Nicole Harman-Smith

1. Dissertation Proposal
Nicole Harman-Smith

2. Postmodernism
- In definition, it ultimately questions and undermines the ideologies of conventional film making
by distorting the boundaries between the real and the hyperreal to create a unique and new
equilibrium/ balanced state.
- The idea that ‘truth is relative’ and the definitions of culture are rejected, the focus instead looks
to the uncertainty and fragmentation of society and social life.
- Cinematic language and signs are recycled and juxtaposed with different styles and images by
collapsing the distinction between the past, present and future.
- Grand narratives and traditional narrative structures are also abandoned, instead,
postmodernist film offers micro narratives woven together in a mix of genres and intertextuality.

3. Initial Ideas / Previous Essay
David Lynch’s Postmodern Aesthetics
- In my previous essay I looked at how David Lynch’s film making technique
and aesthetic could be perceived as postmodern. I compared Twin Peaks and
Blue Velvet, looking at genre, narrative, hyperreality and nostalgia.
- Lynch manages to create his postmodern aesthetics through intermixing
genres as well as the real and hyperreal and his use of surrealism.
- His work falls under contemporary postmodern cinema, he uses obvious
emphasis on repetitive visual patterns and symbols to communicate ideas in
Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet which diverge from conventional cinema.
- Narrative - ‘The Death of the Grand Narrative’
- Jean- Francois Lyotard suggests that we no longer believe that large scale
theories are the truth and do not represent all of us. Postmodern film instead draws
on micro-narratives. Lynch uses unusual narrative and symbolic techniques
throughout Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet, the surreal use and messages of dreams
and unordinary characters are most evident in his on screen language.

4. Postmodernism continued…
- Genre - I looked at intertextuality, which is less interested in a
single definition and sees the artist as combining genre.
Intertextuality allows for a relationship with other texts, arts and
media. For example, Twin Peaks is a combination of a detective
drama, gothic horror, science fiction, fantasy and soap opera.
- Nostalgia - Frederic Jameson . Refers to the crossing of
boundaries between the past and present. In Twin Peaks Lynch
plays on time by mixing past era’s and decades to create a hybrid of
an aesthetic. Resembling the 1950’s mixed with the early 1990’s.
…… For my dissertation I want to expand on what I have already
written about in my previous essay by looking at more
postmodern directors and films and also write about and
explore Auteur’s.
Initial Ideas / Previous Essay

5. The Auteur
- An auteur is a singular artist who controls all aspects of a collaborative creative
work, a person equivalent to the author of a novel or a play.
- In Film, Auteur theory is the theory of film making in which the director is viewed
as the major creative force. An auteur can use lighting, camerawork, staging and
editing to add to their vision.
- The term is commonly referenced to filmmakers or directors with a recognisable
style through their film language/ style/ themes. They have a signature style, that
is all their own, lets the audience know and recognise straight away whose films
they're watching.
- This theory was a foundation for French cinematic movement known as the New
Wave.
- The idea of director-as-author was first published in Cahiers du Cinéma, a
French film magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin.
-Two of its theorists—François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard—later became
major directors of the French New Wave.

6. Directors&Films
- Previously looked at David Lynch will also
look at and compare other postmodern films,
possibly thinking of looking at directors who
are also considered as an Auteur. I still need
to refine and focus at a more specific area,
however ideas of directors I could possibly
look at…
- David Lynch / Eraser Head
- Jean-Luc Godard
- Wes Anderson
- François Truffaut
- Quentin Tarantino
- Christopher Nolan
- Joel Cohen

7. Theory
- Postmodern Film Theorists - Jean Baudrillard, Frederic
Jameson, Jean François Leotard.
- Auteur Theory - ‘Auteur Theory’ originated from Adrew
Sarris’s essay ‘ Notes on the Aueteur Theory’ in 1962.
- Alexandre Astruc’s concept of the ‘camera- stylo’.
- Criticisms, starting in the 1960s film critics began to
criticise the theory’s focus on the authorial role of the
director, one reason being is the collaborative aspect of film
making.