Film Analysis and Different Viewpoints on A Woman Under the Influence, and Wanda

I. Introduction

Beginning in the late 1960’s, a new film movement known as New Hollywood began, rapidly replacing the Classical method of filmmaking. This era was unique because many popular films of the time were produced outside of the studio system, shot on-location, and with non-professional actors and actresses. These “art films” were brash, irreverent, and full of anger. While directors during this time used drastically different methods to achieve their final product, the meaning they attempted to convey through their art was often quite similar in its presentation and encompassment of society. According to David Bordwell, “stylistic devices and thematic motifs may differ from director to director, [but] the overall functions of style and theme remain remarkably constant in the art cinema as a whole.” (Bordwell “The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice”) For example, A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Wanda (1970) are formally very different but both develop portraits of irresponsible mothers within the socio-historic context of the decline of the Baby Boomers and the trauma of the Vietnam War.

Bordwell’s assertion is a simple one in principle but quite complex when we consider the massive network of art films. Even when considering only the subset of American 1970’s art films, is it really plausible to suggest that each production operates in comparably similar ways in terms of both content and aesthetic form? Do commonalities between these films such as a lack of a goal-oriented structure and ambiguous shot compositions mean the directors’ intentions are to create an accurate picture of the times: a cultural realism unapparent in classical cinema as Bordwell suggests, or are they simply following the gen...

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