The text will reveal constants, universal truths, about human nature, because human nature itself is constant and unchanging. n Good literature is honest and sincere. n Art is to be respected, and belongs on a pedestal. n There are accepted traditional standards for different art forms & genres that should be obeyed and respected.

41. Late 1800s n Industrialization of Europe n Rise of naturalism and realism in the arts n Questioning of tradition values n Focus of art shifts from “kings and rulers” to the common man n Themes of alienation, oppression, dehumanization, poverty n Birth of existentialism

42. 1900-1950 n World Wars I & II n Marxist challenge to capitalism n Oppression of workers and lower class n Imperialism and colonialism n Questioning of traditional worldviews in the arts and science (Freud and Einstein)

43. A Questioning of Modernity “Things fall apart, The centre cannot hold, Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” --Yeats, “The Second Coming”

44. Realism & Naturalism n Naturalism: The idea or belief that only natural (as opposed to supernatural or spiritual) laws and forces operate in the world.” n Influenced by Darwinism n Focus on common people n Victims of industrialized society n Abandonment of artificial literary conventions n Loss of decorum

45. Neorealism in European Cinema Italian Neorealism French New Wave British Social Realism

46. Andre Bazin (1918-1958) n Liked films that focused on everyday psychological experience F Italian Neorealism (The Bicycle Thief) n Disliked modernist, expressionistic n Disliked films that imposed a political ideology on the viewer n Long takes, of surrounding environment n Impact of environment on people (French determinism)

47. Italian Neorealism (1940-50s) n Response to artificiality of cinema of the Fascist period n Influenced by French poetic realism and American literary naturalism (e.g., Hemingway) n Experiences of poor and socially marginalized n “Slice of life”; things and facts in time and place (versimo) n Ambivalence of everyday experience n Some took strong social political stance n Marxist, with a hopeful, humanistic dimension

48. Italian Neorealism (1940-50s) CHARACTERISTICS n On-location shooting n Long takes n Natural light n Medium and long shots n Non-professional actors n Working class protagonists n Environment as important as actors

49. Italian Neorealism (1940-50s) CESARE ZAVATTINI “Some Ideas on the Cinema” (1953) 1.Portray real or everyday people, using nonprofessional actors in real settings 2.Examine socially significant themes 3.Promote the “organic” development of situations--the “real flow of life”--in which complications are rarely resolved

50. Italian Neorealism (1940-50s) CESARE ZAVATTINI n “Identification with the common man in the crowd.” n “Take dialogue and actors from the street.” n “Reality in American films is unnaturally filtered.”

51. French New Wave (1958-64) n Response to French “tradition of quality” (“staged” literary scripts) n Cahiers du Cinema n Auteurism n Rebellion against authority & convention n Existential outlook (post-WWII)

52. Zeitgeist: France, Late 1950s n The Fourth Republic n 20 governments between 1946-58 n Algerian War for independence (people questioned colonial policies) n More Algerians killed by French than French killed by Germans (ironic occupation) n Failed occupation in Indochina n Threat of nuclear war (Cold War)

53. French “ Tradition of Quality ” n “Le cinema de papa” n Producer-controlled studio system n Required certification from national film school (Institut Hautes Etudes Cinematographiques) n Highly institutionalized (15 studios, unions, apprentice system) n “Beautiful images to illustrate screen plays” n A “highly mannered style removed from everyday reality”

54. Zeitgeist: Culture & Popculture n Sartre and Camus (existentialism) n Influence of avant garde, “Beatnik” culture on society n Hedonistic “youth culture” n All-night dancing at jazz clubs n Rejection of bourgeois values n Fascination with things American: F Hollywood F Coca-Cola F Blue jeans

55. Origins n Sociological survey on the values of postwar French youth n Clothing, habits, morals, values n Generation wanted to be liberated from traditions of the past n Obsession with the “new” (TV, appliances, automobiles) n Emergence of the “new liberated French woman” (Bridget Bardot)

56. New Generation n Candid attitude toward sex n Young women identified with the Bardot image n Rejection of parent’s values n Accent of individual freedom and expression n Infusion of American culture (jazz, cars and Rock-and-Roll)

57. Young Film Makers n “40 who are under 40” n Rejected French “tradition of quality” n 1959 Cannes Film Festival (Existential novelist Andre Malraux was the Minister of Culture) n La Napoule colloquium of young filmmakers n Cine clubs in the Latin Quarter of Paris

58. Cahiers du Cinema n Godard and Truffaut started as critics n Met Andre Bazin n Bazin was the “founding father” of film theory and New Wave cinema

59. French New Wave UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY: n Personalized existential visions n Stressed “the individual, the experience of free choice, the absence of any rational understanding of the universe and a sense of the absurdity in human experience”

60. French New Wave UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY: n Characters seek to act authentically, taking responsibility for their actions, instead of playing roles dictated by society n Marginalized anti-heroes, who act spontaneously and often amorally

61. French New Wave FILM AESTHETIC: n “Low-budget” anti-Hollywood look n Casual, natural appearance n Location shooting (not studio) n Ambient sound and light n “Real,” often improvised dialogue (overlapping) n Improvised scripting

62. French New Wave FILM AESTHETIC: n “In the streets and cafes” n “Bored couple having meaningless conversation in Paris café, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee and absinthe” (Skutski) n Mobile camera (tracking & panning) n Jump cuts, “free” editing n Admired Hitchcock & Italian Neorealism

63. French New Wave FILM AESTHETIC: n Auteurism: the personal stamp of the director n Long takes n Flux and flow of time n Breaks with common expectations of cinema n Loose plots n Self-referent

64. French New Wave: “ Left Bank ” n More experimental & cerebral n Philosophical investigations n Fascination with memory n Play with time and space n Political left n “Pre-postmodern”

65. French New Wave n Jean-Luc Godard n Francois Truffaut n Alain Resnais n Eric Rohmer n Claude Chabrol n Agnes Varda n Louis Malle n Alain Robbe-Grillet

66. Five Periods of British Social Realism DOCUMENTARY n John Grierson BRITISH NEW WAVE n Angry Young Men n Saturday Night, Sunday Morning SWINGING LONDON n Blowup CONTEMPORARY (Mike Leigh, Ken Loach) n Secrets & Lies HYPERREALISM n Trainspotting

67. A Question of National Identity THEMES / EMPHASIS n 1930s – 1955:Nostalgia for Old England, the Empire Common heroes and myth British heritage films & literary adaptations “Englishness” n British New Wave:Questioning of government’s vision Protest against consumerism, suburbanism and Americanization Class struggle (Angry Young Men) n 1960s-70s:Counter-culture experimentation n 1980s:Deindustrialization, unemployment Changes in social roles, masculine identity n 1990s – 2000s:Multiculturalism, alternate heritages Hyperreality

68. John Grierson (1889-1972) MODERN DOCUMENTARY REALISM n Father of the documentary film n Film as an effective means of communications between individual and the state n Purpose is to create social unity and encourage reform

69. John Grierson (1889-1972) MODERN DOCUMENTARY REALISM n Focused on poverty, hunger, unemployment, and other social problems n Intuitive/experiential films can enable people to understand social issues better than rational, cognitive analysis n Use of realistic and naturalistic images to signify abstract realities n Launched British Documentary Movement (1940s--100 plus films)Documentary Movement

70. British Social Realism ZEITGEIST OF THE 1950s n Collapse of British Empire n Suez Canal crisis n Cold War (Ban the Bomb) n Working class / student protests n Materialism and consumerism

71. British Cinema: 1945-54 “Several pressures prevented films from adopting more radical social positions in that period. Foremost was the industry's fear and suspicion of involvement in controversy. Behind this was the repressive form of censorship imposed at that time by the British Board of Film Censors. Attacks on the establishment were not only discouraged, they were actively forbidden. Social criticism, at least of things British, tended to be retrospective. Hence the flurry of historical costume pieces. It was all right to discuss the bad behaviour of the Victorians. --www.britmovie.co.uk

72. British New Wave (1950s-1960s) FREE CINEMA n “Free” from the dictates and restraints of the commercial film industry and UK studio system n Comparable to French New Wave rebellion against “cinema du papa” and tradition of quality n Title of film program at National Film Institute in 1956: F Anderson: O Dreamland F Reisz/ Richardson: Momma Don’t Allow F Mazzetti: Together n “Kitchen Soup” Manifesto

73. British New Wave (1950s-1960s) FREE CINEMA n Sight and Sound and Sequence magazines F “The camera eye they turn on society is disenchanted, sad, occasionally ferocious and bitter.” F Signed films, with a point of view (not documentaries) F Make films “in the streets”

74. British New Wave (1950s-1960s) Lindsay AndersonO Dreamland (1953) Reisz / RichardsonMomma Don’t Allow (1955) Jack ClaytonRoom at the Top (1958) Tony RichardsonLook Back in Anger (1958) Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) Karel ReiszSaturday Night, Sunday Morning (1960)

75. British New Wave (1950s-1960s) Soup Kitchen Manifesto (1956)

76. British New Wave (1950s-1960s) ANGRY YOUNG MEN n Protests by college students and working class n Questioning of the “myth of the British Empire” n Frustration over lack of class mobility n Loss of traditional moral and cultural values n Females depicted as “clinging, entrapping” individuals, forcing men to stay in home town, raise family and buy new consumer products n Alienated youth

77. British New Wave (1950s-1960s) ANGRY YOUNG MEN n New Left Review n Called for a fundamental restructuring of the British economic system n Attacked: F Unfair labor practices F Middle class values F Immoral popular culture F Class structure

78. British New Wave (1950s-1960s) ANGRY YOUNG MEN n Part of a larger social movement, assailing the British class structure and calling for the replacement of bourgeois elitism with liberal working-class values.

79. British New Wave (1950s-1960s) ANGRY YOUNG MEN n Frank approach to sex and other taboos n Protest against the mechanization of life n The “sadness of urban life” n Found Board of Censors overly-protective and obsolete

80. British New Wave (1950s-1960s) “The film coincided with the upsurge of discontent with Britain's direction, distaste for the government and anxiety over nuclear involvement which produced the CND and the Aldermaston marches. Room at the Top, with its opportunist hero screwing the establishment of his northern town and the inn owner's daughter, provided a readily identifiable index of reaction for the suburban filmgoer. “ --www.britmovie.co.uk Room at the Top

81. British New Wave (1950s-1960s) The People D. H. Lawrence Ah the people, the people! surely they are flesh of my flesh! When, in the streets of the working quarters they stream past, stream past, going to work; then, when I see the iron hooked in their faces, their poor, their fearful faces then I scream in my soul, for I know I cannot cut the iron hook out of their faces, that makes them so drawn, nor cut the invisible wires of steel that pull them back and forth to work, back and forth, to work like fearful and corpse-like fishes hooked and being played by some malignant fisherman on an unseen, safe shore where he does not choose to land them yet, hooked fishes of the factory world.

82. Swinging London n London center of counter-culture revolution n Music, fashion, art, film n Recovery of the British economy from the post World War II austerity n Creation of alternate view of reality (beyond rebellion of “angry young men”) n “Don’t get angry, get crazy”

83. Swinging London n Emphasis on hedonism, free-love, drugs, experimentation, mysticism and “the East” (vs. West) n Also focuses on the lost, isolated individual alienated from tradition and convention, out of touch with Swinging London values (e.g., Alfie, Morgan, Georgy Girl) n Georgy Girl Georgy Girl

84. Swinging London http:// www.youtube.comwww.youtube.com A Decade to Remember-The Sixties

85. Current British Social Realism MARXIST SOCIAL REALISM n Expose social injustices, poverty, crime, etc. n Economic determinism PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIAL REALISM n People forced to live in horrific conditions n Society dealt them a bad hand n Still human beings with free will

86. Current British Social Realism KEN LOACH (Marxist) n Film as medium for social reform n Location shooting & non-professional actors n Class inequality, unfair labor practices, child welfare, poverty, crime n Marxist political perspective n “Not an exemplary example of cinematic realism” n “Characters tend to be innocent victims, often cardboard figures” (Skutski) My Name is Joe

87. Current British Social Realism MIKE LEIGH (Psychological) n “Master of psychological cinematic realism” n Social commentary without sermonizing n “This is the way life is, the way people are” n Characters are the key n Unique approach to filmmaking All or Nothing

88. Mike Leigh: “All or Nothing”

89. TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING Introduction to Postmodernism

90. The Postmodern View TRADITIONAL WESTERN “MODERN” THINKING “The narrative is unravelled, the author is dead, the Enlightment project is toast, and history is history.”

91. What is Modernism? n The world according to White Anglo-Saxon males, based upon the mythology of Western Europe, rooted in the Judeo-Christian religion and Greek- Roman philosophy. n Western man is superior. n Progress, reason and science are the highest manifestations of humanity. n Western man was put one earth to modernize the world (e.g., Manifest Density, Columbus). n The rest of the world consists of barbarians, and “orientals.”

92. Postmodernism: Basic Concepts n Life just is n Rejection of all “grand narratives.” n All “truths” are contingent cultural constructs n Skepticism of progress; anti-technology bias n Sense of fragmentation and decentered self n Multiple conflicting identities n Mass-mediated reality

93. Postmodernism: Basic Concepts n All versions of reality are SOCIAL CONSTRUCTS F Concepts of good and evil F Metaphors for God F Language F The self F Gender F Taste (aesthetics) F EVERYTHING!

94. Postmodern Literature & Film n No guiding traditional grand narratives n Extreme freedom of form and expression n Rejects traditional linear narratives n Plays with time and space n Repudiation of boundaries of narration & genre n Intrusive, self-reflexive author n Deliberate violation of standards of sense and decency (which are viewed as methods of social control)

95. Postmodern Literature & Film n Characters on the margins of society n Mix of high and low brow art forms n Integration of everyday experience, pop and consumer culture n Playful treatment of serious subjects (no gnashing of teeth) n Doesn’t take itself seriously (no pretentious universal truths) n Has fun with language and imagery (MTV like)

96. Postmodern Literature n Parody, play, black humor, pastiche n Ambiguities and uncertainties n Ironic detachment n Postcolonial, global-English literature n Global n Celebrate diversity of views and lifestyles

97. Modern Postmodern n History as fact n Faith in common social order n Family as central unit n Authenticity of originals n Mass consumption n Art on a pedestal, with rules; linear narratives n Distinction between “high brow” and “low brow” n Heroes n Serious approach to serious subjects n Respect for social decorum n Existential “gnashing of teeth” n Written by the victors n Cultural pluralism n Alternate families n Hyper-reality; prefer copy to original n Niches; small group identity n There are no rules, and it’s only art (have fun with it); plays with time and space n Mix of “high brow and low brow” (e.g., pop culture and classics) n Anti-heroes and fringe elements n Playful approach to serious subjects n Deliberate violation of standards of decency n Life just is—deal with it

98. Hyperrealism “The burning intensity of a copy where an imprint of the real becomes a starting point for its stylization and refinement.” --European Cinema n Gritty, intensification of “the real” n Postmodern, time-condensed, hyperbolic and parodic depiction of social reality n Reality on steroids n Extreme edges of society n Edgy characters

99. We’ve Come a Long Way!

100. Brazilian Cinema n 1960’s Cinema Novo: political themes n Government withdrew support in 1990 n Restored in mid 1990s n Globo Television created commercial film division (partial support of City of God) n Co-productions/US distribution n Common themes: F Police corruption F Favelas F “general malaise in society” F “unviable nation” Source: Nagib, Lucia, ed., New Brazilian Cinema "a…celebration of violence-for-good that plays like a recruitment film for fascist [police] thugs.” Weissberg, Jay. Variety, 2008.