Originality and Repetition in Contemporary Cinema
Originality and Repetition in Contemporary Cinema
It seems that the innovation of Contemporary Cinema has come to a stand still. Audiences are becoming more and more difficult to please, as films endure the comments of "seen that!" or "that's been done before!" leaving filmmakers struggling to break away from the rigid structure of genre to produce somethings fresh and new for contemporary audiences. Hollywood, in particular, is being seen as producing films that are "commercial, aimed at a mass market, ideologically and aesthetically conservative, and more imbued with the values of entertainment and fantasy rather than realism art or serious aesthetic stylization" (Neale, 2000, p.4). Featherstone (1992, pp.7-8) stresses that Postmodernism in the arts is resulting in "the decline of the originality/genius of the artistic producer" and the assumption that "art can only be repetition"as it becomes very difficult to break away from the classic genre, narrative structure and character archetypes, at best created by Hollywood. David Lynch's Mullholland Drive (2001) and Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) are two Postmodernist films that attempt to steer clear of cliche Hollywood genre and structure, like most US/Indie Arthouse films of their kind. Both films present visual motifs that are surreal, anxiety-ridden and enigmatic; embedded narrative; non-sequential order rather that traditional linearity; unsynched sound-image juxtapositions; fragmented plotline and the application of Freudian/Surrealist dream mechanisms of displacement, condensation and mis-recognition" (Perlmutter, 2005, p.7). Though both artistically and aesthetically beautiful with their use of dialogue and images, and nothing short of entertaining, Mulholland Drive and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind still present techniques and themes done by cinematic greats before them.
In the 1920's Russian Filmmakers such as Sergei Eistenstien and Dziga Vertov began
It seems that the innovation of Contemporary Cinema has come to a stand still. Audiences are becoming more and more difficult to please, as films endure the comments of "seen that!" or "that's been done before!" leaving filmmakers struggling to break away from the rigid structure of genre to produce somethings fresh and new for contemporary audiences. Hollywood, in particular, is being seen as producing films that are "commercial, aimed at a mass market, ideologically and aesthetically conservative, and more imbued with the values of entertainment and fantasy rather than realism art or serious aesthetic stylization" (Neale, 2000, p.4). Featherstone (1992, pp.7-8) stresses that Postmodernism in the arts is resulting in "the decline of the originality/genius of the artistic producer" and the assumption that "art can only be repetition"as it becomes very difficult to break away from the classic genre, narrative structure and character archetypes, at best created by Hollywood. David Lynch's Mullholland Drive (2001) and Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) are two Postmodernist films that attempt to steer clear of cliche Hollywood genre and structure, like most US/Indie Arthouse films of their kind. Both films present visual motifs that are surreal, anxiety-ridden and enigmatic; embedded narrative; non-sequential order rather that traditional linearity; unsynched sound-image juxtapositions; fragmented plotline and the application of Freudian/Surrealist dream mechanisms of displacement, condensation and mis-recognition" (Perlmutter, 2005, p.7). Though both artistically and aesthetically beautiful with their use of dialogue and images, and nothing short of entertaining, Mulholland Drive and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind still present techniques and themes done by cinematic greats before them.
In the 1920's Russian Filmmakers such as Sergei Eistenstien and Dziga Vertov began