For my example of a post-modern film I have decided to write about Mulholland Drive (Dir David Lynch. 2001).
It tells the story of “Rita” and Betty two women who become deeply involved with each other after Rita is found in Betty’s home with no memory of who she is or how she got there From the beginning we are led to assume that Rita is a successful actress and Betty is aspiring to be one.
This story is played out against the backdrop of Hollywood, the film business and the strange characters that litter this world, this results in several vignettes featuring these people working their way into the narrative.
We have a traumatised man in a diner plagued by nightmares, a film director threatened by the studio bosses to make his movie starring an actress that he has no intention of using.
A cowboy who cryptically warns the director to comply “or else”.
During the course of this movie, these people meet and interact at different points in the picture, as a viewer you are conditioned to believe that towards the end of the film you will know why all these characters have have been involved, hopefully filling in the narrative gaps, but the film never truly resolves itself.
This is where the idea of post- modernism comes in, in the sense that the film does not feature a linear timeline nor does it feature a definitive narrative, this, in a way, is a more subtle attempt than a film which goes for all out pop culture referencing i.e. Clerks (Dir Kevin Smith 1992).
The story gets even more impenetrable around half way through when the two main characters swap names and motivations or maybe not, depending on your opinion. At this point in the film another character that has appeared to have been living in Betty’s apartment for ages, is seen moving out never to be seen again, People we deem to possibly important to the story are seen once and never again. It appears at the end of the film you are left to try and piece together the various story threads and try and make sense of them and identify what they had to do with each other, In other mystery films, an object is sometimes given a tokenistic meaning in order to provide the necessary building blocks needed to piece the story together, in this case a blue box constantly appears in the film, but it is never divulged what it is doing there, what it contains or its importance to the narrative, frustratingly it does appear important to the characters and does make an appearance just before the two women swap names and it appears personalities.
Dream-like sequences permeate the fabric of the film, although these may not be dreams at all, only the lighting, the camera angles and the character interactions indicate that these scenes may be of a different “consciousness” than the others.
The film is a literal and Metaphorical deconstruction of the Mainstream film system; it also appears to a satire of Hollywood indictments itself. The overly antagonistic and mob like studio execs, disgusted by the poor espressos being served, screaming at the “hip” “tortured” Director.
Betty arriving in sunny, shiny L.A. Surrounded by constantly grinning cutesy older people wishing her success in her acting career. Betty’s first audition in which she wows’s the studio head and steals the scene from the lead actor, because after all, it’s that easy in Hollywood.
A Romantic relationship blossoms between the two women but it seems to be born out of loneliness and desperation rather than love and trust. This film eschews any idea of tradition unless it’s looked at as individual scenes, in which there does seem to always be an emotional truth of some kind.
I think the very definition of why this film is a good example of post modernism is in scene in the film where the two main characters are in a club called Silencio, the two women are watching a singer who is giving a very impassioned performance appearing to bear her very soul to the audience, it moves both the characters to the point of tears, almost like they have both witnessed a pure moment of fragility until the singer faints and falls to the floor, but her voice is still being heard over the speakers, until they realise that she was miming to a backing track. Shattered and broken, they are left to question their own perception of truth and meaning.
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