The Condition of Postmodernity 13 - autonomous learning

18Time and space In the postmodernCInemaPost modern cultural artefacts are, by virtue of the eclecticism ofther concetion .and the anarchy of their subject matter, immenselyvaned. I thmk It useful, however, to illustrate how the themes oftime-spac compression that have been elaborated on here get representedm postmodern works. For this purpose I choose to lookat .the cinema, in part because this is an art form which (togetherwIth photography) arose in the context of the first great burst ofcultural modernism, but also because, of all the art forms, it hasperhaps th mst .robust .capacity to handle intertwining themes ofsp:e and time m mstructIve ways. The serial use of images, and theabIlIty to cut back and .forth across space and time, free it from manyof the normal constramts, even though it is, in the final analysis, aspectacle projected within an enclosed space on a depthless screen.The two films I shall consider are Blade Runner and Himmel iiberBerlin (alled Wings of Desire in English). Ridley Scott's BladeRunner IS a popular science fiction movie, considered an excellentexample of its genre by many, and a film that still circulates in thelate-night cinemas of large metropolitan areas. It is a piece of pop artthat neverthles explores important themes. I am particularly indebtedto Gmhano Bruno's perceptive analysis of its postmodernaesthetics. Wim Wenders's Wings of Desire, on the other hand, is apice of 'highbrow' cinema, very favourably received by the critics (a'bittersweet masterpiece' one critic wrote), but hard to grasp at firstviewing. It is the kind of film that has to be worked at to beunderstood and appreciated. However, it explores similar themes tothose .set out .in Blade unner, though from a rather different perspectIVeand n .a very dIfferent style. Both films exemplify many ofthe caractenstIcs of postmodernism, and in addition pay particularattentIon to the conceptualization and meanings of time and space.The story of Blade Runner concerns a small group of geneticallyTime and space in the postmodern cinema 309produced human beings, called 'replicants,' who return to face theirmakers. The film is set in Los Angeles in the year 2019 and hingesaround the search of the 'blade runner' Deckard to uncover thepresence ?f the replcants and to eliminate or 'retire' them (as thefilm has It) as a senous danger to the social order. The replicantshae been ceated or the specific purpose of working on highlyskilled tasks m particularly difficult environments at the frontiers ofspace exploration. They ae ndowed with strengths, intelligence,and powes that are at the lImIt of, or even beyond that of, ordinaryhuma? bemgs. They are also endowed with feelings; only in thisway, It seems, can they adapt to the difficulty of their tasks in such away as to make judgements consistent with human requirements.However, fearing that they might at some point pose a threat to theestablished order, their makers have given them a life-span of onlyfour y ars: If hey escape ontrol dring these four years they haveto b: retired. But to retire them IS both dangerous and difficultprecIsely because of their superior endowments.The replicants are, it should be noted, not mere imitations buttotally authentic reproductions, indistinguishable in almost all respectsfrom human beings. They are simulacra rather than robots.Tey have been designed as the ultimate form of short-term, highlyskIlled and flexible labour power (a perfect example of a workerend?wed with all ?f the qualities necessary to adapt to conditions offlexIble accumulatIOn). But like all workers faced with the threat of ashort .en d workin .g life, the replicants do not take kindly to theresnctIons o theIr four-year life-span. Their purpose in returning totheIr makers IS to try to find ways to prolong their life, by infiltratingto the heart of the productive apparatus that made them, and therepersuading or .forci?g their makers to re-programme their geneticmake-up. TheIr .desIgner, Tyrell (head of a vast corporate empire oftht name), pomts out to Roy, the leader of the replicants, whoultimately penetrates into his inner sanctum, that the replicants havemore han adequate rcompense for the brevity of their life-span -they lIve, after all, WIth the most incredible intensity. 'Revel in it,'says Tyr:ll, 'a flae .that burs twice as intensely lives half as long.'The replIcants eXIst, m short, III that schizophrenic rush of time thatJameson, p:leuze and Guattari, and others see as so central to postmdrnhvmg . .The also move across a breadth of space with aflUIdity that gms them an immense fund of experience. Their personamatches m many respects the time and space of instantaneousglobal communications.In revolt againt their cond .itions of 'slave labour' (as Roy, theleader of the replIcants, calls It) and seeking to prolong their life-