New Hollywood–Some Attributes
Research in progress, Feb 11, 2023–687 words
TV and Film
TV as major source for big screen talent (Travolta, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, George Clooney
TV as source for films; films as source for TV series
TV and Film became interchangeable
HBO: Angels in America is a film
Contents and style
Pre-selling films (packages) to TV (pay per view)
TV
American TV has changed more radically in the past 6 to 10 years than it had in the prio3 40 years.
Intl TV market has grown and changed quickly
TV surpassed movies
The growth of free TV, satellite TV, broadband platforms,
Competition from cable industries
Direct TV
HBO
Huge diversity of choice and channels
Its become tougher to create hits
Vertical Integration
Studio System
Disney domination
Art Vs. Commerce
Art used to drive commerce; now commerce drives art. When film companies become a small part of large entertainment conglomerates, things changed.
James Agee: ID
“In a Hollywood film, one is allowed to see just so much of the Id as could be safely displayed in a Bergdorf Goodman window.
Hollywood: Power
Power= C+B+J+H
C Control (getting and doing what you want)
B Bankability (making money for the producer/company)
I Influence (ability to push culture in bold new directions)
H Heat (unstable element, getting attention, getting others to talk about you)
Hollywood Vs. Other Cinemas
Hollywood movies move;
European ones linger;
Asian ones sit and contemplate
Sequels:
Sequels may not be better, but they often make more money (as a result of Video and DVD exposure)
Business
Producer Howard Koch:
In the 70s, studio execs stuck their chin out and said, “this will be a great movie,” whereas today, it’s about showing how we are going to get our money back; studio execs bosses are much more interested in the bottom line.”
The bottom line is higher; the risks are greater; the chances of a runaway hit are more difficult.
It’s become a first-weekend business; there’s less opportunity for films to grow an audience based on word of mouth
More studios headed by women. But did it make a difference?
Media
Red Carpet
Impact of Hong Kong art and cult cinema
Directors become stars: Critical reputations are built around star and superstar directors, name directors, using them as marketing tool in the same way that star actors had been used.
New American Cinema (1967-)
The impact of European cinema on American directors
Arthur Penn borrowed from Truffaut
Altman influenced by Godard
Woody Allen by Fellini and Bergman
Paul Schrader by Dreyer and Bresson
Scorsese by Truffaut, Michael Powel, Visconti
Mixing of genres:
Citation and self-referencing from French New Wave
quotations; genre parodies; pastiche
Audience
There were different forms of audience engagement, different ways of being both inside and outside the film, when it concerns participation and identification.
Hollywood is successful, even if audiences are younger and more diverse.
Success has to do with the double inscription of audiences, where the viewer is simultaneously addressed as a naive and savvy/ironic spectator, innocent and knowing spectator
(Frederic Jameson: Blank Irony, unmarked, deadpan, neutral)
Blank irony: the subject is capable of being in 2 places at once).
Post-Classical
There were greater liberties. Movie ending became more open and more ambiguous
Business Model
In the calculus of big-budget moviemaking, the visionary is trumped by the guy who has the power to write the big checks.
Genre: Resurgence of Horror
The sources that split open the New Hollywood narratives came from within the American cinema itself, esp, is minor genres and debased modes.
The horror movie especially permitted deviations and transgressions.
Studio: Ownership
Up to the 1980s, entertain run by individuals (all men), who programmed on instinct and personal taste.
Now studios and networks are absorbed by much larger corporations and rely on more strategic business models.
Internationality
The ability to make much more money with: Harry Potter, Lord of Rings
Intern’l releases are much closer to the domestic release to combat piracy
There’s closer work with production and domestic distribution.
The windows between domestic and int’l have collapsed Domestic used to hand campaigns over when it was finished. Now they work as patrons to create thngs worldwide
Day and Date
Matrix, Lord of the Rings
Some movies first open internationally (or UK) then domestically.
Stars: Origins
Early, relying on melting pot model, stars origins and backgrounds did not matter, or mattered less
Unless they themselves made an issue of it by choice.
Theda Bara, Jewish (nee Thoadosia Goodman); Mary Pickford, America’s Sweetheart was Canadian.
