Intertextuality & Institution

Title: An Investigation of Postmodernism in Contemporary Film with Special Reference to Inception

Intertextuality

The blurring of high and low art is an aspect of postmodernism. However, some theorists, such as Adorno, consider classical sophistication far more important than pop culture. Others, such as Lyotard think that the favouring of one piece of art or the other depends on mere taste. We can also distinguish intelligence from education.
We constantly recycle the mediated past, such as Edith Piaf’s song ‘Je ne regrette rien’ in Inception. These are references to pop culture rather than simply stealing ideas and inevitable in the process of making memorable emotional connections with the audience. The question of originality has interested philosophers for centuries: even Aristotle thought that everything we create already exists. Russell describes in Problems of Philosophy that human creativity highly depends on perception - therefore experience influences us to make new things. We could simply say it like this:
'We all had films which made an impression to us when a were kids. This is a way of passing on to the next generation.' (Pete Docter from Pixar)

Institutions

In today’s highly commercialised world, we can barely find any free space without ads (not even the cinema screen is sacred anymore) or shopping opportunities (e.g.: Amazon is linked to IMDb). In other words, we choose to be part of a consumerist world and accept the idea that it is possible to ‘buy’ happiness12. In films it is very common to include the list of used music in the ending credits, which enables the viewer to look for that song they liked. Of course today it its much easier to find them with websites such as YouTube. The habit of having more windows open at the same time actually affected the thinking of the general public: today's spectator is considered to be more of an associative thinker in comparison to our ancestors. It might be the reason that most filmmakers encourage us to dig into this pile of information online and get the most out of it. Such as in Sucker Punch, where all the songs are remixes of famous pop numbers. For example Sweet Dreams Are Made of These, which has become infamous in Marilyn Manson's version. Or Where Is My Mind, which was originally by The Pixies and became the theme song of the cult film Fight Club.

Notes:

11.

Problems of Philosophy, 1912

12. Pete Docter from Pixar, writer and director of Monsters Inc. (2001)

13. Fight Club [DVD], 1999, dir. David Fincher

14. Sucker Punch, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 2011, Sony Classical