Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Run Lola Run second run

Run Lola Run (Second run)
Summary: Main character; Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend of one year, Mani. He has lost 100,000 marks on a subway train that belongs to gangster. Lola has 20 min to brainstorm an idea and find a way to raise this amount and meet Mani before he robs a convenience store or worse. Three different alternatives may happen depending on some minor event along Lola's run.

The scene repeats the events seen in the runs beforehand; the cartoon including an aggressive dog, her mother on the phone etc. and also the defining moments when Lola receives a phone call, the camera rotates and spins around her in a 360 motion accompanied with the non-dietetic sound of a ticking clock empathising the lack of, and importance of time.

The camera then shows her running down the road and she bumps into a lady with a pram who this time, becomes religious after that incident, which is shown on photographs after the hit. She then runs past the nuns and this time dodges them, does not make any contact with any of them.
The bike rider then does not offer his bike to Lola this time, instead he sees the tramp who has the money and sold it to him.
She then gets hit by a car and sees Mr Maya, a friend of her Father's.
Later, as she is running, Lola almost gets hit by a lorry outside a casino. After seeing the casino however, she enters it and is one frank short however gets allowe in to the casino. With everyone looking rich and dressed nice, she was getting a lot of stares dressed in a tracksuit and with red hair. She then won the roulette though after screaming very loud and then there was another reference to the clock in the casino.

Then, Lola enters the ambulance and see's a man in critical condition, in the meantime, her boyfriend Manni catches the tramp on the bike that has his money and he gets the money back.

Manni then gives the money to the gangster, and secures a ‘fairytale ending’

Friday, 9 September 2011

Do we live in a post-modern era?


Practise essay - Is it simply true that we live in a post modern era?


Post modernism can be identified in almost every field of life; philosophy, literature, media art,science,society, religion etc, the meaning of post modernism changes adapting to the subject which means it is often difficult to define.
For example, before we lived in a modern era, we lived in a ‘pre-modern’ era which based it’s reality upon religion and faith, then as society and the world progressed, we entered a ‘modern era’ which based it’s reality upon science and rationality. Now we are said to be in a ‘post modern’ era, as our sense of reality is based upon us as individuals, taking into account various other factors such as gender, age, religion etc. there is no single defining source for us as individuals.
But to describe the term loosely, we could say that if you are a post modernist, or an idea is described using this phrase, then you tend to be a great deal more open minded and less focused on rationality which is associated with modernity, and pre modernity.
However, post modernist and modernists approaches can be deemed similar in some respects; they both display formalist styles sharing features such as fragmentation,doubling,self-referntiality and irony.

Arguments that support the idea of us living in a post modern society would be the introduction and existence of huge public figures such as lady Gaga, who represents us as a society. she’s different, she steps outside the box that many artists like her and before her were in- she creates new ideas that excite and inspire the world around her, and she rebels against a lot of societies values; through Lady Gaga we could say we have an example of how our era is post modern.
However, although quirky, reinvent and seemingly ‘different’ many would argue that she has recycled past artist’s ideas, specifically Madonna. For example, her constant use of religious symbols such as the crucifix, provocative, exciting and innovative stage performances which seem to step out of the box, yet contain striking resemblances to Madonna’s past costumes, suggesting that Lady gaga is in fact a lot less original than one might first assume.

However, as a final note, we can safely assume that Lady Gaga represents our era and generation, symbolising reinvention, fashion exploration and thinking outside of the box. Recently, she introduced an 'alter ego' via her male version, something which has been demonstrated by other artists,and again highlights her post modern approach to her image, and inevitable direct effect on our society today through the media.
Although it can be argued that Lady Gaga does or does not represent a post modern domination through the media, the term itself is difficult to apply to our era on such a large scale because our perception of the term tends to vary on the indivual and therefore no concrete conclusion can be made.