Film 2700:
New Hollywood Cinema
& Special Interest Films
OBJECTIVE:
BY THE END OF CLASS STUDENTS SHOULD
1) HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING OF CHANGES
IN SOCIAL CLIMATE THAT LED TO
HOLLYWOOD’S RENAISSANCE
2)BE FAMILIARIZED WITH PROMINENT
SPECIAL INTEREST FILMS OF THE 1970S
3) KNOW THE CHARACTERISTICS OF NEW
HOLLYWOOD CINEMA
More Explicit Content
Background
1952- Supreme Court Decision
Films covered under 1st Amendment
1966- Production Code softened
lustful kisses and passionate scenes allowed
some films labeled “for mature audiences”
1968 – Ratings System
G, M, R, X
First X rated film Greetings 1968 Starring DeNiro
Reasons for the Renaissance
To Combat TV
Influence of European Art Cinema (EAC)
Importance of Underground Cinema
Rise of the Target Audience
movies made to appeal to peoples special interests
Changing Cultural Values
Sex, Drugs and Violence in US culture
-changing attitudes towards premarital sex
1961- FDA approves first birth control pill
1972-Single women gain legal right to purchase birth control
-youth movement protesting war in Vietnam
-Social movements
-women’s lib
-civil rights
-Stonewall Riots (gay liberation)
SPECIAL INTEREST FILMS
Pornography
Blaxploitation
Cult Classics
Pornography
Behind the Green Door (1972)
First hard-core porn film to get a major theatrical release
Deep Throat (1972)
-contributed to explosion of porn industry
-mainstream exhibition “porn chic”
-cost $24,000 made over $1 million
- lead actress Linda Lovelace paid only $1200
Inside Deep Throat trailer (documentary about the film’s
cultural influence)
Blaxploitation
Plots generally drew from CHC melodrama or gangster genres
Two general categories
- Lone male hero at a crisis point. Caught
between needs of his community and the
temptation to sell out to “The Man.”
Superfly (1970)
Shaft (1971,MGM studios, Directed by Gordon
Parks)
-Strong female protagonist seeks revenge. Sets
out to destroy white villains who have violated
her and her family/community.
Pam Grier Foxy Brown trailer 1974
Cult Films
Generic characteristics
odd, quirky story and characters
contains outrageous and often taboo subject matter
Garner deeply dedicated “often ironic” fanbase
Pink Flamingos (1971, JohnWaters)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975, Jim Sharman)
New Hollywood Characteristics
-Influenced by EAC
-Likeable Anti-heroes
-Endings often unresolved or unhappy
-Reflects the period’s values
-Graphic & Cynical look at sex and violence
-Mixing of Comic and Serious
- Self-conscious cinematic effects
- More on location shooting
- Very personal cinema (represented realistic feelings)
-Cinema of Auteurs
New Hollywood: Significant Films
Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn 1967)
-Likable Antiheroes
-Violence
-“They’re young, they’re in love, they kill people”
The Graduate (Mike Nichols 1967)
-Intergenerational Romance
-Sex
Start at 4:05
New Hollywood: Significant Films
Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper 1969)
-realistic representation of drug use
The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah 1969)
-excessive violence
-blood splatter
New Hollywood: Significant Films
The Learning Tree (Gordon Parks 1969)
-first African American director of a major feature
film for a major US studio
Midnight Cowboy
-Only X rated film to win an Oscar for Best Picture