Finally, inspired once again!
Had the most enjoyable and thought provoking lecture yesterday which has greatly influenced my decision for the essay. I know my previous intention was to do either question 2 or 3, but the lecture on intertextuality was so enjoyable that I feel really inspired by the topic and so I'm going to pursue question 4.
The lecture featured a series of case studies, including Planet of the Apes, Pulp Fiction, Grease and Madagascar. There was also the standard reference to Dr Who thrown in for good measure. Ivan wasn't joking when he claimed to be an obsessive fan. But who am I to judge, mention George A Romero and I react in a similar extremist fashion. Though I'd like to consider myself less of an anorak :P
Regarding the Madagascar case study, when shown the clip I kinda had this insane unravelling of thoughts and theories that came rushing through my mind. I was barely able to scribble it all down in time.
I hate it when that happens. An overwhelming volume of ideas all fight their way to the forefront of your mind and subsequently you scrawl some incomprehensible notes. Its like mind vomit.
Basically within this one scene in Madagascar there's a huge quantity of intertextuality. From Planet of the apes (Damn them all to hell), to Castaway. However, these cultural references are more for the benefit of the 'accompanying adult' cinema population, e.g. the Mums & Dads, than the core target audience of children.
This is a common trait within contemporary animation, especially from the likes of Dreamworks and Pixar. Through intertextuality, the makers are able to develop the stereotypical 'family film' so that an adult audience can genuinely enjoy it. The popularity of Pixar speaks for itself. They are now regarded the forerunners of family cinema and although in recent years there a slowly establishing theme of quantity over quality, its indisputable that the early films (Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo etc) were fantastic.
Another aspect of the lecture that I found provoking was when Ivan stated that 'all models are intertextual'. That opened the floodgates for another wave of mind vomit, but on a serious note, I do think that's a really worthwhile point he made. Could one then argue that all art is intertextual? But then that requires a definition or classification of art and I think 'art' is such an ambiguous term.
I find these kind of matters fascinating, exhausting in terms of being mentally challenging, but extremely interesting none the less.
When we progressed onto the seminar we were using the character of Dracula as a case study. Ivan showed us a clip from Nosferatu, which I spent the lecture referring to in notes as Monsteratu, until I saw the title written on the board haha.
It's a really awesome horror film created in 1922. It was then remade in 1979 and we saw a clip from the remake also. We then did a quick decostruction/comparisson exercise of the two. Its always interesting during group discussion to hear others' analysis because often people will notice details which you may have overlooked.
the vampire in the original Nosferatu
Ivan progressed to give a brief history into the character and the origins of Dracula are actually really interesting. I think its something I may follow up on myself and see what information i can gather on various horror 'legends' and such.
Highlight for me though, was when he referenced Bauhaus's 'Bela Lugosi's Dead'. It went over the heads of most people, but I was impressed nonetheless. With all this talk of Dracula, Bela Lugosi could never be overlooked and in relation to intertextuality there's no greater an example than in music. Any scenario where i can reference the two simmultaneously, I'm in my element. So to end a very long post, the following seems very appropriate, enjoy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKRJfIPiJGY&feature=related
No comments:
Post a Comment