“Being Postmodern before it’s fashionable” (2002)
“A narrative is some kind of retelling, often in words (though it is possible to mime a story), of something that happened (a story). The narrative is not the story itself but rather the telling of the story -- which is why it is so often used in phrases such as "written narrative," "oral narrative," etc. While a story just is a sequence of events, a narrative recounts those events, perhaps leaving some occurrences out because they are from some perspective insignificant, and perhaps emphasizing others. In a series of events, a car crash takes a split second. A narrative account, however, might be almost entirely about the crash itself and the few seconds leading up to it. Narratives thus shape history (the series of events, the story of what happened).” (Nelmes. J 2003, pg.84)
Film makers use a narrative style to ‘tell the story’, however not all narratives have the same structure.
Linear Narrative – where we are given a straightforward story from A- B for example Notting Hill.
Non Linear Narrative – a somewhat experimental type of film making where we are jolted forwards and backwards throughout the narrative. For example: Memento
Postmodern films work against the mainstream conventions of narrative structure. These films generally test the minds of the audience due to their style and way of story telling.
Many viewers may be familiar with the following postmodern films:
“Pulp Fiction”, “Memento”, “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” and “Blade Runner”
Audiences may find films such as Pulp Fiction pointless if they are watching a postmodern film for the first time, viewers not familiar with postmodern film styles often have a negative reaction to such films as they find it difficult to follow the narrative.
“24 Hour Party People”
The postmodern film that I have chosen to focus on is “24 Hour Party People”. I will investigate whether the narrative fits ‘Dominic Strinati’s’ ‘5 point structure’. The blog will also make reference to other postmodern films.
Here is a trailer from the 2002 release of “24 Hour Party People”. Even the trailer is Postmodern…
“24 Hour Party People” is set in the UK, the film is about the Manchester music scene between the late 70’s and 1992, it specifically looks at ‘Factory Records’ (a British independent record label)
The film begins with the ‘punk rock’ era moving through to the ‘Madchester’ scene in the late 80’s onwards. Although the story is built around the music scene the narrative strongly follows ‘Tony Wilson’s’ story ‘The News Presenter’ from Granada Television. The head of ‘Factory Records’ is played by comedian ‘Steve Coogan’, the film also features the music of artists such as ‘Joy Division’, ‘The Happy Mondays’ and ‘New Order’. After the premier of the film and the music soundtrack release these bands all had further success.
24 Hour Party People, has been dedicated to the people of Manchester, rather than any of the bands or artists involved within the film. The film is looked at as a piece of Nostalgia, whether it be for a reader that has grown up with the Manchester music scene or a reader that has never heard of the music scene let alone the region where the film is set.
The film is a dramatization that is based around rumor, urban legend and true events plus a great deal of imagination from the creators. We are reminded of this constantly with the fourth wall being broken by our presenter ‘Tony Wilson’, this is shown through him interrupting the drama and speaking straight to camera, this style is quite controversial, the film ‘Alfie’ was one of the first films to do this in the 1960’s.
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