New Hollywood Scorsese & Mean Streets
http://www.afi.com/100years/handv.aspx
Metteurs-en-scene
Martin Scorsese: Author of Mean Streets?
Film as collaborative process?
Andre Bazin Jean Luc Godard François Truffaut
François Truffaut
Persona (dir. Bergman, 1966)
Une Certaine Tendance du Cinema Francais (1954)
La Politique des Auteurs 1955 Film should ideally be a means of personal artistic expression for its director (or director-writer, as he originally intended it); bearing the signature of his or her personal style, rather than the work of some corporate collective.
Alfred Hitchcock Orson Welles La Politique des Auteurs 1955 John Ford Howard Hawks
The Auteur Theory (1962) Andrew Sarris
The rise of auteurism in New Hollywood Stanley Kubrick Sam Peckinpah Roman Polanksi
Scorsese as Auteur Personal style of filmmaking Interested in the preservation of film and film history Rich characterization Intoxicating belief in the infinite possibilities of the film medium Dazzling camera Jump cuts Vivid frames The filmmaking itself becomes a subject of his movies Self-reflexivity Love of film
Personal Filmmaking
Home movie feel to projector and reels of film at the beginning.
Self reflexive/ conscious way of filming?
Allusions to other films
Nod to Corman
Where s the gun pointing on the poster?
The film Charlie s uncle is watching is mirroring what is happening with Charlie etc
His uncle is far away yet eerily near to what is happening
Allusion reference to The Big Heat film similar imagery to what is happening to Charlie and Johnny Boy.
Personal filmmaking
Personal filmmaking
Scorsese on Mean Streets Q & A
The Hollywood hero Particular characteristics of the conventional Hollywood hero: Coherence (Logical and consistent) Motivation and focus (a hero know what he s doing and why) Development (heroes emerge enlightened, strengthened, etc.) Self assurance (the hero masters the environment(s) he encounters) Agency (the hero is simply able to change things for the better)
Modernity Industrial Society Modernism art movements arose from effects of this movement
Modernity Late 19th Century: major global upheaval, particularly in areas of science and industrial development, advances in technology changed the way the world and society were perceived. Intro of motor car, cinema, radio transmission, transport, Freud s theories of psychoanalysis Art was affected by all of this
Modernism m odern character or quality of thought, expression, or technique. A style or movement in the arts that aims to depart significantly from classical and traditional forms.
Modernism In Art Realist Novel Plot and character construction lead us through a narrative where the process of narration does not directly draw attention to itself we are stitched into the narrative (suture) Modernist Novel Plunge reader in without orientating them. Experimental Self reflexive, number or authors, stream of consciousness Breach of traditional narrative structure
Modernism in art Realist Painting Seeks to create the illusion of truth before your eyes Modernist Painting Transposes the three-dimensions truthfully onto a flat two-dimensional surface. So, in a Picasso portrait, the eyes are flattened out onto the canvas and the nose is placed to the side of the face and not between the eyes. Attention drawn to the materials they use.
Modernism in Cinema Modernist cinema explores and exposes the formal qualities of film Makes the form visible Modernism focuses on questions of aesthetics and artistic construction
The modernist project in New Hollywood A questioning/reconfiguring of US mainstream cinema on a technical and narrative/thematic level Examination of interiority of characters General revision of the hero figure Self reflexive style of filmmaking Film-makers interested in the visual representation of the interior life of a character
3 Periods of Modernism in cinema... Early work of formal experimentalists (1920s) La Nouvelle Vague (1950s-60s) New Hollywood (1960s-70s)
Modernity, Modernism and the Hero In relation to Modernism, modernity is considered to describe a way of living and of experiencing life which has arisen with the changes wrought by industrialisation, urbanisation and secularisation; its characteristics are disintegration and reformation, fragmentation and rapid change, ephemerality and insecurity. It involves certain new understandings of time and space: speed; mobility; communication; travel; dynamism; chaos and cultural revolution. (Peter Childs, Modernism (2000): pp.14-15)
THE MODERNIST HERO New Hollywood
Interiority of characters. How these characters think/feel/obsess over things; what their complexities are, their troubles, inner anxieties. Individualism. Specifically, modernist writers were fascinated with how the individual adapted to the changing world. NH: Characters Who re lost in the world in which they find themselves just like when modernity took hold. Characters who re experiencing this modernity as dislocating and alienating. Fragmentation. Aimlessness. Troubled central characters. A revised type of hero: Difficult, sullen, confused, trapped. Protagonists who are in crisis. Complicated, troubled, not necessarily good role models. The NH hero, however, is often loved and loathed by us in equal measure NH Heroes/ Modernist Heroes
What is Expressionism? A modernist technique (vs. Realism)
Expressing the inner emotions/ thoughts etc of the character
Expressionist; Expressionism Stylised form of cinema Elements of shot and editing used primarily to evoke powerful feeling in an audience. Originated in Germany in 1920s The first major example being The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919) Trademarks are high contrast of light and dark (and later, colour), extreme camera angles and shot composition, and powerful music. Conveying force of human emotion Squeezing out the inner self
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Sets, lighting, camera angles: Don t just tell the story of the film - reveal the inner state of the madman, Strange, un-naturalistic creations -designed to reveal the interior world of the mental patient.
Expressionism in Mean Streets?
Expressionism?
To consider Gritty realism and expressionism? The Cassavetes effect? New vs old Hollywood filmmaking?
Still to cover for Assessment 1 Jaws & Rise of the Blockbuster Noir revisionism in The Long Goodbye Genre revisionism in The Shining (Horror) Modernist hero & The Conversation
Reminder Assessment 1: Essay Assessment Weighting: 60% Word length: 3,000 Deadline: Answer ONE of the following questions: 1. Discuss the Cassavetes effect as evidenced in the cinema of New Hollywood. 2. With reference to ANY TWO films viewed on the course, discuss how Modernist texts deconstruct the verisimilitude of Classical Hollywood filmmaking. Your answer should refer both to the narrative and stylistic workings of the films you discuss. Please note that while this question is, of course, asking you to refer to the workings of Classical texts, the major thrust of your answer should relate to the workings of Modernist texts. 3. With reference to AT LEAST TWO films studied on the course, discuss the extent to which New Hollywood is new.
Useful links http://www.newwavefilm.com/new-wave-cinema-guide/nouvelle-vague-where-to-st art.shtml (The French New Wave) http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/the-10-greatest-directors-of-the-new-hollywoo d-era/ (10 directors from New Hollywood)