Component 2 - Section D - Experimental Cinema - Pulp Fiction


Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994)

- Resist conventional narrative structures

- Familiar narrative structure seen with:
    - Todorov's equilibrium
    - Three Act structure
    - Cause and effect
    - Linear
    - Classical Hollywood... ends on "Hollywood kiss"

- Storytelling; new ways of telling the story

- Multi-stranded, e.g. Tarantino's Four Rooms - forerunner of his cinematic style and techniques

- Intertitles at start of each storyline

- Black comedy, graphic violence, dialogue and                                                      monologues

1. The diner - 3
2. Jules and Vincent - 1
3. Vincent and Mia - 5 
4. Butch - 6
5. Jules and Vincent and Mr Wolfe - 2
6. Back to the diner - 4


'Honey Bunny & Pumpkin'
- Launches the spectator straight in to the 'narrative'
- Dialogue is 'everyday' stuff - just before they plan to rob the coffee shop
- Voices, being nice before it changes to nasty
("get into character" - Jules to Vincent)
- Normalises these types of characters, foreign to the screen
- Morality

Mia & Vincent Strand

- Simulacrum; pale imitation of 1950s (Buddy Holly and Marilyn are tragic figures), the "date" is not real, mockery and a sham, and a business transaction --> informal despite power dynamic

- Mia is shown to be very vulnerable and naïve through her childlike language and overdose --> juxtaposing two parts of her 

 - Dancing; childish slant on sexual activity... they don't make contact --> contrasts between French New Wave and 1950s Hollywood --> also with music --. bricolage in combination

- 1950s cultural background, 1960s cinema techniques (A Band a Part... Bonnie & Clyde), 1970s cinematography and interactions, 1980s society, 1990s contemporary contexts, "square", modern language --> bricolage 

- 1960s film: fade-outs, Mia presented as a femme fatale and yet that is completely subverted - originally just a voice --> she dominates at the start but becomes dependent on Vincent --> postmodern version of gender roles and ideologies

- Warhol - pop art, "15 minutes of fame"

- Motionless car... never follow through in their relationships

Discuss how either editing or cinematography contribute to the experimental nature of your film option. [20]


Comments

  1. Lisa SocratesFebruary 28, 2022 at 3:43 AM

    A SOUND START WITH THIS NEW FILM. WILL YOU ADD YOUR NOTES ON BOTH THE JACK RABBIT SLIM'S SEQUENCE, OTHER SHORT EXPERIMENTAL WORKS (E.G JARMAN) AND NOTES ON POSTMODERNISM?

    ReplyDelete

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