Bonnie & Clyde Flashcards
date bonnie and clyde
1967
= the end of the code,
= beginning of Hollywood renaissance
Also a gangster movie that has to do with organised crime : a man and a woman, 2 people = organised crime
Landmarks 60s
♦ J.F Kennedy : 35th president elected 1960, democrat. Famous historic words inaugural speech 1961 “Ask not what your country can do for you -ask what uou can do for your countries
♦ Martin luther King, (1963 “I have a dream”)
Fulton Speech (or “Iron Curtain” speech,)
♦ Winston churchill
♦ Foreign policy Embargo in Cuba : world on the verge of a WW3
♦ At home : port Huron Statement (student manifesto) for a more egalitarian society
60s & culture
Multicultural mvts
Black powers
Black panther
American indian mvt
The chicano mvt
Not to mention other social mvts :
The hippie mvt
The student mvt
Gay liberation / gay right
Women’s rights
Civil rights mvt
Anti-vietnam war mvts
Just to mention a few
Bonnie & Clyde = real people
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker : 1910-1934
Clyde Chestnut Barrow 1909-1934
They travelled the US during great depression
Because they were gangster shot to death
They’re in love, they’re young & they kill people
Civil rights timeline
28/08/1963 : 200k people join the march on Washington : I have a dream speech by M.L.King
21/02/1964 Malcom X, a black nationalist and founder of the organisation afro american unity shot to death by a member of his party
1954 Warren : speech : end of segregation : Brown VS topeka : 9 justices declared Segregation illegal
02/07/1964 : Johnson Civil rights act of 1964 : it’s illegal to make discrimination btw White and black people
Oct 1966 : militant black panthers = violent mvt :
04/04/1968 : ML King assassinated : shot as he stands on the balcony of his outside hotel room
11/04/68 : Johnson signs the CIvil Right Act of 1968 prohibiting discrimination in the sale rental and financing of the housing
Crédits
Presentation of fictional characters & of real characters
It is in colours
Basic credits
Intro
You already understand that Clyde is the bad guy
Bonnie literally steals the show. She is the most important character despite the fact that Clyde is the major bad guy.
Letters turned from white to red // blood “Warren Beatty” “Fay Dnaway” & names of other characters & “Bonnie & Clyde” → then shift to music & not red anymore : you have to accept to step into a world of fiction.
You cannot really identify pictures : too quick, you have to accept they are probably part of history
Music and era intro
Film in 1967 so pictures turn you back to 1930s : shift possible thanks to music, jazz y tune evokes 1950s
Then on the picture : false bonnie, actress → constant mix between fiction & reality
Lip of the women
Lips of the women = red // colour before, important
Metafictional dimension : you see an image of the actress pretending to be Bonnie : see a reflection in the mirror, being actor = being a reflection, never real however you wil deal with true facts in history
The willing suspension of disbelief :
The willing suspension of disbelief : you have to accept fiction & make as if it is true, Samuel Coleridge
Bank robbery
Bonnie doesn’t kill anybody. She is behind bars // prison
Typical Oklahoma farmer /// Grapes of Wrath : poor people who have to find another job. He is not rich. Here, cliché of robinhood gangster : your money in the banks = steal VS if it’s your money = keep it
Glamourification of the gangster (which was impossible with the Haze Code but here Code is over)
Car Chase
+ the press
++ comic, when character speak, music stops
Becomes more and more accurate with advance of technology. In scarface also one.
FBI couldn’t arrest you in another state that’s why they show sign “entering oklahoma”
A man, at the bank testifies in front of journalists , again the press like in scarface = big news. This man makes the news = he is important. → he is acting, pretends he was afraid and after ++ proud when picture taken
VS farmer : surrounded, trapped by journalists “I’m going to send them flowers” : he is sliding with gangster contrary to the other
⇒ The press makes history. Participate in creation of myths.
“When the fact becomes fiction print the fiction” : forget the fact, people want sth larger than life, what matters is myths. The myth bonnie and clyde is created by the press : thanks to what they did but also thanks to interview
Poem in the car
Quotes + ideas
“You made me somebody there gonna remember”
Beginning :
In the car, raining. She read the poem.
Middle :
Send it to press : read it.
Then :
Sunny weather, in the air.
The scene in the middle allows more space and avoids that it could be a too long poem.
At the end : the new paper in which they speak about their death is flying and goes to the car = where death BUT they don’t care.
→ towards the west // cowboys’ stories.
Music important : echoe to the car chase : life is fun, too short, who cares ?
⇒ Beginning of Hollywood Renaissance
Enduring posterity
Musique “écoutez l’histoire de bonnie and clyde” : 1968 → S. Gainbourg & Brigitte Bardot
The end
Sharing the apple // Adam & Eve
USA = garden of eden : free to do what they want.
