A-Level Film Studies - Daniel Kallin

 One major similarity between Bonnie & Clyde and Alice's Restaurant is that they both have a strong thematic focus on the societal issues of the 1960s. In Alice's Restaurant, Penn criticizes  the Vietnam War, the clash between the older and younger generations and both traditional and hippie culture. This is done mostly through the character of Arlo who is seen in scenes where he is at an army physical or with his friends in their hippie commune. Penn highlights the impracticalities and ridiculousness of both situations.  This heavy emphasis on socio-political themes is also prevalent in Bonnie & Clyde, which uses the period of the 1930s to bring forth issues that were still around in the 1960s such as gender representation, capitalism and being young in a traditionalist world. All of these themes are interconnected and relevant. The character of Bonnie summarises these themes through her untraditional representation of being a woman, being more stereotypically ma...

  Alice's Restaurant (Penn, 1969) Based on Arlo's own attempts to avoid being drafted into Vietnam War He visits his friend Alice - having been asked to leave college Thanksgiving He and a friend dump rubbish and are arrested He comes before the law for this Penn's auteurship: 'quintessentially' counter-cultural - rebellion Youth - new generation 'hippy' culture Anti-Vietnam Old vs young Plot summary: Arlo attempts to avoid being drafted in the army to fight in Vietnam but he gets kicked out of college, meaning he has no excuse not to go. He goes off to live with Alice in a hippie commune in an old church whilst she opens up a restaurant. Their friends are either traumatised from Vietnam, heavy drug users or plain old folk-singing hippies but they all live together in a society designed to hate them. Arlo visits his dying father, Woody, who has Huntington's, Arlo is concerned due to its hereditary nature. After a run-in with the law when he gets caught l...

How Faye Dunaway's 'Bonnie Parker' defines feminism in a man's world by Daniel Kallin When discussing Bonnie & Clyde, it is surprisingly difficult to pin down it's historical context. Whilst it is clearly set in the Depression-era 1930s American South, it's morals and values are very 1960s, the decade of the film's release. This mish-mash of cultural ideas, from both decades, allows the film to stand outside of both the 1930s and 1960s and exist as its own self-contained story. Penn uses this to explore the rigidity of American society in the 1930s and how, with the Depression eroding away the scaffolding of American society at the time, humanity and sensitivity allowed in to take its place. Ironically, Penn shows this through two of America's most notorious criminals but there is never a point where Bonnie and Clyde are portrayed as villains, rather the villains are the products of society, the police and the law.  Whilst the 1960s was a time of pro...

  Bonnie & Clyde (Penn, 1967) Genre: crime drama - based on a true story Begins: still photography, documentarian approach/realism Stars and stardom: Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway Beatty also influenced the script  NEW HOLLYWOOD - MPAA instead of Hays Code since 1964 Taboos of sexuality and violence Younger generation of directors and producers Social context: San Francisco and the LGBT movement, Pacifism, Vietnam, Civil Rights, Liberal Politics, Youth Culture, Feminism                                                                                 LBJ - democrat president post-Kennedy The concession to civil rights in the film's narrative reflects the mood and politics of the 1960s, rather than the lack of civil rights in the 1930s 193...

Billy Wilder: Auteur or just an author? To understand if Wilder ticks off the boxes for the complicated job that is auteurship, we must define what being an auteur entails. First and foremost, auteurs tend to be characterised by their distinctive styles, being instantly recognisable by a familiar audience. This is usually achieved by a stylistic synthesis of colour, lighting, mise-en-scene for a consistent visual appearance, along with characters and themes that are similar throughout an auteur's filmography. An example of this would be Wes Anderson who's use of bright colours, symmetry and characters who don't act their age makes each of his films instantly recognisable. Recurring actors, cinematographers and composers help an auteur keep consistent. Wilder can be seen as an auteur in some ways but not others. When comparing Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot - arguably his two defining films - there is a clear difference in tone, lighting and style. However, each is di...

Sunset Boulevard (Wilder, 1950) References to the star system and the Golden Age of Hollywood: Hollywood producers went for easy-to-sell, accessible stories - didn't care for quality Depend on writers but writers depend on them Transition from silent to talking pictures left many stars behind - they were great at silent acting but not dialogue Stars that aren't wanted anymore are left behind - at a young age - with wealth and prestige but nothing else Older women aren't valued in cinema Female stars don't have films and genres built around them, so                                                                                     are seen as disposable almost Norma Desmond represents both the forgotten star from the silent era but, also, th...

Some Like It Hot (Wilder, 1959)   The film reflects upon the time of the 1920s in several ways. Firstly, the use of mise-en-scene to depict certain activities which are regularly associated with the 1920s, such as bootlegging alcohol and gangs, immediately sets the time and tone of the film which is important because society had progressed a lot over thirty-to-forty years. This is further exemplified through the use of costume with typical clothing for men with suits and spats and also typical clothing for the more liberated woman - "flappers" - who would wear revealing dresses. Lighting is quite bright - even with darker themes like gangsters and prohibition - to create a light-hearted and comedic atmosphere so the more "controversial" themes of identity and sexuality would be taken comically rather than seriously - as such not violating the Hays Code. Female identity: Female identity is presented in an atypical manner for the time, having men act like women. Focus...