Comparative study inquiry

I plan on using Postmodern/metamodern film theory as my main topic, this and Marxist theory have been my two primary areas of personal inquiry. While I have probably watched more films in the Marxist tradition, I have done far more reading into the cultural theory of postmodernism and have preformed more analysis towards postmodern/metamodern art than Marxist texts. From this film focus a social cultural context comes as a given, as cultural theory is always a reaction to social circumstance. 

Postmodern art is centered around the central idea of deconstruction, in which it critiques the established thought on the subject (I recognize the additional complexity of the idea, I am just simplifying to make things easier). A great basic example of this can be seen in Kubrick's Dr. Stangelove, in which he deconstructs the held notions about military power in the cold war era. Often within this deconstruction their is a realization of the pieces own artificiality, calling attention to the artist themselves. This can be seen in Brooks' Blazing Saddles in a deconstruction of the western movie genre, it recognizes that it too is a movie. In the early 2000s there was move away from traditional pure postmodernism to metamodernism which added a constructive element to the deconstructive vision. For example, Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood critiques the process behind golden age cinema while simultaneously recognizing the cultural value of those films. My interest will be in comparing films from the beginning of the metamodern tradition and ones made well into it. 

How do films from different periods within the progression of metamodernism differently comment on nature of the art making process? 

 

Within this tradition two films stand out to me as good counterpoints that meet the requirement of different cultural contexts, Adaptation (2002) an American film and Holy Motors (2012) a French film. Both of these films discus and deconstruct the art making process with Adaptation being about screen-writing and Holy Motors about acting.  Each of these films stem from different eras between the switch between postmodernism and metamoderism, with adaptation serving as one of the earliest examples of metamodern text and Holy Motors being made firmly after metamoderism had become the most pervasive cultural movement. From these different eras each film takes a different prospective into the extent the artist should be the focus of the film. Adaptation is about ultimately giving in to established expectations, while Holy Motors is about the beauty inherent to the enactment of those expectations. 

While the difference created by each films historical context is obvious to me, I still need to have a far more solid analysis on how their geographic difference impacts each film. Obviously each film is reacting to a separate cinematic history however I need to better pick out how this impacts each films message. 

At this point I think I have a good idea of the films that I will be using, this could be subject to change but I doubt it. I need to lock down a good and clear explanation of my film focus, better identify the impact geography has on my selected films, and begin looking at impactful film elements.

Works Cited:

Abramson, Seth. “Metamodernism 101.” Medium, Just Words, 23 July 2015,             https://medium.com/just-words/metamodernism-101-8cdb8563e0.

Abramson, Seth. “On Metamodernism.” Medium, Medium, 16 Apr. 2018,     https://medium.com/@Seth_Abramson/on-metamodernism-926fdc55bd6a.

Derrida, Jacques, et al. Of Grammatology. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016.

Wallace, David Foster. “E Unibus Pluram.” Review of Contemporary Fiction, 1993, doi:10.1145/1900546.1900550.

Vermeulen, Timotheus, and Robin van den Akker. Notes on Metamodernism. 2010