Art Cinema is an Alternative Mode of Filmmaking to traditional Hollywood Style

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...

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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.

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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.