Wednesday 20 September 2017

5 Reasons Why the film "Kill Bill" is Postmodern

Postmodern Elements
The film Kill Bill came out in 2003, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film is an Action/thriller. 

Figure 1

1. Pastiche - the film imitates many different styles and genres: Tarantino was inspired by the film Lady Snowblood, a Japanese film made in 1973. He copied many of the shots from this film. (See figure 2)

Figure 2

2. Intertextuality - Tarantino combines different genres by referencing Japanese Cinema, Horror, Western, Action and even scenes from his own films.

3. The Animated Scene - the character O - Ren Ishi's backstory is told within an animation, which is done in the style of Anime.This might be considered unusual in an Action/Thriller film, however seeing horror portrayed through this medium makes it new and different.

Figure 3

4. Hyper Reality - the film has many elements of hyperrealism. For example many of the fight scenes are really exaggerated to the point where people appear to defy the laws of gravity and fly through the air. The  excessive use of  blood that  spurts and spays out of the bodies is also a  little bit hard to believe!

Figure 4

5. The Music - most of the music played through out the film doesn't really match whats happening in the scene. For instance one of the fight scenes had pop music playing in the background and didn't appear to relate at all to what was on the screen

Tarantino breaks whats known as the "norm" in cinema, ie: the conventional, traditional portrayal of a horror story.  He does his own thing which does not conform to the stereotype of action thriller.




Life Drawing - Lesson 1

Charcoal - 20 minutes

Charcoal - 5 minute poses

Pencil - 20 minutes