Bonnie and clyde

Question 1

Context- rise of new hollywood

Answer 1

•economic breakdown of the studio era- decline from paramount anti trust case- package unit system
•Audience decline/ fragmentation- appeal to younger audiences and art house cinema
•counterculture of late 1960’s- civil rights movement, polarisation (war)
•escalation of war in Vietnam- seeing on tv, collapse of areas of hayes code as violence was being seen
•aesthetic influence of european art house. french new wave

Question 2

new hollywood

Answer 2

•Experimental style
•unpredictable narrative structure
•taboo stories
•jump cuts/ slow motion

Question 3

representation of women

Answer 3

•second wave feminism
•extreme close up - opposite rules established in classical hollywood
•sexualised image of lips
•red- suggests film explores sexual identity
•opening shot focussed on female
•low angle- dominant
•female gaze- both equally beautiful
•shadow of bars- high angle- still elements of entrapment and patriarchy
•naked- sexually confident
-pill introduced, sexual revolution
•holds and shoots gun- power. calls him out for not having the gumption to fire a gun
•rising tide of feminism
•academically intelligent- poem
•youth and beauty- dies- viscous war

Question 4

representation of men

Answer 4

•first seen at a lower angle than Bonnie- less dominant
• “i ain’t no lover boy” and failure to perform- shows a different representation of men- fragile masculinity- not seen in a negative light
•Violence replaces need for sex- gun as a phallic symbol
•female gaze- both beautiful
•Clyde lives to promote a much bigger idea
•emotionally intelligent - two shot in car, one eye covered- unknowing
• older representations- clyde’s brother asking about sex
-CW Moss’s dad hands them in, care more about law.

Question 5

Aesthetics

Answer 5

Discontent and dissent
Anti authority
Equality of gender

Question 6

Warren beatty

Answer 6

•decided who was going to direct
•begged WB to finance
•payed for Dede allen’s job
-compare to bogart. freedom
•casted faye dunaway and aurthor penn
•travelled from country to county promoting
•asked for the representations of impotence- bonnie more sexually dominant

Question 7

Aurthor Penn- director

Answer 7

•influenced by french new wave films
• Japanese cinema- seventh samurai- slow motion
•Liberal- left wing director. - ideologies of anti war, establishment, law enforcement
• on the side of the common man- working class
•filmed on location to remove Warmers control
•wanted to reject old hollywood model
•background in tv and theatre- marks change between new and old. lack of restrictions (violence)
•worked with dede allen to include juno cuts in end sequence
•set up 4 cameras ti get different motions “ballet dance”
•combines tragedy and comedy
•cloud over field - foreshadowing

Question 8

Benson and Newman
Screenwriters

Answer 8

•fans of french new wave
•Parents attended Bonnie and Clyde’s funerals

Question 9

Bernet Guffy- cinematographer

Answer 9

•trained in the classical studio system
- opening sequence lights bars low-key