Course Description: This course provides an introduction to New Hollywood cinema, with particular emphasis on its origins in the late 1960s and development in the 1970s and 1980s. It will consider both the new model of film production that emerged after the decline of the classical studio system and the artistic experiments that made this such a crucial period in the history of American cinema. Key figures covered in the course may include Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Warren Beatty, John Cassavetes, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert De Niro, Faye Dunaway, Terrence Malick, Dennis Hopper, Barbara Kopple, Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, George Lucas, Sidney Lumet, the Maysles brothers, Mike Nichols, Gordon Parks, Jr., Arthur Penn, D.A. Pennebaker, Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Charlotte Zwerin, and many other directors, actors and actresses, writers, editors, production designers, and producers. We will also examine the period’s revision of classical genres and the development of new ones, including the blaxploitation film, the rockumentary, and direct cinema. The course will conclude by examining the rise of the blockbuster as an industrial model and aesthetic form, as well as the emergence of an independent film sector, two phenomena that remain key elements of the movie world today.
After successfully completing the course, students should be able to
- identify crucial films, figures, and events in the history of American cinema;
- situate New Hollywood directors and films within their historical context;
- understand the collaborative nature of Hollywood filmmaking and the role of directors and other key contributors within it;
- understand the economic structure of the American film industry in the post-studio era;
- identify and analyze major Hollywood genres and the revisionist versions that emerged after the 1960s;
- recognize the filmmakers operating on the margins of or well outside the Hollywood mainstream;
- understand and apply various methodological approaches to the writing of film history and biography;
- communicate a critical analysis of the films and approaches to film studies in discussion and in writing.
SCHEDULE
Week 1: Introduction to the Course; What’s New About New Hollywood?
Screening: Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)
Reading: Robert Benton and David Newman, “The New Sentimentality” (from Esquire); “The Shock of Freedom in Films” (from Time Magazine); Pauline Kael, “Bonnie and Clyde” (from The New Yorker); Jack Valenti, “Statement by Jack Valenti...” (from Screening Violence).
Week 2: The End of Sentimentality
Screenings: The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967); 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Reading: Geoff King, excerpts from New Hollywood Cinema.
Week 3: Sex, Drugs, and Rock-n-Roll (and Cinema)
Screenings: Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969); Gimme Shelter (David and Albert Maysles, and Charlotte Zwerin, 1970)
Reading: Barbara Klinger, “The Road to Dystopia: Landscaping the Nation in Easy Rider” (from The Road Movie Book); Dave Saunders, excerpt from Direct Cinema.
Week 4: Old Genres, New Styles
Screenings: McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971); Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973); Harlan County, USA (Barbara Kopple, 1976)
Week 5: The Margins of Hollywood
Screenings:
Superfly (Gordon Parks, Jr., 1972); Faces (John Cassavetes, 1968)
Reading: Ed Guerrero, “The Rise and Fall of Blaxploitation” (from Framing Blackness); Ray Carney, excerpt from Cassavetes on Cassavetes.
Week 6: The Godfather and New Hollywood
Screenings: The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972); The Godfather: Part II (Coppola, 1974)
Please note the length of the films (the first is almost three hours, the second is over three hours) and allow for enough time to see both of the films before class.
Reading: Thomas Schatz, “The New Hollywood” (from Movie Blockbusters).
Week 7: Martin Scorsese
Screenings: Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976); Raging Bull (Scorsese, 1980)
Reading: Robert Kolker, excerpt from A Cinema of Loneliness.
Week 8: American Art Cinema
Screenings: Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977); The Conversation (Coppola, 1974)
Reading: None; study for midterm
Week 9: The Paranoid Style in American Cinema
Screenings: All the President’s Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976); Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976)
Reading: Richard Hofstadter, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” (from Harper’s); Kathleen Fitzpatrick, “Network: The Other Cold War” (from Film and History).
Week 10: What Comes after New Hollywood?
Screening: The Player (Altman, 1992)
Reading: Jon Lewis, “The Perfect Money Machine(s): George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Auteurism in the New Hollywood” (from Looking Past the Screen); David Bordwell, “A Stylish Style” (from The Way Hollywood Tells It).