Analyzing Features of Post-Modernism in Latest Movies of Roy Andersson

In our age, postmodern idea as a cultural and historical phenomenon has affected all cultural, political, and economic aspects of life. Despite its comprehensive impact on contemporary human life, postmodernism resists being defined and categorize and there is no exact definition of its nature, so that, this phenomenon is known as complexity and incomprehensibility, but it is often viewed in the context of questioning modern ideals. This path has been accompanied by many ups and downs, which in each period have been influenced by the socio-political characteristics of its time, and from within these effects, in parallel with the tools specific to the cinema, it has achieved many leaps and metamorphoses. Cinema, as an important part of contemporary art, has not escaped the influence of postmodern theory. Postmodern cinema, like other aspects influenced by this intellectual movement, does not have a clear example and precise definition, however, some of its features can be considered by examining the works of some filmmakers. The postmodern condition, which does not have a specific theory and approach, depends on various factors in the fields of literature, architecture, philosophy, sociology, etc. Consequently, since postmodern cinema is not studied by a single theorist, the components of postmodernism in movies cannot be easily analyzed. For this reason, Jameson's views, which are more comprehensive than the views of other postmodernists, have been chosen as the theoretical basis for this study. According to Jameson, the origins of postmodernism are first studied with a historical approach, and then, its aesthetic components are extracted and analyzed. The present study examines the elements of postmodernism in contemporary cinema with a fundamental objective. The research method is qualitative and has been done through a case study method. The required data have been gathered from library sources and audio-visual archives. In line with the research objective, four films from Roy Andersson, namely "Songs from the Second Floor" in 2000, "You, the living" in 2007, "A pigeon sat on a branch reflecting on existence" in 2014, and "About endlessness" in 2019 have been selected and analyzed. The result suggests that the extracted postmodern components based on Jameson's views are fully compatible with Andersson's late cinema and can be used as a model for the detection and analysis of postmodern films.