Thursday, 28 April 2011
Intertextuality
39 seconds - Inception you got a brother (dreamin dreamin).
Intertextual reference to the Christopher Nolan film, Inception. Rewards the audience's cultural capital if they 'get' the reference to the film.
Alan Partridge Sports Roundup
The Day Today - a parody of TV News, exaggerating generic conventions to mock them.
Saturday, 26 March 2011
More Cock and Bull
· Released in 2006 and directed by Michael Winterbottom.
· Stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.
· Literary adaptation from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman – a novel by Laurence Sterne.
· Novel published across 9 volumes between 1759 and 1769.
· Told the story of Tristram’s life.
· One of the central jokes of the novel is that Tristram cannot explain anything simply. He goes off on tangents to the extent that his own birth is not reached until the 3rd volume . The novel is therefore chaotic.
· One of the interesting things about the novel is that it is self-reflexive in that it is as much about the process of writing a novel as it is about telling the actual story of Tristram’s life. This is evident in the film too.
Again, in A Cock and Bull story, Winterbottom uses a range of postmodern techniques.
A Cock and Bull Story
Tends to polarise people! A bit of a marmite film really. Not hugely popular when we watched it in class despite the occasional laughs generated by Coogan and Brydon.Wonderfully postmodern though so useful for our purposes.
Released in 2006, A Cock and Bull Story is an adaptation of the noel Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne. It is immediately clear that this is no straightforward literary adaptation as the film opens with a self-referential sequence as Coogan and Brydon squabble over who has the larger role on the film and how the credits will display their names. This is followed by Coogan dressed in character, breaking the 4th wall by giving the audience some information about the film that they are about to watch.
The film alternates between the literary adaptation and a documentary about the making of the film and about troubles in Steve Coogan's personal life, parodying his tabloid persona. The film within a film is a great example of metatextuality.
24 Hour Party People and Postmodernism
1. Ignoring the 4th wall – characters directly address the audience breaking one of the basic codes of realism.
2. Self-referentiality – referring directly to some of the processes of constructing the film- E.g. the scene where Coogan discusses a scene that won’t make the final cut of the film but will be on the dvd!
3. Intertextual references (eg, the title which is the title of a Happy Mondays song).
4. Intertextual casting of Steve Coogan and Peter Kay – references to their roles as newsreader in The Day Today (Coogan) and Northern Club Owner (Kay). Also key people from the time playing characters in the film.
5.Playful approach to genre – it’s basically a docudrama but is unconventional.
6.Deliberate blurring of truth, exaggeration and fiction. Both in terms of cutting between documentary/archive footage and the footage shot for the film and in terms of the events of the film – some of which are allegedly exaggerated or untrue – think about the character that says “I definitely don’t remember that happening.”
7.Unconventional, playful techniques used – UFO, bird sequence, talking to God, montage showing the audience earlier characters.
8.Some juxtaposition of high and popular culture – lots of references to Greek Myth, the bible and philosophy alongside the film’s primary concern – popular music.
9. Lots of simulacra and simulation. For example, the duo in the club at the end of the film covering Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division.
2. Self-referentiality – referring directly to some of the processes of constructing the film- E.g. the scene where Coogan discusses a scene that won’t make the final cut of the film but will be on the dvd!
3. Intertextual references (eg, the title which is the title of a Happy Mondays song).
4. Intertextual casting of Steve Coogan and Peter Kay – references to their roles as newsreader in The Day Today (Coogan) and Northern Club Owner (Kay). Also key people from the time playing characters in the film.
5.Playful approach to genre – it’s basically a docudrama but is unconventional.
6.Deliberate blurring of truth, exaggeration and fiction. Both in terms of cutting between documentary/archive footage and the footage shot for the film and in terms of the events of the film – some of which are allegedly exaggerated or untrue – think about the character that says “I definitely don’t remember that happening.”
7.Unconventional, playful techniques used – UFO, bird sequence, talking to God, montage showing the audience earlier characters.
8.Some juxtaposition of high and popular culture – lots of references to Greek Myth, the bible and philosophy alongside the film’s primary concern – popular music.
9. Lots of simulacra and simulation. For example, the duo in the club at the end of the film covering Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division.
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