Pulp Fiction as a postmodern film

Postmodernism - where reality is replaced with artifice


Visual - Taxi scene, stylised violence and the casual attitude to crime, retro-references to the 50s

Thematic elements - Advertising speech e.g jules talking about the burger, coffee and Vincent with milkshakes
Artificial product placement e.g Red Apple cigarettes, Jack Rabbit slims restaurant

character -  Corny and cartoony characters - Mr Wolf, Jules and Vincent, Mia




Tarantino signature auteur features ;

Narrative - non chronological narrative,

Lack of closure - ambiguity, left to ask questions e.g. whats in the case, what happens to Jules.


ethnicity and gender in Pulp Fiction ;

Language use - racial slurs and racist language
Black people are more violent in this
represented as equal with black leadership e.g Jules and Vincent, there is a black boss - Marsellus
gender - male dominated compared to female
females are portrayed as weaker

Spectatorship revision

spectatorship summary - 

• emotional responses to a film (shock, pity, sympathy etc.) 
• spectatorship theory responses (dominant, negotiated, oppositional)
• the techniques employed by filmmakers to manipulate spectators into have these responses (micro and macro features)
• the factors which affect how spectators are likely to respond ; age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality etc. how the film is consumed (cinema or at home) or whether you are alone or in company and the attitudes towards social, cultural and political issues and personal experiences.

How does the Characters, mise-en-scene, narrative and cinematography affect spectatorship responses in This is England?

-Characters; Combo

-mise-en-scene; graffiti

-narrative; realism

-cinematography; milky assault scene 

Revision for exams - essay structure and auteur features in vertigo & OFOTCN

Essay structure for Exam


Introduction - 

• statement of intention - 'this essay will examine/explore"
• reference to the films chosen
• define any key definitions

Main Body - 

• relevant points relating to the question
• plenty of examples - get marks from using examples
• try to make essay flow
• use terminology - which links specifically to the question

  Conclusion - 

• summarise main points which have been explored in the essay - "this essay has explored..."
• acknowledge how there are more examples etc - "there is also more to say about gender/ auteur etc

Auteur in Vertigo - Alfred Hitchcock

• Theme of guilt - death of colleague, death of 'madeleine'  
• Colour - green and red - jealousy, envy
• Theme of a dual identity - strangers on a train
• Voyeurism - Scottie when he follows Madeleine, Pyscho
• Use of tropes: Birds
• repetitive actors: James Stewart
•   

Auteur in One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest - Milos Forman

• Theme of individual vs society
• Colour - white - oppression 
• Jack Nicholson performance - maniacal laugh e.g the joker, witches of eastwick and the shining. 
• Theme of naturalism 

This is England revision

Woody – father figure to Shaun / original skin head listens to different music / isn’t racist


Combo – father figure to Shaun / late skin head white supremist / racist
Combos anger come from his lack love growing up / lack of father figure / jealousy


Outline the use of –

* Cultural codes – society character relationships 1980s massive different between rich and poor. Large numbers of boys with nothing to do no money and skinhead culture gave an identity to those kids 60s music 70s subculture heavy metal skin head sense of belonging gangs poor young people it is again that back ground that the film is set. No set narrative. Makes sense to us. Through are understanding of cultural. Boys finding life difficult. Poor standard of education subculture that is what we understand. Single partner Shaun and combo make sense of what we see. For example, it is set in 1980 poor place with hangs to spend time together back drop we engage with that culture.


* Action codes – how actors act and how their emotions are shown. Action tell us everything. Friction between woody and combo. First meet combo at the party woody and him are friends then at Michelle’s party the atmosphere changes and they avoid each other and woody makes and excuse to leave the party since combo and the gang have turned up.


* Enigma codes – what happens at the end with Milky / does Shaun leave the skinhead culture no answer to the 80s problems there was no happy ever after for the working-class people who were struggle with money and poverty there was no solution for these problems. Realistic film like life is this film which is very uncertain. Reflect the nature of real life.

How are binary opposites used to show the film’s story, its themes and political and social messages? Use examples.


Ideological areas –
1. Binary opposites (good and evil)
2. Political perspectives – Thatcherism and the racist and intolerant politics of the “extreme right”
3. Spectatorship and responses – ways the film maker evokes responses (camerawork, characters, dialogue, language and Mise-en-scene) and spectator responses (dominant, negotiated and oppositional) and factors that affect how you have this.

Pulp Fiction - Tarantino as an experimental filmmaker

- Experimental filmmakers are in opposition to the mainstream


Buckland (2002) - Mainstream film features :

•  High production values

• Reliance upon stars

•  Convention of a genre (obvious genre)

• Script rather than language telling the story (through narrative devices) - focus on the script, the narrative. 

•  Economic imperative

How Tarantino is experimental in comparison to the mainstream film features :

• Mixes genres and features - (Bricolage)

• Challenges the convention of the use of stars

• The budget reflects his ethos as a film maker - Not using most of budget on film stars, and quite deliberately uses cheap and unrealistic mise-en-scene (e.g. the rear projection for car travel)- this is evidence of experimentalism and also adds to the postmodernist approach of replacing realism with artifice)

Tarantino is considered an experimental filmmaker through the use of the lack of chronology in the narrative, the story isn't told in order which goes against the common conventions of a mainstream film as he also tells the narrative in a different way compared to mainstream films where each story although not in order overlaps and interlinks with each other as it also lacks clarity of who the hero and the villain. He is also considered experimental through the lack of a 'happy ending' which also flouts the common convention of a mainstream film where an ending of resolution is seen, the unusual use of editing - this is seen through the use of fading which conveys a passage of time however only represents the passage of a few seconds. Tarantino is also seen as an experimental filmmaker through the bricolage of genres in which he implements, he mixed different elements of genre features this is seen where Vincent and Mia are in the restaurant and are competing in a dance competition, which isn't a convention of a typical crime film, this is also seen where Vincent and Jules are in the diner and it is being held up by Honey Bunny and Pumpkin which isn't expected because Vincent and Jules are the criminals so in a mainstream film are expected to be the ones to do these criminal acts such as a hold up, which shows the experimental aspect of Tarantino as a filmmaker. The budget of the film reflects Tarantino's ethos as a filmmaker as he uses the deliberate use of cheap and unrealistic mise-en-scene for example, the rear projection in the taxi drive, this shows the experimentalism and his postmodernist approach through the replacement of realism with artifice.

Pulp Fiction - Tarantino auteur signature features

Repetitive tropes -

• Cameos - Quentin Tarantino plays Jimmy Dimmick in pulp fiction, and Mr Brown in reservoir dogs. 

• Feet - Dancing scene with John Travolta, dialogue about Mia and foot massage and the long tracking shot when Mia enters the lounge of her feet. Kill Bill scene ' Wiggle your big toe'  

• Violence - Killing of Marsellus Wallace's business partners, fight scene in Kill Bill. The almost glorification of violence in Tarantino's films is there to portray how artificial it is rather than glorifying violence and guns etc.  

• Dialogue - The realism of dialogue, foot massage, Tarantino tends to make constant use of foul language and racial slurs and sexist remarks, this makes the dialogue more realistic by the use of dark humour this is seen in Pulp fiction when Vincent and Jules are talking about hamburgers. An example 

• Use of the same actors - Samuel L Jackson, Uma Thurman, Tim Roth.

• Masculinity and gender (representation of women in a derogatory way) - 1990's was more equality, strong female lead characters with a sense of male domination through their view of women as sexual objects. Uma thurman could be portrayed as powerful while passive in the marketing aspect in the poster, conveys positivity of female representation in the film. 

• Bathrooms - Prominence of bathrooms, Vincent in killed in a bathroom, Mia Wallace etc.

• Restaurant scenes - Pulp fiction diner robbery, reservoir dogs. 

• Mexican standoff (3 way shootout) - Diner robbery, reservoir dogs between Mr White, Jo and Eddie 

• Taking existing stories and twisting them to tell it differently - In Pulp Fiction, a boxer (butch) paid to throw a fight by Marsellus, two hitmen doing their jobs. in reservoir

Postmodernism - 

• Replacement of realism with artifice (mise-en-scene, character and story), Tarantino mixes up the chronology of his narrative, in a typically postmodern style. The unrealism and artificiality is portrayed in pulp fiction through the larger than life characters through their names and appearance of how their importance of being e.g. a hitman is in contrast to their appearance which reflects the postmodern style as it brings an unrealistic perception of them. Also another typical postmodern style in Pulp Fiction is the the distinction between reality and artifice which is blurred through the violence, as it is seen as cartoon-like and artificial in the way violence occurs in the film with a deliberation of over exaggeration. 

Style - 

• Worms eye shot of car trunk - 

Reservoir Dogs 

Pulp Fiction

• Realism of dialogue ( use of racist and sexual language) - In pulp fiction, Django and Jackie Brown there is a frequent use of racial language e.g. the word n**** is prominent in these films. Also there is the frequent use of sexual language in these films mainly used by the strong male characters, towards the women. 

• Use of music ( contrapuntal sound) - The sound in Pulp Fiction, doesn't match the action. e.g. the scene before Butch runs over Marsellus Wallace the song playing is happy, upbeat music therefore is contrapuntal as afterwards there is a shootout between Butch and Marsellus.  

• Use of long takes - e.g. When Vincent and Jules are taking the lift to the apartment of the ex-business partners (Brett etc) of Marsellus Wallace.

• Corpse or injured point of view shot - 

Pulp Fiction





Kill Bill

Pulp fiction - Taratino Postmodernism

Theory of representation - Jean Baudrillard

Media representation are always only at best a reflection of reality , the best media representations are reflections and are not the same as reality.

- The distinction between representation and reality breaks down over stages over time, the theory looks at stages this break down as this occurs


stage 1 - Early stages of a representation, is a reflection of reality

stage 2 - The representation masks and perverts reality

stage 3 - Next stage of representation , it marks an absence of reality

stage 4 -  In the final stages of representation, it bears no resemblance to reality. It has become a simulacrum or hyper-reality.