Jim collins: film as a postmodern medium.

there is a new divide in hollywood today, between the eclectic or 'hybrid' film one hand, smart and knowing and a more traditional kind of film keen to endorse 'authentic' values and a solid, traditional sense of reality, as opposed to a playful sense of representations.

says that different films operate on different levels:

- says that some explore a character adventure

- some make the text very self referential and 'knowing' and in that sense the journey is the texts journey. 

- the texts 'adventure' can mean different signifiers from different genres, disconnected from their typical  narrative structures.

- often there is a 'knowingness' a self consciousness in deploying generic features and on that part of the spectators in interpreting them. 

He says you read a film or tv programmes on 2 levels. 

 1. straight narrative layer 

2. the post modern layer, which is filled with meaning, pastiche, parody, intertextual references, irony, humour, and knowingness.