Week 4

Modernism.
The art historical term, "modern" is tied to around 1860 to the 1970s. It can be said that most art is modern at the time it is created. The modernist art movement began in the Renaissance. The modernist in film started with people like Man Ray, Bunuel, Dali and Marcel Duchamp where emotional impact is not tied to a narrative storyline. Kramer suggests that Bonnie and Clyde is the pivotal American modernist film. It is the beginning of the American new wave in films.

Which critics were on opposing sides of the debate over Bonnie and Clyde, and why?

There was some longing for (and contempt) old Hollywood filmmaking. Ben Hecht hated the new Hollywood of special effects. The over the top blood bath death scene drew controversy.
Andrew Sarris raises the profile of the director in postwar Hollywood, ‘auteur’ theory. The debate was over the fact that the killers Bonnie and Clyde were glamorized.

“Thus does the heroic individual collapse without moral and social objectives and with the irrational violence, films moved toward and ambiguous open-ended situation. (From Kramer)

What were some of the causes and consequences of the shift from the Production Code to the Ratings System?

The rating system was a form of censorship. Your film subject matter could be dictated and compromised. There was a great deal of topics including social subjects, which could not be made. Without the rating you could not show your film. This caused writers to write very generic films.