Postmodernism challenges traditional boundaries and rules through unexpected combinations and irony. It rejects distinctions between high and low art forms, emphasizes pastiche and intertextuality, and is playful. The term "Postmodern" was first used in the 1870s to describe a style of painting, and later applied to culture, music, architecture, society, law, literature and film. Influential postmodernist philosophers include Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jean-François Lyotard, Fredric Jameson, and Douglas Kellner.
1. • Postmodernism is doing the unexpected in a knowing way. It is all about
knowing the rules and breaking them.
• It is anything that challenges the traditional way of doing things,
rejecting boundaries between high and low forms of arts rejecting genre
distinctions, emphasizing pastiche, parody, Intertexuality, irony and
playfulness.
• The term "Postmodern" was first used around the 1870s. John Watkins
Chapman suggested "a Postmodern style of painting“ then as this theory
went on it was said to be a style of culture, music, architecture, societyu,
law, literature and film.
Postmodernism
Analysing Funny Games
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Martin Heidegger (1889–1976)
Jacques Derrida (1930–2004)
Michel Foucault (1926–1984)
Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998)
Fredric Jameson (born 1934)
Douglas Kellner (born 1943)
Influential postmodernist
philosophers
3. Funny Games Analysis
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During the entrance of the trailer we are introduced with
calming music, This symbolises the mood how ever it soon
changes into more adventurous and action like music. This
contradicts what is going on as the family are brutally getting
hurt. This is unusual because in most horror films/trailers the
actions are accompanied by scary creaking music, linking to
the postmodernism theory. However the music in this trailer
is very up beat and happy. It kind of gives the impression we are living in the mind of
the villain as they are the only characters smiling and symbolising the music.
Due to the attacking in the trailer it is soon clear who
the villains are, However they are dressed in all white
this links to the postmodernism theory as it is
breaking the rules of the ‘bad guys’ wearing dark and
dull colours to highlight their negative energy. White
suggest innocence and purity so it is very unusual and
confusing as to why they are dressed in white as they
don’t match their actions.
4. •
Unusually there are no high or low angle shots to represent
power or control. There is a lot of close ups which contrast
the happiness and fear between and within each characters.
A lot of villains are either mask or unknown however these
villains are shown and seem to be very happy show in an
extreme close up. There is also a point of view shot where
you see the villains look at the family and the family look
at each other. This emphasizes the emotional difference.
The postmodernist theory is explored through the
happiness and awareness of identification through the
villains.
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This trailer explores simple editing techniques such as different
pace, straight cuts and tone cards. Towards the end of this trailer
the pace of the cuts speed up along with the music and events.
As the events get more intense and violent the music changes
pace. There is also an action match as the gun is shot and then it
cuts to a blakc screen, this creates suspense as you don't know
who's been shot and by who action. This follows the codes and
conventions of horror films. The editing techniques of this trailer
do not express the postmodernism theory, However it does link
to structuralism as it uses the symbol of a gun to represent
danger.