Postmodernism in film.
In contrast to modernism which believes that in human life, there is a universal truth that binds or unites and answers all questions that are present in society, postmodernism rejects this belief. Postmodernism takes a stance in contradiction, fragmentation, instability. It aims to break down boundaries and classification of truth. The idea is that there is a law of relativity enforced by believing that truth is very subjective and interpretation becomes very fluid because all one's understanding of the reality is a social construction, which means that there is no such thing as absolutes. The debate about truth and reality also appears in postmodern films. In his book, Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture (1995), Strinati describes five elements of postmodern manifestation in art, including film, which will be used to analyze The Heart of the World in this essay.
First, we have culture and society. Postmodernism believes that today people are living in a media-saturated society. That the mass media and popular culture have become important and influential institutions that control and shape all kinds of social relations. Both define reality for us, including how we understand ourselves and the world around us. In the past, society believed that the media has already accurately portrayed reality. Its contents were not questioned, which in retrospect provided a whole room of distortion.
In its development, then the media was used as a propaganda tool for capital owners to sell their commodities. Postmodernism itself agrees that popular culture cannot be separated from an economic aspect. Popular culture uses the mass media as a medium for its dissemination to influence the level and form of public consumption, vice versa. So that what appears in the mass media is no longer the reality of society, but efforts to monetize popular culture.
Second, style over substance. Collectively, society tends to value something from its surface rather than the use or benefit which causes the degradation in interpretation. Nowadays, there is a culture in the society that is shallow (one dimensional), where something is judged only from its surface, not from its use or benefit. Also, the development of technology makes it possible for people to experience "reality" without actually being present at the same time and space dimensions. So there is no more effort to have a first-hand experience, everything is instant and effortless.
Third, blurred lines between high (art) and popular culture. This highlights the boundaries between arts that only accessible by the elite, such as opera, ballet, painting, theatre, orchestras and others (high culture) and pop culture (low culture). The distinction becomes unclear or even mixed up (which also portrays the blur of socio-economic marking symbols in society).
Fourth, confusion over time and space. With the current technological situation, access to information is becoming faster and easier. This creates a pseudo-reality in which we often have the impression that all people in the world live in the same space, time and place, no matter how far and the difference in time. There may be confusion in the community regarding the boundaries of time and space. Striniati (1995) notes "The growing immediacy of global space and time resulting from the dominance of the mass media means that previously unified and coherent ideas about space and time begin to be undermined and become distorted and confused."
Finally, refusing meta-narrative. Meta-narrative are ideas about religion, science, art, modernism, and Marxism that create absurd and universal claims for understanding reality. However, as previously discussed, postmodernism is sceptical of these ideas which are considered to rob people of their freedom to judge their reality subjectively and have unique life experiences (free from the generalizations typical of modernism). People's understanding of reality is also greatly influenced by the interpretation of dominant representations in the media. In the film, postmodernism is manifested in the mixing of high and low cultures. Meanings are produced through mixtures, transitions, and coalitions between dialogues, scenes, and narratives that are present through the interpretation of each audience.
What is the film about?
The Heart of The World, a film by Guy Maddin made especially for the Toronto Film Festival. The audience might be fooled into thinking that this 6-minute film is one of the hundreds of years old silent black and white films. In fact, The Heart of The World is a film made in 2001 with a German expressionism noir style, complete with distinctive scoring, fast transitions and other elements that convey a postmodern nuance. Noir film has the distinctiveness of cinematographic disorientation, focus on the subject, and a paranoid impression. Spicer (2002) notes, "German expressionism is always cited as the major influence on the film's noir arresting visual style and also its pessimistic mood. It's concerned with distortions, alienations, fragmentation, and dislocation ” which all appears in the film Guy Maddin.
The plot of The Heart of The World is straightforward considering its short duration, but at the same time, it is also very dense and absurd. Telling the story of two brothers, Nikolai a mortician (a funeral officer who prepares bodies for embalming or burial) and Osip, the actor who plays Jesus. They both fall in love with Anna, a scientist who researches "the heart of the world" (defined as the earth's core). She discovered that the earth was going to have a heart attack. Amid the panic, not being able to choose between the two siblings, Anna ends up marrying a wealthy businessman. However, she finally realized that she alone had to save the earth. She left the businessman, then sacrificed herself to enter the core of the earth and replace the heart of the earth with his own, at the end of the film, the word "Kino" which in German means "cinema" repeatedly appears on the screen.
The elements of postmodernism appear literally, and there are many ideas that Maddin includes in this film—starting from the premise of a love triangle, apocalypse, sacrifice, capitalism, and others. It starts with confusion over time and space, pushing the audience to wonder when and where exactly is the film set? Of course, the figures shown do not represent society in reality at all. Then the blurring of high and low culture by using various texts in the film. In Politics of Postmodernism (1989), Hutcheon reveals one of the characteristics of postmodern art, namely extreme self-reflexivity.
“Postmodern film noirs are also unafraid to acknowledge the fact that they are films, hence the inclusion of intertitles, self-aware narrative structures, visible and obvious editing, and subtle commentary acknowledging these texts' statuses as films. Thus, these films contain references to other films, other filmmakers and other film noirs as well as to filmmaking apparatuses ”(Hutcheon, 1989)
So there are many symbols used to challenge or even ridicule the meta-narrative. For example, the peeking eye scene that represents Cinematic Voyeurism.
Nikolai as a mortician who represents death and Osip, the actor who plays Jesus who represents life. Shows how Anna (human representation), oscillates between the two. Then the "heart of the world" which Anna wants to save, can be understood as something pure or good, something like "truth" which is threatened "with pain" or "broken" and can destroy human life. Furthermore, the scene of Anna being seduced by the businessman money depicting a society ruled by capitalism. As well as the last scene after Anna sacrifices herself, then pictures appear on the screen interspersed with the words "Kino". This sequence makes the audience ponder whether the film is about the "death" of the cinema. Or did Maddin want to convey the power of the film to restore the "sanity" of the world?
Written for Cinema Studies course | 2017
Reference
Strinati, Dominic. 2004. An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture. New York: Routledge.
Spicer, Andrew. 2002. Film Noir. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
Hutcheon, Linda. 1989. Politics of Postmodernism. Abingdon: Routledge.