Modernism In Postmodern Film

The era of postmodernism breaks through, or rather wishes to destroy any mainstream elements which were used in the modern era. Where modernism looked towards progress and predictable solutions, postmodernism did just the opposite. When speaking of the term postmodernism and film, films usually leave the audience unsettled through its fragmented, ironic and disjointed narrative. Many other characteristics such as the blurring of boundaries between truth and fiction, and the manipulation of time and space are elements used in postmodern film. Postmodern film, putting the focus on the liminal space1. means that meaning is often generated through the spaces and transitions, usually passively perceived by the audience. Hyperreality, the condition

It is also necessary to define cinematic aspects that contribute to perceptions of time and space, specifically referring to postmodern cinema. Postmodern cinema and attributes such as hyperreality, simulations, as well as ideas prior to the postmodern era of film such as mise-en- scene, are important when analyzing perception, geographical space in film, landscape, space and time. Geographical space and landscape have a tremendous effect on the storyline of the film as well the viewers perception of a what is real and what if fake, in terms of geography. 3

1 Liminal space in terms of hyperreality is a state of becoming, however, never really existing.

2 Virilio’s Vision Machine speaks of film, media and images that replace what it perceived to be real.



2. After the Dark (The Philosophers)

After the Dark is a film which is set at at a school in Jakarta. It tells a story of an international class of students on their last day of their philosophy class. Their professor, Mr. Zimit introduced to the students one last experiment

“There is a tremendous difference between screen space and action space, as well as real time versus film time, which at times is difficult to recognize due to technological advancements available in the montage of film. The activity of filming influences the geographic space and its perception. The power of certain film industries contributes to an inequality apparent in the frequency in which certain geographic environments are presented. It is also true that more developed environments are shown than crisis zones. For that reason one could speak of a clear duality in geographic space represented in cinema. Images, even when they are real, are perceived by viewers which challenge any detailed reconstruction of scenery or geography with the help of characters movement in the film. Films, such as After the Dark contribute to the creation, or the familiarization for those people who have visited a tropical place, of scenery, through its magnified representation”(Orueta, Valdes, 2008;p.408). After