Intertextuality and Cinema

It is not the case of chicken first or egg! Nothing comes to life in thin air. There is almost always a base when any concept or idea takes birth. Similarly, whenever a film is made there is a point of start behind it. This gives volume to the idea and weightage to the reflection of any concept. When we tell a story there is another vision and mission under it. Likewise, when we show a movie or encourage others to see it, there is a pre-existing concrete idea and ideology behind it. This relation of dependence on existing text or thought that gives life to the new and emerging views is termed intertextuality. More than being a plant that grows, it is more of a concrete tower that is built upon from a solid existing base to be developed further. Thus the films emerge as a result of peaceful coherence of different cultures and meaningful amalgamation of already existing text such as ideas, ideologies, poetry, painting, literature, music, and many more. It is not something that is stolen. It is liberating when we can pick up traces of the past and existing in something that is looked at and pondered upon in present to be consumed by our future. It is as if a larger-than-life fantasy is thought upon and the text gets captured in the realistic and relatable world for a real audience. The influence of our past emerges as part of history that the directors can use to create an idea and bring it to life in the form of films. However, the choice of that influence depends upon the decisions that are made in the present so that relation and relevance can be built in the cinematic depiction of earlier events.

What most filmmakers choose at topics to make cinema on depends consciously and unconsciously on the historical, cultural, social, political, philosophical texts that they have glanced upon. They do so to bring a voice to the things they have learned and the text that has influenced their vision and ideas. Along this line the various genres of cinema come to life, strengthening the concept of intertextuality more. The ideas emerge and start taking shape and what becomes integral is to make them fall into specific categories. This is further realized by categorizing films into different segments (genre). The type of theme or idea that a film defines decides under what bracket will it lie. Will they be fantasy, horror, scientific, romantic or period films, etc? Moreover, the genre also breakdown the type of films on the basis that whether they are falling in aesthetic, industrial, narrative headings or sometimes they even extend and merge their boundaries if need be to bifurcate with a broader perspective. This further explains the term ideology where the social, cultural, emotional, personal, physical, psychological as-well-as political thought of the filmmaker is highlighted. Thus films get their weightage for being literal game-changers and inspirational for the audience who watch them, in turn increasing their value of existence.