Post mod work

Here's something for you to look at and consider.

Remember, the more you watch, the easier it is to identify postmod influences.

Look at:

Lady Gaga: Telephone
Watch Kill Bill

Consider the look of Betty Page (link to Jessie J look...)

Link Kill Bill / Telephone

Watch Telephone first.

Then conisder the look of Russ Myers films eg Faster Pussycat Kill Kill

See this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdLTIzrRrBo

Make sense about borrowing?

Ok.
Now look at Bruce Lee:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q9kYKtvYU0

Classic fight scene. Traditional oriental music accompanies the fight. People in traditional Gi (the fighting suits)

Now link this to Tarrentino in Kill Bill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jhTRqgTZSM

It's the same... Yet different.

Think about homage and pastiche. Is Tarrentino paying homage to Lee?

Costume... Very formal DJ for the men (black uniform), but the eye-bands give it the post modern feel.

No judgement is expected on the part of the audience. We are not supposed to feel good / bad / revolted by watching the violence. There is no narrative to it or point behind it.

Now watch the next scene...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3aFv8IQb4s

What are your initial thoughts?

How did you feel about it?

Was it 'cool'?

Was it stylish?

What cuture / convention / genre is being taken here?

Think about the Japanese media obsession with schoolgirl-look and Manga.

Scribble down a few comments now...
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Then think that, in essence, you've just watched a schoolgirl get murdered.

Why is this postmodern? Did you make, or were you asked to make, a moral judgement based on what you just watched?

No.

Was there retrospective hand-wringing from parents / siblings / teachers?

If there were, it would 'tell' us what to think (eg sorry for the child and the death)

But's it's not. There's no call on us as viewers to make the moral decision as to what is right and what is wrong. Tarrentino doesn't tell us what to think.

This links in to Barthes and the death of the author idea... ie that 'it is not what is written that is important, only how it is interprited by the reader.'

Essentially, YOUR interpritation is all that counts, not what is intended by a writer / director / producer et al.