New American cinema officially began on September 28th, 1960, when a group of disgruntled avant garde filmmakers teamed up under Jonas Mekas to publish a manifesto titled “The First Statement of the New American Cinema Group.” This manifesto officially declared their intentions of moving filmmaking out of the hands of censorship and studio interference, aiming instead to create new, independent, and creative films. The focus of this movement was not to increase profits or become rich; rather, their goal was to separate themselves from what they saw as a corrupt, industrial, and lifeless system of filmmaking. Included with Mekas in this group of filmmakers was Shirley Clarke, Stan Brakhage, John Cassavetes, and Susan Sontag, who made films such …show more content…
as The Brig, Shadows, and The Connection. These early films of the New American cinema felt more personal, being made with small budgets, cheap equipment, and few, if any, actors. They moved taboo subjects and imaginative genres into public life, and in doing so, they objected to economic and political norms through censorship battles, distribution, and exhibition. The inspiration for such goals came from the trends of the French New Wave, Free Cinema in England, as well as the young cinema movements in Poland, Italy, and Russia. The New Hollywood cinema was a much larger movement, enveloping the entirety of the Hollywood industry rather than just a small group of individualistic filmmakers. However, the New Hollywood movement emerged for many of the same reasons as did the New American cinema. The all-time lowest movie theater attendance and the counterculture of the 60s made it clear America, and much of the world, was ready to see something new on the screen. The 1967 releases of Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate typically mark the start of the New Hollywood movement. Both films keep in touch with the themes of 1960s rebellion, and correlate with America’s youthful trend towards a more freewheeling spirit. Also, both these films take inspiration from the French New Wave, which emphasized a confusing spatial and temporal continuity mostly created by disorienting jump cuts. Continuity editing implies an ordered and comprehensible world, therefore, forcing departures from these conventions creates a sense of discomfort and uncertainty, better mirroring the feel of the time. Another important factor for the New Hollywood movement was the start of the MPAA ratings system, which allowed the industry to present itself as being considerate to public concern while giving filmmakers the liberty to put more controversial subjects and moral ambiguity into their films. Overall, this era produced a high number of innovative films that broke the restrictions of previous studio manufactured products. Contrary to the New American cinema, New Hollywood cinema’s real goal was increasing profits. Both movements responded to the same trends, but only the New American cinema movement put creativity and self-expression before profits. The most famous New Hollywood films were commercially successful, whereas the most famous New American films obtained neither wealth nor widespread fame. Jaws marked the peak of the New Hollywood cinema by garnering hundreds of millions in profits-- far more than The Brig, The Connection, and Shadows combined-- beginning to usher in a new era of blockbusters, sometimes called New New Hollywood. New New Hollywood expanded the profit potential of films far beyond just ticket sales. Films such as Star Wars began this trend by reaping in more money from toy sales than from the ticket sales. Quickly studios caught on to this trend and began to manufacture films with intention of greatly expanding into other markets. Also, to increase the chance of having a blockbuster, film advertising campaigns expanded to a much larger scale with television ads, books, and other forms of pre-sold properties. Blockbusters such as Jurassic Park, Saturday Night Fever, and Star Trek created massive profits from markets outside of ticket sales. 5. African Americans have endured a complicated history in the filmmaking industry, both in front of and behind the camera. But even with the virulent racism of the silent era, black films still existed. Oscar Micheaux directed black films for black audiences throughout the 1920s and 30s. Later on, throughout the 1930s and 40s African Americans migrated out of the south and into urban areas, creating a specific audience for studios to target. The growing Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s saw greater push back against the racial status quo, and films began greater cast integration and put forth more effort to understand the meanings of race in America. Overall, African Americans saw extremely limited film success before 1970. Even the few African Americans stars to emerge, like Sidney Poitier, got criticized by African Americans for being apolitical. However, this era did establish the groundwork for the blossoming blaxploitation movement. In the 1970s Hollywood realized the potential money in black films, as well as the black audience’s desire for a new self-image on screen. Quickly a formula set in for creating successful black films, and a torrent of such films hit theaters everywhere. The formula was to have a hypermasculine, dangerous, and individualistic black hero as protagonist, and to imbue the film with the hottest trends in music, fashion, slang, and attitude. Employing this formula gave success to films such as Shaft, Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song, and Superfly. The era of popular blaxploitation films lasted from about 1970-1975, but the impact of that era extended much longer. Black audiences established that they mattered, and that in turn gave rise to many African American celebrities like Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover, Laurence Fishburne, and Billy Dee Williams. During the same time as Civil Rights and Blaxploitation films was the ongoing L.A.
Rebellion at UCLA’s film school, lasting from the late 1960s to the 80s. This movement consisted of African American filmmakers interested in interrogating images of race, class, and gender, specifically for black audiences. They were oppositional to Hollywood and mainstream cinema and thus did not want to make blaxploitation films. They despised racist attitudes or portrayals which glossed over America’s history of slavery and oppression. Teshome Gabriel was one member of this movement; he tried to decolonize the mind and align with struggles in Africa. He sought to have the filmmakers create a new film culture based on liberation through a break with classical norms of …show more content…
representation. The L.A. Rebellion, Civil Rights Movement, and blaxploitation films all worked to create more opportunities for African Americans in cinema. In the years following, more and more black productions began, such as Roots, Leadbelly, Killer of Sheep, and Claudine. Overall, the blaxploitation movement, while successful, did not permanently grant African Americans recognition in the film industry. African Americans remain underrepresented in film today as evidenced by the 2015 and 2016 Oscar nominations. In both years, all twenty lead and supporting acting nominations went to white people, which, before 2015, hadn’t happened since 1998. African American representation in film has gone up and down for decades, and the battle for equal representation will likely continue to progress for many decades more. 7.
The filmmaking industry of Post-war Germany was virtually non-existent, but was in the process of being rebuilt. Firstly, the Allies dismantled the Nazi propaganda industry. Then, they used films to re-educate Germans. Hollywood jumped at the chance to distribute their films in Germany again. Without import quotas in West Germany, American films could cheaply enter the market, which subdued domestic filmmaking. The few German films that did get made had a typical hero of a “little man,” and portrayed Germans as victims of Nazism rather than as the ones responsible for it. These films weren’t artistic, and had mostly conservative messages, rarely acknowledging the country’s Nazi past. The low point of German cinema came at the 1961 Berlin Film Festival in which no Federal Film Prize was awarded because no film made was worthy of it. The New German Cinema arose under these
conditions. The New German cinema began when 26 filmmakers signed the 1962 Oberhausen Manifesto at the 8th Oberhausen Film Festival to voice their frustration with German film. These young, innovative filmmakers took up arms against Germany’s failing post-war industry, proclaiming “Daddy’s cinema is dead,” vowing to create more honest films. This movement countered many of the post-war trends by more directly addressing Nazism in their films, since the previous generation of post-war filmmakers tried to ignore or even dismiss it. These themes resonated well with American audiences and critics alike, and those very critics invented the term New German cinema, bestowing it upon these new filmmakers who were brave enough to examine their country’s atrocious past. But there were exceptions. It is difficult to firmly state any major themes that New German cinema films have in common, since every director made their own unique vision. For example, although most New German cinema filmmakers addressed Nazism, not all were so blatantly opposed to it. Several filmmakers still portrayed Germans as victims of Nazism, while some even still tried to support Nazism or fascism is general. Additionally, the entire movement was localized to West Germany, as East Germany was of course still under authoritarian rule. So the divide created by WWII still resonated even in this more enlightened German political climate. The Marriage of Maria Braun is one such New German cinema film which was critical of post-war German society and in some ways typified this filmmaking movement. The director, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, uses race and gender to highlight certain aspects of West Germany’s post-war cultural identity. In the same manner he also critiques West Germany's failure to effect social and political change in the postwar years. This is especially evident in a few key scenes. For example, in the Moonlight Bar, Fassbinder positions the Germans, who are in fact trespassing, physically above the African Americans. Thus, the mise-en scene creates the effect that lawbreaking Germans were still morally superior to African Americans in this time period. Bill, the main African American character, represents African-American soldiers' cultural and social otherness. His association with the victorious army should give him more social power than Maria and her family, as he can provide them with food and other items. But Bill's position in Germany is lowly. African American soldiers were not, even as they fought the German fascists, equal in status to white American soldiers. Fassbinder intentionally underscores Bill’s death and its aftermath. The death is casual, and no character truly mourns him. Fassbinder includes many harsh reminders of the evil Nazi past in this film, trying to remind viewers of the capabilities of evil.
In the Early years of film one can easily say that Germany lead the way in experimentation, with such striking examples as Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu and Dr. Mabuse the Gambler. How when looking at two of these film, Nosferatu and Dr Mabuse the Gambler one can find a similar theme that run throughout. This theme is that of Weimar’s insecurity about outsiders and otherness different cultures. While both films have different stories at their very simplest both films see someone come into the idyllic lives of the protagonist not only wrecking their lives but the lives of ordinary people as well. It’s worth noting that borth Nosferatu and Dr. Mabuse the Gambler were filmed in the turbulent early 20’s of the Weimar period where Germany was still dealing with the aftermath of the war and outside powers such as France encroaching on German territory and at the same time political unrest had reached its high. With all these changes going on it easy to see why Germany might have felt that outsider were at work trying to remold modern Germany. This is why in these turbulent early years befor the Weimar Golden age we see such strong use of the other/outsider as a stand in for events taken place in Germany
Kracauer, Siegfried. From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film. Princeton University Press: Princeton and Oxford, 2004.
The overall appeal of the cinema to the masses was particularly evident during the interwar era. Audiences worldwide wanted to watch the variety of films, particularly American produced films, and they always went back. The visibly attractive and glamorous Hollywood movies often depicted the success of the underdog over unjust authority. Values of cash over culture were often a theme in the early American films and societies with restricted social mobility, such as those in Europe, could dream of such a triumph. The working class and unemployed could fantasise about wealth, fame and freedom which America as a country was portrayed as offering.
Where Schlondorff, Wenders, Herzog, Fassbinder and Kluge once investigated the extremities of the German character and the Americana that infested West German culture through the New German Cinema of the late 60s, 70s and early 80s, the Germany of today has through its cinema acknowledged past hardships but with a more positive emphasis placed on the possibilities of forgiveness, redemption and hope for what can be made of tomorrow. Bibliography A Reversal of Fortunes? Women, work and change in East Germany. Rachel Alsop.
Being one of the few black students to attend Tisch School of the Arts, the aspiring filmmaker’s first year at New York University was a particularly difficult one. Lee’s experiences, race, and upbringing have all led him to create controversial films to provide audiences with an insight into racial issues. Spike Lee’s first student production, The Answer, was a short ten minute film which told of a young black screenwriter who rewrote D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation. The film was not well accepted among the faculty at New York University, stating Lee had not yet mastered “film grammar.” Lee went on to believe the faculty took offense to his criticisms towards the respected director’s stereotypical portrayals of black characters (1).
The change in the U.S. can be said to be a social revolution. People were growing sick of the same old movies, they wanted a change and Hollywood needed to deliver or else they would lose their audience to the TV. In the early 60's, the studios were still afraid of the blacklisting so the films were still very safe. An example of this is the film Sound of Music (1965). This was a film about a musical family that needed to escape the Nazi presence. Although the movie is based on a true story, they still follow the same old idea of a nice family, who must escape from the clutches of evil. Basically, the movie is saying good guys win and bad guys always lose. Sure this how most films are made but there is no sense of change, no differences in the style or way it was made. Since there was no change, the public was not interested. The TV was much more convenient and kept the publics interested.
Classic film noir originated after World War II. This is the time where post World War II pessimism, anxiety, and suspicion was taking the world by storm. Many films that were released in the U.S. Between 1939s and 1940s were considered propaganda films that were designed for entertainment during the Depression and World War II. During the 1930s many German and Europeans immigrated to the U.S. and helped the American film industry with powerf...
The effects of childhood sexual abuse carry on with the children forever. To what extent and to what effect does abuse have on children during adulthood? What are the main issues that adults have been abused suffer from in adulthood? Do they have more of a physical issue with preforming with their partner in the bedroom or do they have more of a mental block due to their trauma? The world had been asking these questions for far too long and we need answers on how helping the children of our world. The questions that have been stated have been answered through the two articles that will be summarized below.
...e American Dream. Larry Ceplair and Englund stated in the book The Inquistion in Hollywood, “The destruction of the motion picture Left not only transformed the political atmosphere in Hollywood, but also adversely affected the kind of product which the studios turned out. “ In the early 20th century Hollywood reframed from producing politically controversial films in fear of becoming a target of McCarthy or the HUAC. Anti-communism influences the films produced, films portrayed communism as evil and immoral. The films during the cold war certainly portrayed the political storm between the progressive left and the conservative right. Films such as Ninotchka in 1939, showed anti-communism, guilty of Treason 1949, showed an attack against communism, exploiting the evils of communism was shown in Docudrama. The Red Menace in 1949 showed the immense threat f communism.
Over the course of approximately one-hundred years there has been a discernible metamorphosis within the realm of African-American cinema. African-Americans have overcome the heavy weight of oppression in forms such as of politics, citizenship and most importantly equal human rights. One of the most evident forms that were withheld from African-Americans came in the structure of the performing arts; specifically film. The common population did not allow blacks to drink from the same water fountain let alone share the same television waves or stage. But over time the strength of the expectant black actors and actresses overwhelmed the majority force to stop blacks from appearing on film. For the longest time the performing arts were the only way for African-Americans to express the deep pain that the white population placed in front of them. Singing, dancing and acting took many African-Americans to a place that no oppressor could reach; considering the exploitation of their character during the 1930's-1960's acting' was an essential technique to African American survival.
Before the Second World War began Hollywood’s purpose lied within entertainment for the American people. After the war started, the main focus shifted to wartime propaganda. Film was used to display the war in a way that did not show its true colors—including the censorship of soldier causalities and other negative connotations that are a simple fact of war. There was even a time in which some actors became better known to America than politians. Through films, Hollywood began to make a statement of their anti-Nazi beliefs. They began to make motion pictures for American recruitment into the Army as well as many that supported the war effort, and intended to make other Americans more aware of the war’s effect on the United States, and how people can get involved. Many European countries banned these Hollywood films, as they began to affect not only America but many other countries that were involved in the war as well.
German Films Not since "Das Boot" back in the 1980s has a German film produced so
Thompson, K 2003, ‘The struggle for the expanding american film industry’, in Film history : an introduction, 2nd ed, McGraw-Hill, Boston, pp. 37-54
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.
It was not until the mid 1930s that the brutish dictator truly recognized the potential power of media, where in 1935 a special funding was given to the production of Italian films which was used to open up film institutions like the ‘Centro Sperimenale di Cinematografia’ (CSC) film school, and ‘Cinecitta’ (Cinema City) studios in 1937 (Ruberto and Wilson, 2007). The development of these institutions sparked the appearance of early sound cinema, specializing in genres such as comedies, melodramas, musicals and historical films, but were all categorized as ‘propaganda’ and ‘white telephone’ films by many critics due...