Editing Postmodernism (section)

=== Film ===
{{main|Postmodern film}}
Postmodern film aims to subvert the mainstream [[Convention (norm)|conventions]] of [[narrative structure]] and [[characterization]], and to test the audience's [[suspension of disbelief]].<ref name="Susan12">{{cite journal |last=Hopkins |first=Susan |date=Spring 1995 |title=Generation Pulp |journal=Youth Studies Australia |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=14–19}}</ref><ref name="Laurent13">{{cite journal |last=Kretzschmar |first=Laurent |date=July 2002 |title=Is Cinema Renewing Itself? |journal=Film-Philosophy |volume=6 |issue=15 |doi=10.3366/film.2002.0015}}</ref><ref name="Linda22">{{cite web |last=Hutcheon |first=Linda |date=January 19, 1998 |title=Irony, Nostalgia, and the Postmodern |url=http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/criticism/hutchinp.html |publisher=University of Toronto English Library}}</ref> Typically, such films also break down the cultural divide between [[High culture|high]] and [[Low culture|low]] [[art]] and often upend typical portrayals of [[gender]], [[Race (classification of humans)|race]], [[Social class|class]], [[genre]], and [[time]] with the goal of creating something that does not abide by traditional narrative expression.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Representing Postmodern Marginality in Three Documentary Films. - Free Online Library |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Representing+Postmodern+Marginality+in+Three+Documentary+Films.-a0204861632 |website=www.thefreelibrary.com}}</ref>

Certain key characteristics are used to separate the postmodern from modernist cinema and traditional narrative film.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Woods |first=Tim |title=Beginning postmodernism |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-7190-5211-8 |edition=1st |location=Manchester |pages=214–218}}</ref><ref name="archive.org">{{Cite web |last=Betz |first=Mark |date=March 23, 2009 |title=Beyond the subtitle : remapping European art cinema |url=http://archive.org/details/betz_beyond-the-subtitle-remapping-european-art-cinema |publisher=Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> One is an extensive use of [[Homage (arts)|homage]] or [[pastiche]], imitating the style or character of other artistic works. A second is [[meta-reference]] or self-reference, highlighting the relation of the image to other images in media and not to any kind of external reality.<ref name=":2" /> Viewers are reminded that the film itself is only a film, perhaps through the use of [[intertextuality]], in which the film's characters reference other works of fiction. A third characteristic is stories that [[Nonlinear narrative|unfold out of chronological order]], deconstructing or fragmenting time to emphasize the constructed nature of film. Another common element is a bridging of the gap between [[highbrow]] and [[Low culture|lowbrow]],.<ref name="Laurent13"/><ref name="Linda22"/><ref name=":2" /> [[Contradictions]] of all sorts are crucial to postmodernism.<ref name="Laurent13"/><ref name="Mary1">{{cite book |last=Alemany-Galway |first=Mary |title=A Postmodern Cinema |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2002 |location=Kent, England}}</ref>

[[Ridley Scott]]'s ''[[Blade Runner]]'' (1982) has been widely studied as a prime example of postmodernism. The setting is a future [[dystopia]] where "replicants", enhanced [[Android (robot)|android]] workers nearly indistinguishable from humans, are hunted down when they escape from their jobs. The film blurs boundaries between genres and cultures, and fuses disparate styles and periods: futuristic visuals "mingle with drab 1940s clothes and offices, punk rock hairstyles, pop Egyptian styles and oriental culture."<ref name=":2" /><ref name="Laurent13" /> The blending of [[film noir]] and [[science-fiction]] into [[tech noir]] illustrates the deconstruction of both cinema and genre.<ref>{{cite web |last=Sherlock |first=Ben |date=February 21, 2021 |title=One Movie Both Invented and Perfected the Tech Noir |url=https://gamerant.com/80s-movie-invented-tech-noir/ |work=[[Game Rant]]}}</ref> The film can also be seen as an example of major studios using the "mystique and cachet of the term 'postmodern' as a sales pitch", resulting in [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] movies that "demonstrate all the postmodern characteristics".<ref name=":2" /> From another perspective, "critical responses to ''Blade Runner'' fall on either side of a modern/postmodern line" –  critical analysis from "modernist" and "postmodernist" approaches produce entirely different interpretations.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Begley |first=Varun |date=2004 |title="Blade Runner" and the Postmodern: A Reconsideration |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43797175 |journal=Literature/Film Quarterly |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=186–192 |jstor=43797175 |issn=0090-4260 }}</ref>