Postmodern media breaks the rules of representation.Discuss

Postmodernism breaks many rules of representation. Due to the fact that Postmodern media wants you to know that it has been created and is hence not real, highlighting how it extensively breaks the rules of representation. Postmodernism also tries to remove elements such as binary opposites which occur in reality such as abled and disabled. This therefore means that there is nor space/room for elements to be put comparison with each other. The conventions of postmodernism also wishes to destroy the rules of representation through disregard and manipulation of generic elements, that may be viewed in a modernist text.


After looking at a variety of films I believe there are many prominent elements that show Postmodern media breaks the rules of representation. Drive ( Nicholas Winding Refn) I believe personally possesses many of the above that we have been discussing. For example the film replaces hyper reality with that of simulacra. A prominent sense of this comes within the main car chase in the film, as the majority of the audience have never actually been involved in an event of this similarity or magnitude. Meanwhile the hyper reality of the car chases is heavily reminiscent of the Grand theft Auto video game series, (as are the sets used and the pink text+, itself part of a media which creates a disjunctive view of reality
Moreover the combination of two different mediums (a film and a video game+ shows the disregard for representation as they are combined together in order to create a new reality which is in a completely different nature to that of actual reality.


Also it came to my attention that Drive tries to incorporate and include several genres of film into one singular one. This again created a disruptive nature for representation build upon.
I believe Drive has the feel of a gangster genre due to the fact that the main actor in the film Ryan Gosling is very quiet and secretive portraying a very dark nature, this gets displayed later on in the film when he kicks someone to death. Although this is in complete difference to the romantic genre which is incorporated by the Irene relationship which is quite touching in some sort of manner. These two together ensure a complex representation.2 further genre applicable to 'rive is remarkably that of a fairy tale, with the film incorporating all the characters associated with a fairy tale. Irene plays a princess, whilst there are 3bad guys4 in the shape of the gangsters, with the 'kid' playing the so called hero.However it could be argued that his violent actions display more of a monster, not a hero.

Also Drive can be viewed as Bricolage, due the working of many genres into one single film. Such a breakdown of a text that includes numerous genres and mediums is a form of Pastiche. This is displayed within the films representation of Los Angeles, often from a bird's eye view, often associated with Video games, including the aforementioned Grand Theft Auto. Whilst the representation of L.A. as deserted challenges the audiences perceptions and expectations of what they imagine being a glamorous, vibrant place.Here rules of representation are removed and a simulated world is presented which goes against the grain of the audiences expectations of L.A. challenging their thinking.

Inglorious Basterds, directed by the famous Tarentino is a film which almost disrupts and evaporates all principles and elements of  forms of representation. A prominent example of this is where Tarentino takes a scene from the sound of music with the rolling hills and the peaceful tranquillity of the area and mixes this wit the killing of a Jewish family, straight away this puts doubt into the audiences mind about the portrayal of the film right from the very beginning.-he idealist scene this is set in is a far cry from what we expect to see, showing the deconstruction of representation. Another example is of Aldo Raine played by Brad Pitt. e plays an American solider but abolishes normal representations of such a figure by at all times having perfect hair and a pristine uniform, despite being involved in a fight his white blazer remains immaculate, further highlighting representation being disregarded. 2s well he has an exaggerated Tennessee accent, displaying the pictures hyper realty because it is over the top and is unrealistic in terms of what it actually is in reality

This idea of being unrealistic is typical of postmodern media and its attempt to make you know it has been created, something Inglorious Basterds incorporates further through itself. This is a main convention of postmodern media but is sometimes challenged by certain pieces of media such as Holy Motors a French film which is known to be a very weird and unusual film.

From dawn to dusk, a few hours in the life of Monsieur Oscar, a shadowy character who journeys from one life to the next. He is, in turn, captain of industry, assassin, beggar, monster, family man... He seems to be playing roles, plunging headlong into each part. This film at first viewing is very complex and hard to understand what's going on, this particular film brings in all kinds of variation in terms of very clever art to sexual scenes all the way through to that of very graphic scenes. When talking about these scenes they are  completely diverse from one another, this therefore I believe was directed like this on purpose to confuse people slightly but on the other hand to allow people to appreciate the great nature of combining all kind of genre's. The film contains death by self harm etc, but previous to this there was a very large part of humour included so again this reinforces the argument that postmodern media does break the rules of representation.

Another example of representation being misportayed is that of In Flight of the conchords, the new fans episode. This particular episode obviously contains the two main actors who are in a actual successful band play fictional very unsuccessful characters, right away this creates a complete opposite to reality, creating a hyper reality.  Also the episode contains the story of there one and only fan being slightly aggravated about the band new fans who are apparently fake, this to me is a homage to actual reality and some sort of a mick take in a way, this I believe is the reason why I thought this particular episode fit with the other examples stated above.