In this chapter Harvey (1990) explores the way time and space is represented in postmodern cinema by examining two different films that address the matter. To begin the chapter Harvey tells us that cinema is an art form that developed in cultural modernism and that cinema as a medium can handle space and time in an ‘instructive’ way. He explains that both films were chosen for further analysis because they both illustrate and address the flux of time and space in the postmodern era.
The first film that Harvey analyses is the film Blade Runner by
Ridely Scott. Harvey describes the film as a 'Pop art' piece of film. In his
analysis Harvey raises some key points about the film's comments on the
postmodern world.
The first point Hravey makes is
that the film comment on the schizophrenia of space and time that is integral
to the idea of postmodernity through the lives of the replicants. He explains to us that in the film the
replicants have much shorter life spans that the humans. This, as he describes
latter on in his analysis shows that the characters in the world of Blade
Runner live on different time scales much like the people in the postmodern
world.
A second point Harvey makes is that Blade
Runner also addressed the theme of fragmentation of society in the
postmodern world. He explains to us that at street level the city is full of
chaos. Ruin and decay among the city has been used to show how society is
falling apart due to the fragmentation that had occurred within postmodernism. The images of decay everywhere in the
landscape reinforce exactly that same structure of feeling. “The sense of
shattering and fragmentation in social life is highlighted in an incredible
sequence in which Deckard pursues one of the women replicants, Zhora through
the crowded, incoherent, and labyrinth-like spaces of the city” (1990:311)
Another point Harvey makes is
that the film addresses key issues of dominant social orders and hierarchies in
postmodern society. He explains that the blade runner is sent to kill the
repellants by a higher power; the repellants are also owned by a corporation
and interacted on what to do. This higher power that controls the repellants
and the blade runner, as pointed out by Harvey, are used to symbolize the
control that higher powers have over other people in the postmodern era.
A forth point that
Harvey points out that the characters are on a content search for home and
identity. The characters need search for a home and identity is, as previously
explained by Harvey, an integral aspect to the way space and place is felt with
in the postmodern world. With the blurring of borders and travel becoming
easier it is harder Harvey believes it is harder for people of find a pace to
which they truly identify with as home.
The second film that
Harvey analyses is Wings Of Desire by Wim Wenders. Harvey describes this
film as a 'high brow' example of cinema. This film, like Blade Runner
explores key issues of space and time in the postmodern world.
One point that Harvey
makes is the way Wings Of Desire addresses The issue of fragmentation in
in the post modern world. Harvey explains that in the film that there are two
groups of actors, the angels who have the ability to move across space and time
easily and the humans who can only experience space and time in specific ways.
This results in the angels seeing the world differently to the humans. This
represents the fragmentation of society in the postmodern world as different
people see the world differently depending on where they live and the cultures
that participate in.
A second point Harvey
makes is the issues of 'the real' that are addressed in the film. He explains
to us that there is a conflict between the representation of 'the real' in
terms of the image in real time and 'the real' being represented in the
photograph which can be manipulated. This, explains Harvey, is central to film.“The problem of image,
particularly that implied by the photograph, versus the telling of a story in
real time, is central to the construction of the film”. (1990:314)
Another point Harvey
makes is that Wings of Desire, similar to Blade Runner, addresses
the issues of identity that is a fundamental aspect of postmodernism. In the
chapter Harvey explains to us that the time and space framework of an
individual affects their individual identity. Because the angels and the hum as
have different time and space frame works they have separate identities to each
other
In conclusion we can see
from this summery of Harvey's work that a both these films are integral to the
way space time and place are experienced in postmodernism. Both films address
the same issues in different ways where Blade Runner takes a more
indirect approach at commenting on postmodernist issues, Wings Of Desire
addressed them in a more direct way.
Harvey, D. (1990) ‘Time and Space In The Post Modern
Cinema’ in The Condition of
Postmodernity. Oxford:Blackwell
Alice Davies
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