"Postmodern media manipulate time and space".

To what extent does this definition apply to texts you have studied? Post-Modern texts have the potential to manipulate anything they want, as shown through the key features of the genre. The boundaries of time and space matter not to the film; its the directors version of constructed reality that can function on any timeline that creates the sense of hyper-reality the audience clings to. This feature was prominent in the mid-19th century during the Modernist era, in which artists moved with the times to create ideal visions of a utopian world, predicting the future of both time and space. Although postmodernism unconsciously destroys any relation to its predecessor, in its anything goes approach we see the element of a desired life within both the past and future history. The Christopher Nolan 2010 sci-fi thriller Inception focuses on the invention and construction of a dream-scape within a world that is similar, if not parallel to ours. The setting is made to look like our modern day society, yet the film contains technology that, to our knowledge, could only have been created in a futuristic time, yet we accept this hyperreal (a term coined by Baudrillard) world instead of question it. The idea of travelling between dreams, and constructed cities within manufactured worlds, manipulates the idea of space and what we perceive as real in our own world. Your world is not real a famous line from Inception that makes both the characters, and by extension, the audience, question reality and the construction of our space: are we dreaming or are we awake? The layout of the dream-scape allows for various levels of the subconscious to be explored, with the chance of falling into limbo if youre not careful. It is explained that within each layer of the dream, time is distorted, spanning for longer the deeper they go. In reality they have 10 hours, approximately a week in the first layer, six months in the second layer and almost ten years in the last layer; time is manipulated so that not only does the action within the film span over a logical amount of minutes, the idea of growing old and losing yourself within a dream is also a possibility. The idea within the film however is to wake up, using the kick signalled by Edith Piafs 1956 Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien a song both acknowledged within the film and incorporated into the soundtrack; using something old to create something new an indispensable technique within post-modern texts. This technique, developed by Claude Levi-Strauss as bricolage, is demonstrated within Inception by not only the soundtrack, but by the blur of genres the film belongs to. It can be said it belongs to Action, Thriller, Romance, and above all Drama yet it does not fit into one specific category. The film pays homage to other texts such as Citizen Kane and James Bond: On her majestys secret service, through the use of Genettes theory of intertextual references; as seen in the mirror scene and the snow scene, showing these elements are timeless and work well within both modern and classic films. The film itself uses a fragmented structure of time, starting near the end of the plot and throwing the audience right into the middle of the storyline, moving around various moments of the past and present as the story develops. The parallel editing also makes it clear that a variety of different events are happening at the same time, displaying the different levels of the dream. Because the plot line doesnt follow the seemingly conventional linear structure, we see time is shaped to drip-feed the audience information when it becomes necessary to. A non-chronological order is another interesting feature of the postmodern style, because, it can make a film seem more interesting and unusual.

Quentin Tarantinos Inglourious Basterds is, in itself a manipulation of time. Set in WW2 Germany, during the years of 1941-1944, it depicts the battle between Nazi Germans and American Basterds. Its full of historically incorrect events and truly distorts the past, portraying the murder of Hitler and his right-hand men a year earlier than they died in reality. Its the blatant disregard of history that ensures we dont take this war film seriously and even causes us to question whether it is truly a war film at all. The extreme blend of genres within this film destroys any attempt at categorising it into one, much to the post-modern fans dismay, it proves Jacques Derridas structuralist thinking correct. Comedy, action, drama, espionage, thriller and war all collaborate to make a humorous portrayal of WW2 antics; complete with an equally unusual soundtrack. Much like Baz Luhrmanns adaptation of The Great Gatsby, Inglourious Basterds features songs that dont comply with the war genre, and comply more with spaghetti westerns or modern films that feature R&B and David Bowie. This juxtaposition of visual and sound creates a film thats set around 50 years ahead of its soundtrack, meaning time is not a boundary postmodernism conforms to. Theres no mistake that Tarantinos blockbuster can be seen as a pastiche of The Dirty Dozen, due to the distinct similarities between the rugged, convict members of the squad and their ultimate deaths, as well as the portrayal of Major Reisman and Lt. Aldo Rein. Inter-textual references include mentions of Max Linder, the doorway scene in The Searches and Tarantinos other films. The trademark yellow text, featured in Pulp Fiction amongst others, displays the subtitles of the foreign scenes, giving a subtle nod to his other masterpieces. The self-reflexivity of the film, lends itself to his previous works; we see the joins of the set as Shosanna walks through a corridor from one room to another, some could say manipulating the physical space of the film set, and the way we perceive it as a film. Another thing we perceive is the stereotypical representation of both Hitler and Churchill displayed briefly within the film. Baudrillards theory of simulation and the process in which the representation replaces the object being represented can be linked to the portrayal of Hitler. His angry, Nein nein nein! and evil German laugh shows him to be a generic representation we are all used to within films and the roles he plays. This role can also be seen as a parody of the true Hitler, as he is mocked by Tarantino and by extension the audience, creating an alternative version to the one in real life, once again, manipulating the past. You could say Inception was an influence when making Inglourious Basterds as Tarantino has made a film, within a film. Nations Pride - the fictional film in which Frederick Zoller was featured was also made by Tarantino especially for the film. Although the audience only gets to see small clips of the footage, a 16 minute excerpt was made, featuring homage to the classic Odessa steps scene, showing once again, it doesnt matter when the film is made, or which era its portraying, classic scenes can be repeated in other contexts. Although no-one can predict what the future of the film industry will do, it wouldnt be unheard of to say post-modernism will continue, even though it has been claimed that era has been and gone. I predict films will become even more fragmented, acknowledging their manipulation of time and space so that the film becomes so distorted, and by default, interesting, that it will take several times of watching to understand it. Films like Memento (directed by Christopher Nolan also) feature a plot thats shown backwards; something I think will be explored even further within the future. These films will feature a vast amount

of inter-textual references, that they will no longer be semi-original concepts, which can be seen as both a good and bad thing. An infinite amount of combinations can be stolen from other works, some films may even consist entirely of found footage, or clips from other films that the copyright has been bought for. As Christopher Nolan himself said, we could, in the future, be stepping out from the prison of our perception when absorbing or creating any kind of media. Through Inception and Inglourious Basterds as well as their contemporaries, we see that time and space are used to achieve the desired outcome; if Tarantino wants to kill Hitler a year earlier, theres nothing stopping him the audience accepts this version of hyper-reality because we understand it is only a film; we understand time and space can be altered and therefore manipulated fully to create any text. This alteration combined with inter-textual references, self-reflexive behaviour and an un-defined genre, makes for an entirely interesting post-modern film that knows no boundaries, surviving within its own constructed reality.