I’m working on a film discussion question and need guidance to help me learn.
I need assistance in assuring no dispreienices and proper examination of the film. I want to insure correct form. Thank you. Details are down below. Please use 3-4 time stamps from the film.
French and Hollywood new wave
Now that you have seen the seminal New Wave film Breathless and the first American film to show the obvious influence of the New Wave, Bonnie and Clyde, let’s talk about them! (200-250 words)
First: Remember that classical film making is about invisible editing. The classical film (like Casablanca or Double Indemnity) must help audiences slip into a totally believable other world and not call attention to itself as a fake world. For example, in classical film making, the actor would never talk directly to the camera because that would break the actor out of his fake world and step into ours. But, in the New Wave films of both France and Hollywood, editing is sometimes VISIBLE. This is partly due to the influence of Brecht (see your reading this module) and the philosophy that the audience should be questioning the narrative and thinking about the real, social implications of the story rather than being simply lulled into a fantasy world and asked to just “believe.”
Prompt:
For this part of your response, give at least one example in each film (with time stamps) where the film maker seems to call attention to the film as an art form by doing something that sort of shakes the audience out of the fantasy world and causes them to think about the film as a construction. In other words, the film reminds the audience they are only watching a film. There are more than jump cuts to consider! Find something else! Important: In the examples you cited, why do you think this technique was used at that exact moment in the film? Why do you think the director/editor wanted to make the audience think about at this point that was not in the fantasy of the story?
Second: Here are some of the characteristics of American New Wave, or “New Hollywood” films. Choose at least one you recognize from Bonnie and Clyde and expand on its depiction in the film. Some Characteristics of American New Wave: makes the audience feel discomforted; the insertion of seemingly odd, random scenes; non-glamorous topics; jumping around in location or time; lack of resolution of some story line or character; a more callous/cold and detailed violence. (You’ve read a lot about the violence, so if you choose that one, you need to do more than just say it is graphic violence. Maybe explore glorification of violence or the way the audience ends up rooting for B & C to get violent with others, or the nonchalant expression of violence.) You can reference the short YouTube videos if you want but be sure to add your own voice!
