According to both Geoffery Nowell-Smith, in Making Waves, and David Bordwell, in Film Criticism, art cinema is an alternative mode of filmmaking to traditional Hollywood style films. The films Band of Outsiders (Bande à part), and A Hard Days Night both negate traditional mainstream cinema techniques, however these films are equally not art cinema. Bordwell defines art cinema as, “explicitly against the classical narrative mode, and especially against the cause-effect linkage of events,” (57). Both films have a loose cause and effect based structure. That being said both works are neither molded by nor defined by traditional cinema. They use conventions from both modes types of filmmaking to best tell their story, ultimately creating a new mode of cinema that began to appear in the early ‘60’s. In A Hard Days Night, directed by George Lester, the story follows the Beatles over the course of a few days. It exhibits the cause-and effect nature of traditional cinema, while incorporating its own style. The story follows John, Paul, George, Ringo and Paul’s Grandfather, as they prepare for a televised concert. Over the course of the few days leading up to the concert crazed fans and Paul’s grandfather create pandemonium, and just when it seems as if the concert wont happen, the young protagonists return to the studio just in time for the show. Lester follows the basic Aristotelian story following classical Hollywood, and in doing so goes against Bordwell’s definition of an art film. Yet, the film plays with music in a way that had never been done before, it mixed footage from actual events, and it played on a cultural phenomena and in doing so it becomes somewhat of a hybrid between both modes of film. As put by Nowell-Smith, “The n... ... middle of paper ... ...f>. 2) Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey. Making Waves, Revised and Expanded: New Cinemas of the 1960s. 1st. New York: Bloomsbury Academic , 2013. eBook. 3) Rajadhyaksha, Ashish. "Indian Cinema." blackboard.usc.edu. N.p.. Web. . 4) Thomas, Rosle. "Popular Hindi Cinema ." blackboard.usc.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 5529921_2/courses/20141_ctcs_201_18075/Thomas, Popular Hindi Cinema.pdf>. Films 1) Jean-Luc, Godard, dir. Bande à part. BFI, 1964. Film. 2) Lester, Richard, dir. A Hard Days Night. United Artists, 1964. Film. 3) Ray, Richard, dir. Pather Panchali. Aurora Film Corporation, 1955. Film. 4) Truffaut, François, dir. Les quatre cents coup. Cocinor, 1959. Film.
...ows this film as being a transition between the early trick films and narrative cinema.
"Genre: A group of films having recognizably similar plots, character types, settings, filmic techniques, and themes." (Konigsberg:165) The Genre of this film is difficult to define because it is not composed of a single agenda. The director makes a point of talking about Tosh’s life, but because of the cinematic themes and the film’s style it is not solely a documentary. This film is also a multimedia film because elements of music and concert footage are added to the essential plot. This film is avant-garde in it’s nature. "Avant-garde [refers to films that] deny the traditional narrative structure and techniques of commercial films by seeking to explore new modes of visual and emotional experience." (Konigsberg:25) It could be considered an anthology film, because of the various concert footage that is woven throughout the movie. "An Anthology film is a full length film made up of excerpts from other films which are related by some theme [or] the appearance of the same performer." (Konigsberg:16)
With the loss of its centralized structure, the film industry produced filmmakers with radical new ideas. The unique nature of these films was a product of the loss of unified identity.
Stanley, Robert H. The Movie Idiom: Film as a Popular Art Form. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. 2011. Print
Aside from its acting, the other major influence which Mean Streets had upon American film-makers was through it's use of a rock n' roll soundtrack (almost perfectly integrated with the images), and in its depiction of a new kind of screen violence. Unexpected, volatile, explosive and wholly senseless, yet, for all that, undeniably cinematic violence. The way in which Scorsese blends these two - the rock and roll and the violence - shows that he understood instinctively, better than anyone else until then, that cinema (or at least this kind of cinema, the kinetic, visceral kind) and rock n' roll are both expressions of revolutionary instincts, and that they are as inherently destructive as they are creative. This simple device - brutal outbreaks of violence combined with an upbeat soundtrack - has been taken up by both the mainstream cinema at large and by many individual `auteurs', all of whom are in Scorsese's debt - Stone and Tarantino coming at once to mind.
In Hollywood today, most films can be categorized according to the genre system. There are action films, horror flicks, Westerns, comedies and the likes. On a broader scope, films are often separated into two categories: Hollywood films, and independent or foreign ‘art house’ films. Yet, this outlook, albeit superficial, was how many viewed films. Celebrity-packed blockbusters filled with action and drama, with the use of seamless top-of-the-line digital editing and special effects were considered ‘Hollywood films’. Films where unconventional themes like existentialism or paranoia, often with excessive violence or sex or a combination of both, with obvious attempts to displace its audiences from the film were often attributed with the generic label of ‘foreign’ or ‘art house’ cinema.
Auteur theory holds that, ‘a director’s films reflect that director’s personal creative vision, as if he/she were the primary author. From the earliest silent films to contemporary times motion pictures have crossed over and both entertained and educated the viewing audience.
The portrayal of art cinema is to some extent accurate when considering the time period of this film. Art film was first introduced to the American film industry during the period of time when this film came out. Art cinema utilizes its own set of artistic expression. Hollywood classical films on the other hand, are at odds with the artistic concept, and are considered to be mainstream. When we look at Classical films, we think of the basic Hollywood movie where there is a beginning, middle and end, and the whole movie comes together at the end, with a little bit of romance. In this specific movie, the audience is faced with a confusing dilemma of choosing whether this movie is an art film or a classical film. Most even think it has a documentary approach, but what makes this movie even more successful and even more entertaining, is that it is both art cinema and classical cinema.
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.
... movie stars like royalty or mythical gods and goddesses, viewing the drama between great archetypal characters in a personal psychic realm. By considering the statements made and their societal impact from a Marxist perspective, Benjamin’s method is highly effective, as it does not simply consider art in terms of pure aesthetics anymore, but considers art’s place in a society capable of mechanically reproducing and endlessly duplicating film, photography, and digital art. His qualm with losing the aura and mystique of an original work is negated by the cult of movie stars, the adoration of fame, the incorporation of soundtracks which embody a particular time period, cinematographic allusions, and time-capsule-like qualities of a film such as Basquiat, a 90s tribute to the 80s, produced both as a part of and resulting from the art movements and trends it addresses.
Genres are ways of providing films with the intended associations. It is a convention in which people can refer to initially grasp the notion of a film, “for the vast publicity system that exists around filmmaking, genres are a simple way to characterize film. In fact, reviewers are often central in gathering and crystallizing notions about genres.” (Bordwell & Thompson, 2004: 110).
Bordwell David and Thompson, Kristen. Film Art: An Introduction. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008.
The release of Gordon Hollingshead and Alan Crosland’s The Jazz Singer in 1927 marked the new age of synchronised sound in cinema. The feature film was a huge success at the box office and it ushered in the era David Bordwell describes as ‘Classical Hollywood Cinema’; Bordwell and two other film theorists (Janet Staiger and Kristin Thompson) conducted a formalist analysis of 100 randomly selected Hollywood films from the years 1917 to 1960 in order to fully define this movement. Their results yielded that most Hollywood made films during that era were centred on, or followed, specific blueprints that formed the finished product. Through this analysis of Hollywood films the theorists were able to establish stylised conventions and modes of production under which a classic Hollywood film was fashioned (Foster, 2008), the film Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) directed by Peter Jackson will be used as a case study to demonstrate these specific conventions.
The ‘New Hollywood Cinema’ era came about from around the 1960’s when cinema and film making began to change. Big film studios were going out of their comfort zone to produce different, creative and artistic movies. At the time, it was all the public wanted to see. People were astonished at the way these films were put together, the narration, the editing, the shots, and everything in between. No more were the films in similar arrangement and structure. The ‘New Hollywood era’ took the classic Hollywood period and turned it around so that rules were broken and people left stunned.
The postmodern cinema emerged in the 80s and 90s as a powerfully creative force in Hollywood film-making, helping to form the historic convergence of technology, media culture and consumerism. Departing from the modernist cultural tradition grounded in the faith in historical progress, the norms of industrial society and the Enlightenment, the postmodern film is defined by its disjointed narratives, images of chaos, random violence, a dark view of the human state, death of the hero and the emphasis on technique over content. The postmodernist film accomplishes that by acquiring forms and styles from the traditional methods and mixing them together or decorating them. Thus, the postmodern film challenges the “modern” and the modernist cinema along with its inclinations. It also attempts to transform the mainstream conventions of characterization, narrative and suppresses the audience suspension of disbelief. The postmodern cinema often rejects modernist conventions by manipulating and maneuvering with conventions such as space, time and story-telling. Furthermore, it rejects the traditional “grand-narratives” and totalizing forms such as war, history, love and utopian visions of reality. Instead, it is heavily aimed to create constructed fictions and subjective idealisms.