TY - JOUR
T1 - Ensemble film, postmodernity and moral mapping
AU - Sim, Lorraine
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - The marked increase in the popularity of the ensemble film in recent decades can be understood to be a product of the form’s potential to present and reflect upon the social, experiential and moral complexity of the postmodern era. Varying in scope from an ensemble of characters who may meet or “mismeet”[1] in the same city or suburb, as in Paul Haggis’ Crash (2004) and Robert Altman’s Short Cuts (1993), to characters living in disparate parts of the world who are – sometimes unbeknown to them – connected by an event or the effects of each other’s actions, as in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel (2006), ensemble films reveal connections between a number of characters and plots that initially seem unrelated. Contemporary ensemble films often explore issues and themes seen to be representative of postmodern society and experience such as alienation and anomie (Magnolia, 1999; Blessed, 2009), the politics of difference (Crash, 2004; Everyday People, 2004), the possibilities and failures of communication (Short Cuts, 1993; Babel), simulacra and media cultures (Nashville, 1975; Magnolia), and social inequality (Amores perros, 2000). Due to their attempt to connect and afford pattern to the complex landscapes of postmodernity – be they spatial, social or political – such films can also be understood to serve a conceptual and cathartic function in that they can perform for the viewer through narrative and aesthetic means forms of “cognitive mapping” that the individual may not be able to realise in actual life.[2] The critical acclaim and public reception of several ensemble films such as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, director Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga’s trilogy Amores perros, 21 Grams (2003) and Babel, and Haggis’ Crash, suggest that they are perceived to undertake important cultural and ideological work. However, in recent years a number of critics have taken issue with the cultural politics and ideological positions that inform several of these films, and question the extent to which they adequately negotiate the complex social and cultural landscapes they present. This essay builds upon recent discussions of the ensemble film in a number of ways and with particular reference to films – such as those mentioned above – which present a distinctly postmodern sensibility and worldview. While critics have developed useful terms and categories that account for different sub-sets of the contemporary ensemble film and related forms, such as “hyperlink cinema” and “network narratives,” in this essay I want to point out the uneven relationship that sometimes exists between an ensemble film’s formal preoccupation with interconnection and its broader thematic, social and ethical outlook. A number of critics have adopted Fredric Jameson’s concept of cognitive mapping to describe the kind of conceptual work undertaken in the contemporary ensemble film. Drawing upon Emmanuel Levinas’ poststructuralist ethical philosophy and Zygmunt Bauman’s analysis in Postmodern Ethics of the construction of social space in the modern world, this paper considers the concept of “moral mapping” in the ensemble film. Focusing on Short Cuts and Babel, I consider the different ways in which these films address self-other relations and ethical responsibility – issues that invariably arise in these texts given their structural and thematic preoccupation with fragmentation and interconnection, the individual and society. My rationale for focusing on these two films is that they present opposite extremes in relation to the topic – the form of the ensemble film and moral mapping in the context of postmodernity – and therefore provide a useful comparison and contrast. For example, while Short Cuts presents one of the most sophisticated instances of ensemble style and technique, for all its formal emphasis on interconnection and its political and moral provocations, it somewhat cynically refuses to work through the social and moral issues it presents and portrays a social landscape of moral apathy and disconnection. By contrast, in Babel Iñárritu exploits the ensemble form as a means to assist the viewer to think through the issues relating to postmodernity and ethics that it pursues. Several critics have taken issue with the cultural politics of ensemble films such as Crash, Grand Canyon (USA 1991), Magnolia and Babel, claiming that they privilege whiteness and oversimplify racial and ethnic difference[3] , or promote utopian, depoliticized conceptions of community[4] . This paper offers a defense of Iñárritu’s films against such critiques and argues that Babel in particular encourages valuable reflection on issues of social inequality, justice and ethical responsibility, and provides us with an intimation of the possibilities the ensemble form presents for processes of moral mapping in contemporary times.
AB - The marked increase in the popularity of the ensemble film in recent decades can be understood to be a product of the form’s potential to present and reflect upon the social, experiential and moral complexity of the postmodern era. Varying in scope from an ensemble of characters who may meet or “mismeet”[1] in the same city or suburb, as in Paul Haggis’ Crash (2004) and Robert Altman’s Short Cuts (1993), to characters living in disparate parts of the world who are – sometimes unbeknown to them – connected by an event or the effects of each other’s actions, as in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel (2006), ensemble films reveal connections between a number of characters and plots that initially seem unrelated. Contemporary ensemble films often explore issues and themes seen to be representative of postmodern society and experience such as alienation and anomie (Magnolia, 1999; Blessed, 2009), the politics of difference (Crash, 2004; Everyday People, 2004), the possibilities and failures of communication (Short Cuts, 1993; Babel), simulacra and media cultures (Nashville, 1975; Magnolia), and social inequality (Amores perros, 2000). Due to their attempt to connect and afford pattern to the complex landscapes of postmodernity – be they spatial, social or political – such films can also be understood to serve a conceptual and cathartic function in that they can perform for the viewer through narrative and aesthetic means forms of “cognitive mapping” that the individual may not be able to realise in actual life.[2] The critical acclaim and public reception of several ensemble films such as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, director Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga’s trilogy Amores perros, 21 Grams (2003) and Babel, and Haggis’ Crash, suggest that they are perceived to undertake important cultural and ideological work. However, in recent years a number of critics have taken issue with the cultural politics and ideological positions that inform several of these films, and question the extent to which they adequately negotiate the complex social and cultural landscapes they present. This essay builds upon recent discussions of the ensemble film in a number of ways and with particular reference to films – such as those mentioned above – which present a distinctly postmodern sensibility and worldview. While critics have developed useful terms and categories that account for different sub-sets of the contemporary ensemble film and related forms, such as “hyperlink cinema” and “network narratives,” in this essay I want to point out the uneven relationship that sometimes exists between an ensemble film’s formal preoccupation with interconnection and its broader thematic, social and ethical outlook. A number of critics have adopted Fredric Jameson’s concept of cognitive mapping to describe the kind of conceptual work undertaken in the contemporary ensemble film. Drawing upon Emmanuel Levinas’ poststructuralist ethical philosophy and Zygmunt Bauman’s analysis in Postmodern Ethics of the construction of social space in the modern world, this paper considers the concept of “moral mapping” in the ensemble film. Focusing on Short Cuts and Babel, I consider the different ways in which these films address self-other relations and ethical responsibility – issues that invariably arise in these texts given their structural and thematic preoccupation with fragmentation and interconnection, the individual and society. My rationale for focusing on these two films is that they present opposite extremes in relation to the topic – the form of the ensemble film and moral mapping in the context of postmodernity – and therefore provide a useful comparison and contrast. For example, while Short Cuts presents one of the most sophisticated instances of ensemble style and technique, for all its formal emphasis on interconnection and its political and moral provocations, it somewhat cynically refuses to work through the social and moral issues it presents and portrays a social landscape of moral apathy and disconnection. By contrast, in Babel Iñárritu exploits the ensemble form as a means to assist the viewer to think through the issues relating to postmodernity and ethics that it pursues. Several critics have taken issue with the cultural politics of ensemble films such as Crash, Grand Canyon (USA 1991), Magnolia and Babel, claiming that they privilege whiteness and oversimplify racial and ethnic difference[3] , or promote utopian, depoliticized conceptions of community[4] . This paper offers a defense of Iñárritu’s films against such critiques and argues that Babel in particular encourages valuable reflection on issues of social inequality, justice and ethical responsibility, and provides us with an intimation of the possibilities the ensemble form presents for processes of moral mapping in contemporary times.
KW - ensemble films
KW - ethics
KW - postmodernism
UR - http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/518895
UR - http://www.screeningthepast.com/2012/12/ensemble-film-postmodernity-and-moral-mapping/
M3 - Article
SN - 1328-9756
VL - 35
JO - Screening the Past
JF - Screening the Past
ER -