Nonlinear time, puzzles and more: Sherri Sheridan lists 11 things postmodern films do and how writers can use these devices in their own stories.
Postmodern films are like puzzles that suck the viewer in by having to figure out what is going on in the story. These films play with space and time in new hip modern ways. The rules of reality are not always obeyed. In a true postmodern story, you should not always know where you are in space or time. The trick with these films is using the storytelling style to show the theme in a way no one has seen before. 1.
NONLINEAR TIME. Not chronological. May start at end or middle of story. Time line has a disorienting feel.
2. BREAK REALITY RULES. Anything can happen but should be tied to theme. Space and time rules reimagined.
3. GENRES AND VISUAL STYLES BLENDED. Parade of mash up styles. May include absurd humour.
4. OPEN ENDINGS. Viewer may not be clear on what happens at the end of the story. Need to reflect later. 5. MULTIPLE STORIES. Told together or as separate parts to show theme. Usually all meet up in one scene at the end.
6. PLAYING WITH MEMORIES. Exploring how we construct and deconstruct reality in our minds. 7.
RELIVE EVENT. Character gets to relive event or time frame to show theme in arc. Breaks time and reality rules.
8. SIMULATED REALITIES. Suggests our reality is not what we believe. Artificial intelligence and robotics taking over.
9. INNER OR ALTERED STATES. Drugs, mental illness, awareness or technology that reveal internal states.
10. DETACHED EMOTIONS.
Modern life disconnects with technology, media, violence, meaningless lives or death.
11. PASTICHE. Rehash of classic pop culture in new ways.
GROUNDHOG DAY makes the lead character relive the same day over and over until he gets it right. We watch his character arc go from mean single man to the nicest guy in town who gets the girl. He learns from his mistakes each day and makes changes in how deals with people. Certain key events are repeated until he responds in a nice way. The theme is learning to be a nice person to get what he wants.
INCEPTION explores how our dreams affect our real-world decisions. The main character is professional dreamer who infiltrates powerful people’s mind to make them choose the right business deal. Several layers of the dream world are explored until you do not even know if the character is dreaming anymore. In the last scene his children are wearing the same clothes as a previous dream which tells us that he is still dreaming.
PULP FICTION is a classic postmodern masterpiece that blends four stories covering the theme of loyalty among gangsters in Los Angeles. The stories all come together in one scene that starts at the beginning and finishes at the end. The style borrows heavily from 1970’s gangster movies and relies on great dialogue and music to explore many pop culture philosophies.
BLADE RUNNER combines science fiction with film noir to create a fresh futuristic dystopia. Replicates are human cyborgs that need to be destroyed they are so dangerous. Mannequins are used as symbols to warn what humans are becoming. The theme of a sense of society running down with information technology, surveillance and empty city life. Cyborgs seem as real as the humans. Space punks mix with characters in 1940’s clothes. A Raymond Chandler type detective story is told. This film even released multiple endings.
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF A SPOTLESS MIND shows us a world where memories of certain people can be removed. Visually poetic film with layered symbols like beds on snowy beaches. Blurs the line between reality and memory.
MEMENTO plays with chronological order telling the story backwards using 10-minute segments. The character can only remember things for this long and keeps track of information using Polaroid’s and tattoos. These visual clues help the audience understand where they are in time. His plot goal is to find out who killed his wife and he might be the murderer. The theme is memory and how we change our memories.
RUN LOLA RUN explores the theme of how the power of love can change fate. Lola must get a large sum of money to save her lover from being murdered. She tries four different times and ways to get the money. Each attempt shows her getter closer by trial and error. This film uses the same story trick as Groundhog Day but has a different plot goal and characters. At the climax she screams so loud a roulette wheel lands on the right number and saves her boyfriend’s life.
TRANSIT is a short 2D animated film that tells the story backwards of a rich femme fatal getting murdered by a butcher she meets traveling with her rich husband. The lady has an affair and the butcher kills her husband then kills her later. We know where we are in time by disappearing stickers on a suitcase. The woman’s body is cut up in the suitcase that the butcher throws overboard in the opening scene. Any ideas for doing your own postmodern film? What themes might you want to explore that would fit with the above ideas? Be careful not to lose the audience too much in time, space and reality or they will not want to watch your story. Groundhog Day is based on the universal desire to be able to repeat some days until we get the right outcome. You may want to write your story using chronological linear events first then chop it up into a postmodern idea later.
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