BSA 106

The Beginning 

During the Golden Age of Hollywood (1930 – 1960), most film directors worked for one of the major studios

French film critics noticed some American Directors made films that were their own personal visions and were “auteurs” (authors of their own films). Examples being Alfred Hitchcock and Orsen Welles

The first American New Wave started outside of Hollywood by independent film makers in New York

Little Fugitive (1953) By Ray Ashley, Morris Engel & Ruth Orkin

Film was an influence on the French New Wave with Francois Truffaut stating - “Our New Wave would never have come into being if it hadn’t been for the young American Morris Engel, who showed us the way to independent production with this fine movie.”

New York New Wave

Lionel Rogosin made On the Bowery (1956) – Neorealist view of New York that has a mixture of documentary and scripted footage - 

Robert Frank made Pull My Daisy (1959) -

John Cassavetes made Shadows (1959) – Contains improvised dialogue and a narrative with interracial romance -

Shirley Clarke made The Connection (1961) – A mixture of cinema verite and French New Wave. Her films depict drug addicts, sex workers and different races mixing together 

  

    New Hollywood

A new generation of young filmmakers emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s

Studios lost the right to own their own theatres (Paramount Antitrust case 1948) and they struggled to sell films to independent exhibitors and were losing their audience and money. Also competing with television.

In 1966, British films found success in America with examples being

Alfie  

Georgy Girl 

 Blow Up 

The success of these films showed that American audiences were open to films with more explicit content and different narrative structures.

Jack Valenti was made the new head of the MPAA in 1966 and the outdated production code that restricted film content was updated. This allowed new freedoms for filmmakers to make anti-authoritarian films which appealed to younger audiences.

Bonnie and Clyde1965

In 1963 Robert Benton and David Newman (writers for a New York magazine) wrote a script for Bonnie and Clyde (based on the American criminals who during the Great Depression, robbed and killed people) and managed to get the script to French New Wave Director Francois Truffaut. Truffaut was to direct the film but pulled out to shoot Farenheit 451(1966)  . He passed on the project to Jean-Luc Godard who also pulled out in favour of shooting Alphaville (1965)

Eventually, actor Warren Beatty read the script and decided to produce it and hired Arthur Penn to direct. The film was funded by Warner Brothers.

Jack Warner disliked the rough cut and gave the film a limited release. The film also received bad reviews.

The film however was well received in England. Beatty managed to get Warner Brothers to re-release the film and it became a success and was nominated for Academy Awards. Notable for it’s depiction of sex and violence

The Graduate (1967)

Director Mike Nichols won Oscar and film received multiple nominations

Soundtrack consists of songs by Simon & Garfunkel

Introduced the world to Dustin Hoffman

Benjamin Braddock (Hoffman) has just finished college and is unsure of what to do with his future, when he becomes sexually involved with a friend of his parents… Mrs Robinson

Fritz the Cat (1971)

Far from the traditional child-targeted animated films

Ralph Bakshi believed that with all the changes in society and the new social power and economic freedom of the young people, it was time to take adult animation seriously.

Taking the comic strip character created by Robert Crumb, he made what became the first X-rated American cartoon.

Fritz lives an alternative lifestyle among students in New York who experiment with free love, drugs and rock n roll