Hollywood Film Flashcards
Who developed Auteur Theory?
Andrew Sarris
Who identified the Classical Hollywood Style?
David Bordwell
Who edited Bonnie and Clyde?
Dede Allen
Who was the cinematographer for Bonnie and Clyde?
Burnett Guffey
Who was the cinematographer for Vertigo?
Robert Burks
Who edited Vertigo?
George Tomasini
Who are the lead actors in Vertigo?
James Stewart and Kim Novak
Who are the lead actors in Bonnie and Clyde?
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway
What are Hitchcock’s five auteur traits?
Fragile masculine identity
Freudian psychoanalysis
Voyeurism
The Mother as a symbol
Pure Cinema
Who created auteur theory? In what publication?
Truffaut in Cahiers du Cinema, in the article ‘A certain tendency in French Cinema’
What are the three ways to identify an auteur?
Technical competence
Distinguishable personality (style)
Interior meaning (themes, ideas and messages)
Who disagreed with auteur theory? In what article? What issues did they have?
Pauline Kael in The New Yorker. Her article ‘Circles and Squares’ attacked auteur theory. She claimed that technical competence wasn’t always a factor of a great director, and that having recognisable themes meant a director’s films become repetitive. She suggested that the theory was elitist
What issues are there with auteur theory?
Focus on director - there are other members in a film crew
Elevates the director, films aren’t judged on quality
New people and creatives aren’t given opportunities
Directors are limited
What are Penn’s five auteur traits?
Impulsive, outsider protagonists with unstable identities
Left-wing capitalist critique
The tension between reality and false images
The repressed violence under the surface of America
Stylistic film form in dialogue with the French New Wave
What is vertical integration?
When production, distribution, and exhibition of a film are all controlled by the same studio
Who were the ‘Big Five’ of the Studio System?
20th century Fox
Paramount
MGM
Warner Brothers
RKO
What was the Hayes Code?
A guideline for censorship in Hollywood. The main principle were not to lower moral standards or depict illegal activity, and no nudity, sex or violence could be shown
What is the Classical Hollywood Style?
A style of filmmaking used in the Studio System. Featured continuity editing, purpose-built sets, close-ups of expressions, establishing shots, and non-diegetic score that anchors emotion
Why did the Studio System collapse?
United States v Paramount court case. This determined that the Studio System was against the law, and lead to studios losing their power. This meant that more European and independent films were shown in cinemas
How did the ethics of cinema shift after the Hayes Code collapsed in 1967?
New Hollywood aimed for complex or uncomfortable responses
Endings were challenging or ambiguous
There was an increase in the depiction of violence, sex and drugs
What is the Alternative Style?
Fragmented editing
Naturalistic performance
Subversion of non-diegetic score
Location shooting
Morally ambiguous characters
What was the French New Wave?
Post-war France disapproved of Hollywood’s rose-tinted stories, so they made films to communicate the truths of reality
What are the stylistic elements of the French New Wave?
Rapid editing
Location Shooting
Improvised dialogue
Long takes
Direct sound
Available lighting
How did the Great Depression impact cinema?
High unemployment and poverty meant that people went to the cinema frequently, as it was the cheapest form of entertainment and provided an escape from reality
This led to the monopolisation of film production
