Hollywood Renaissance: 1964-1976
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
Identify the stylistic shift from Classic Hollywood into the Hollywood Renaissance.
Understand how European and Asian cinema influenced the New Hollywood.
Identify major figures in the Hollywood Renaissance.
Hollywood Renaissance: 1964-1976 –
1)There is no specific date to when the Hollywood Renaissance
(AKA the New American Cinema) begins.
2)Mast and Kawin identify several films released during the 1960s :
Characteristics of the Hollywood Renaissance:
1) The offbeat antihero protagonist,
2) The explicit treatment of sexual conflicts and psychological problems,
3) The mixing of the comedic and serious,
4) The self reflexive use of cinematic effects (slow-motion, quick cutting etc.).
5) Sex and violence are two terms that critics used
to describe the films of the Hollywood Renaissance,
but keep in mind how these films showed sex and violence.
The New American Cinema evolved for several reasons:
1)The old, regular movie patrons now stayed home to watch television.
The industry had to find new regular customers willing to go to the theater every week.
2)The European film industry eventually converted American producers;
they realized that art cinema could make money.
3)Underground filmmaking was succeeding financially (e.g. Andy Warhol)
and conditioned a whole generation of young filmgoers to understand and accept
innovations in cinematic form.
4)Producers and exhibitors realized they must appeal to very special tastes.
They capitalized on the racial diversity of urban audiences by making Blaxploitation films.
They made sexploitation films like Deep Throat (1972).
They made special cult films shown at midnight like John Waters’s Pink Flamingos (1971).
5)The values of these new American art films reflected the
sexual, social values of American film audiences in the period.
College students were the core of this audience.
New Hollywood Directors:
1) Many of the directors of the Hollywood Renaissance were recent film school graduates
influenced by the modernist art cinema of Europe.
2) They embraced unconventional film styles using slow-motion, grainy film stock, jump cutting,
splitting the widescreen, self conscious or reflexive camerawork, and mixtures of black and
white and color in the same film.
Use of music in New Hollywood:
1) In studio era, music was often used to heighten emotion without the viewer being aware.
2) In the New American Cinema, characters might play popular music on the radio,
3) Or a song on the soundtrack might exist specifically to be played in harmony with
or in counterpoint to visuals.
4) Several Hollywood Renaissance films used rock music heavily,
a) As we will see with Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973).
New Hollywood shooting locations & Cinematographers
1)The new American cinema also embraced the imperfections of shooting on location
Cinematographers:
1)New cinematographers such as Sven Nykvist informed a new generation of American
cinematographers.
Swedish cinematographer Sven Nykvist (1922-2006). Known for his work with directors Ingmar Bergman, Louise Malle, Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Alan Pakula, Bob Fosse, Andrei Tarkovsky, Philip Kaufman, Richard Attenborough, Nora Ephron, and Lasse Hallstrom.
Wikipedia Link Click Here for films and awards.
Tribute to his films :
Part One the 1960's Click Here
Part Two the 1970's Click Here
Rare Interview with Sven Nykvist Click Here (During filming of Fanny & Alexander)
Despite the heavy influence of European cinema, the Hollywood Renaissance still often worked within genre conventions.
New Hollywood Renaissance classic genres (These new films were descendants of classic genres)
1) The Western
2) The gangster film
3) The screwball comedy etc.
Mast and Kawin describe a generic division in the New American Cinema between
City films/Suburbs and Country films.
1)City films developed a thematic opposition
a) between the unnaturalness and brutality of the city and the freedom outside of it.
b)The city becomes a place of paranoia and danger in films like Taxi Driver (1976).
2)Similarly, the suburbs also lack a moral center
a)and are portrayed as soulless in films like The Graduate (1967).
3) Although Mast and Kawin are somewhat unclear what they mean by country films,
they offer (In these films, the country functions as a contrast to the development of cities)
a)The experiential Western (The Wild Bunch [1969]
b)Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid [1969])
c)As a genre that updates the vast plains and deserts of past Westerns with violence.
d) In these films, the country functions as a contrast to the development of cities.
Crime Films:
1) They also mention the country-crime genre,
a)represented by films like Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Badlands (1973).
They conclude that the essential technical tool of the city film was editing, while country films relied on composition (or mise-en-scène).
New Hollywood and Directors
1)The production code officially ended in 1968 and was replaced by the MPAA film rating system.
2) The American cinema during the Hollywood Renaissance
a) became more of a directors’ cinema,
b)granting directors a higher measure of control over
c) the scripting, production, and editing decisions involved in making films.
d) Films were frequently labeled or categorized by their director.
The director had become as important as a film's stars.
In fact, many of the Hollywood Renaissance films had no major stars in them at all.
To meet the objectives of this module, you will complete the following activities and assessments:
Reading: Mast & Kawin, Chapter 15 “Hollywood Renaissance 1964-1976” (pp. 485-521) in A Short History of the Movies
Read/Watch Module 11 Pages/Clips
Watch Days of Heaven
Complete Discussion: Hollywood Renaissance: 1964-1976
Complete Quiz: Hollywood Renaissance: 1964-1976
Another Introduction email by Denah:
As you open the next Module on the Hollywood Renaissance you are likely approaching more familiar territory if you are an average movie-goer. A wild time, and a revolution in American filmmaking this period is one of the most bold and experimental in recent history.
As one of the most exciting periods of American film history personally I like to recommend the 3-Part IFC Documentary A Decade Under the Influence (2003). The first part connects the dots of international filmmaking to the awakening of the first film school generation that would go on to change a Hollywood.
A Decade Under the Influence (2003)
Part 1 Click Here
Part 2 Click Here
Part 3 Click Here
Great article on the best films of the 1970's American Renaissance Time Period:
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