Up until the 1950s, innovation and novelty in American cinema was in the realm of genre done by bold and ambitious directors.
The years of 1967-1971 were conducive to innovation, in many ways comparable to the years of 1959-1963 in France, with the French New Wave.
Until Easy Rider, in 1969, innovation took place outside the Hollywood mainstream by the likes of John Cassavetes.
After 1967 (The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde), innovation was incorporated inti the system.
In the 1990s, innovation again resided outside the Hollywood system, via the new Independent Cinema (Sundance Festival, 1985-present).
Kolker:
There was no New Wave movements in American cinema, just freedom exercised by individuals who operated alone within a system that permitted experimentation.
For the most part, the experiments were on individual basis, and within the tradition of the Hollywood system.
It manifested through self-consciousness, questioning of the forms and paradigms of established genres, realignment if the relationship between films, filmmakers, and audiences.
Innovation vs. productivity
New ideas vs. recycling of cliches and conventions
Hollywood as Recycling Machine
Origins: Where do good movies come from
How original are our movies, past and present?
Source material of Oscar nominated pictures?
Fact-based (reality) movies vs. fiction?
Films based/inspired by real-life events or individuals.
Is American film an extension of literature and theater?
How dependent is Holly’s storytelling machine on ideas that had previously been published or used.
Hairspray as indie subversive movie, then stage musical, then movie based on stage musical
Audiences:
College students were courted in late 60s and early 70s.
Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Easy Rider
Directors took risks with movies aimed at students; college admissions were on the rise during Vietnam era.
The new 70s movies did not offer reassurance, smiles or self-righteous messages
But they show open-minded interests in examining the new, and changing American experience.
Kael: The interest is at once skeptical, ironic, disenchanted, despairing and lyrical
The filmmakers were on a quest to understand wat has been shaping our lives:
Mean Streets, Nashville, The Godfather
Then a decade later, college students ceased to exist in Hollywood’s mind as a vanguard of taste.
Kael: It’s the closest our movies have come to the mangled, butter flowering of American letters in the early 1850s
1990s
Sundance fest and new indie cinema
In the late 1990s, the specialized, art film has grown in definition, venue, audience
It lasted a decade.
Art films ranged from “City of God” to home-made indies (“Blair Witch Project”) to small movies made by boutiques of the studios, like “Monster” (which eventually reached 900 screens!)
Hollywood in the New Millennium:
VHS, hen DVD
Streaming
DVDs, With its enhanced viewing experience, is enjoying exponential worldwide growth at a rate of 2-3 rimes faster than the industry had predicted.
We now live in a digital world.
Technology has changed everything over the past 2 decades, including the ways that films are made, marketed, and released.
The advent of Internet, Facebook, Social Media
Movies today (Disney) are bland blockbusters
Most movies seem utterly mechanical, prefabricated, assembled by engineers and special effects who are digital wizards but have little to say thematically or artistically.
Actors, while filming scenes, emote in a void, placed before a blue or green screen for subsequent compositing with computer-generated environments.
New American Cinema: Innovation/Creativity–Narrative, StyleVs. Recycling
Research in progress, Feb 12, 2023–547 wors
Up until the 1950s, innovation and novelty in American cinema was in the realm of genre done by bold and ambitious directors.
The years of 1967-1971 were conducive to innovation, in many ways comparable to the years of 1959-1963 in France, with the French New Wave.
Until Easy Rider, in 1969, innovation took place outside the Hollywood mainstream by the likes of John Cassavetes.
After 1967 (The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde), innovation was incorporated inti the system.
In the 1990s, innovation again resided outside the Hollywood system, via the new Independent Cinema (Sundance Festival, 1985-present).
Kolker:
There was no New Wave movements in American cinema, just freedom exercised by individuals who operated alone within a system that permitted experimentation.
For the most part, the experiments were on individual basis, and within the tradition of the Hollywood system.
It manifested through self-consciousness, questioning of the forms and paradigms of established genres, realignment if the relationship between films, filmmakers, and audiences.
Innovation vs. productivity
New ideas vs. recycling of cliches and conventions
Hollywood as Recycling Machine
Origins: Where do good movies come from
How original are our movies, past and present?
Source material of Oscar nominated pictures?
Fact-based (reality) movies vs. fiction?
Films based/inspired by real-life events or individuals.
Is American film an extension of literature and theater?
How dependent is Holly’s storytelling machine on ideas that had previously been published or used.
Hairspray as indie subversive movie, then stage musical, then movie based on stage musical
Audiences:
College students were courted in late 60s and early 70s.
Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Easy Rider
Directors took risks with movies aimed at students; college admissions were on the rise during Vietnam era.
The new 70s movies did not offer reassurance, smiles or self-righteous messages
But they show open-minded interests in examining the new, and changing American experience.
Kael: The interest is at once skeptical, ironic, disenchanted, despairing and lyrical
The filmmakers were on a quest to understand wat has been shaping our lives:
Mean Streets, Nashville, The Godfather
Then a decade later, college students ceased to exist in Hollywood’s mind as a vanguard of taste.
Kael: It’s the closest our movies have come to the mangled, butter flowering of American letters in the early 1850s
1990s
Sundance fest and new indie cinema
In the late 1990s, the specialized, art film has grown in definition, venue, audience
It lasted a decade.
Art films ranged from “City of God” to home-made indies (“Blair Witch Project”) to small movies made by boutiques of the studios, like “Monster” (which eventually reached 900 screens!)
Hollywood in the New Millennium:
VHS, hen DVD
Streaming
DVDs, With its enhanced viewing experience, is enjoying exponential worldwide growth at a rate of 2-3 rimes faster than the industry had predicted.
We now live in a digital world.
Technology has changed everything over the past 2 decades, including the ways that films are made, marketed, and released.
The advent of Internet, Facebook, Social Media
Movies today (Disney) are bland blockbusters
Most movies seem utterly mechanical, prefabricated, assembled by engineers and special effects who are digital wizards but have little to say thematically or artistically.
Actors, while filming scenes, emote in a void, placed before a blue or green screen for subsequent compositing with computer-generated environments.
James Cameron
Peter Jackson’s Lab