Conclusion: On Endings and New Beginnings

Abstract

The conclusion of the book revisits the issues and ideas put forth in the introduction, specifically focusing on how the individual films address them. It considers the idea of postmodern ‘indeterminacy’, posited by theorists such as Jean-François Lyotard and Fredric Jameson, and suggests the films relation to it results in what Patricia Waugh refers to as a ‘radical fictional sense of truth’ and a questioning of absolutes through a Romantic lens. But this questioning also results in the need to fight against the solipsism that so frequently attends it—an integral theme of the films featured. Finally, the conclusion describes how the resurgence of emotion in the films results in a form of transcendence that aligns clearly with the Romantic project.