A film blog for students of my classes at Santa Clara University. Use this blog to discuss the films we are studying, classic films, current releases or production issues you encounter while making your own films.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Bonnie & Clyde
What made Bonnie & Clyde's aesthetic so revolutionary? What were the director's influences?
15 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Watching Bonnie & Clyde, it's editing style struck me as unique in comparison to other films we've watched as well as unique to its 1960s counterparts. Having briefly touched on the French New Wave and Russian films in class, it is clear that Arthur Penn, as well as Dede Allen, were highly influenced by pioneers such as Jean-Luc Godard and Sergei Eisenstein, through its editing techniques, including montage to create meaning for character and story development about a bored waitress trying to break out of her mundane life by joining forces with a criminal. Whereas other films we've watched have stuck to chronological editing, Bonnie & Clyde uses the juxtaposition images to create meaning and hint at the passage of time. Additionally, the aesthetics of the film reflect the development between the two characters, using long slow-paced shots at the beginning and picking up the pace through montage and visual juxtaposition as the characters fall in deeper into their criminal lifestyle. The film reaches a crescendo in the violent finale, which utilizes multiple cameras to create quick shots that showed the scene from multiple perspectives.
I believe Bonnie and Clyde is revolutionary because it characterized the shifts that were going on in among U.S. audiences during the 1960s and 70s. Many sources praise this film as the beginning of the New Hollywood era or the American film renaissance. The film was very anti-establishment in nature and had a great deal of shocking violence, especially for the time. Bonnie and Clyde utilized a great deal of blood, making the deaths more realistic and therefore more shocking and emotionally striking. The film also didn’t shy away from the suffering and pain that goes along with these murders, which made it unique and memorable. I thought the film was also shocking in that the main characters of the movie that the audience grew invested in were brutally killed in the end. The director was clearly influenced by French New Wave films with the use of frequent jump cuts. This choppy and abrupt editing was sometimes jarring, but clearly established a film style that supported the narrative. The film also utilized rapid shifts in tone, which was likely out of the norm for the time. A good example of this is the comedic banjo music that would come in intermittently between very dramatic or suspenseful scenes. I was impressed by the emotion that the director was able to get across through the use of montage and the juxtaposing of images. The individual close up shots of Bonnie and Clyde respectively during the final scene right before they were shot down are imprinted in my mind as the characters clearly knew they were set up and facing their death. This powerful imagery and character depth was an aesthetic throughout the film which I greatly enjoyed.
In my humble opinion I believe Bonnie and Clyde brought fourth two major changes to the american film industry. The first, was in their editing technique; instead of sticking to traditional chronological editing they used the french new wave influenced style of montage and kinetic editing styles. We don't see all the action unfold in front of us but it's clear to the audience what is going on in the film. A great example of this editing style would be the scene where the infamous couple gets executed in their car. Typically this scene would show the men shooting and the couple dying but because of their disjunctive editing style we get a longer sequence cutting between the two scenes; which adds a great amount of drama to the scene. In many ways this editing style exposed the amount of time that is wasted in a traditionally edited film. The Second way that Bonnie and Clyde impacted the film industry was their choice to have two murders be the lead and still gain sympathy from the audience. Audiences had seen the character of a man who does bad for the right reasons, but Clyde is basically killing and stealing because of his distrain for the mundane. Bonnie and Clyde wasn't well-received at first fro this exact reason but the quality of the film was eventually able to prevail.
Exciting from the first frame Arthur Penn "Bonnie and Clyde" sets a new standard for criminal drama in the industry. It was extremely revolutionary in its provocative narrative and advanced cinematography. From the very beginning "Bonnie and Clyde" sets itself apart by showing talented Faye Dunaway's naked back, which was considered highly promiscuous at that period of time. In addition, the film is full of rather blunt scenes of graphic violence and death (some may say even promoting this kind of conduct). Breaking many rules of the motion picture production code, practically in showing sex and violence, the film was able to attract a lot of attention and become a starting point of the new more controversial era of Hollywood cinema. What made it so revolutionary was the director's willingness to take risks and challenge pre-convinced notions in the American society in the late 60s. Another inspiring aspect of the film is cinematography. Having became more acquainted with film noir, it is hard not to see the direct influence of this genre on "Bonnie and Clyde." It has a rather dark and cynical environment to it and pictures the narrative through extreme angles and multiple close-ups.
My classmates above make a good point with the new editing styles that took place in the film were rather revolutionary and overall different from anything we had seen before within the class. For me though, the editing was a little intense to watch because there was so much going on. From the graphic violence to the different editing styles it was hard for me to focus on who and exactly was happening in certain points. I believe that this was on purpose to try and make audiences feel sympathetic for the bad guys because they had no other choice. The dramatic editing style throughout this film is still talked about today and set an example for films later on, but based of films that we have watched previously it is drastically different and somewhat hard to follow at certain points.
In my opinion, as a film, Bonnie and Clyde allowed Hollywood and the American cinema to make a few large steps forward, both narratively and aesthetically. For example, the sexual and violent nature of the film from the bloody shoot-outs and deaths scenes to the passionate relationship between the criminal couple, Bonnie and Clyde played by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. This new aesthetic showed the unrest, violence and sexual revolution happening in America at the time. In addition, the narrative and aesthetic answered the American audience’s need for the film industry to reflect the unrest and tension happening in the country and abroad. Director Arthur Penn also introduced new fast take editing techniques, which were influenced by the French New Wave and Russian cinema. With all these aesthetic and narrative innovations, Arthur Penn was able to produce a turning point in American cinema allowing other directors to express their auteur that is still highly influential today.
Bonnie and Clyde was a film that revolutionized film production with its graphic and casual violence. It was a film released alongside others with similar content—and less visual intensity; which Bonnie and Clyde achieved with blanks and blood bags. No other film of its time would show (center frame) a man shot point blank in the face—and all the blood. To take it a step further, B and C approaches violence with a grain of humor and farcicality. It associated violence and crime with sex, hilarity, and an essence of freedom. It really romanticized Bonnie and Clyde's story: it set them up to be folk heroes, Robin Hood characters who stood for the downtrodden, therefore promoting youthful delinquency and rising against machinations set by the majority and the older generations. It was a indicator film of its time, as well.
Bonnie and Clyde opened doors to incorporating more grit into film. Prior to Bonnie and Clyde, nobody could have imagined seeing so much blatant violence on screen. However, it connected to the transformation and uprising in America during that time period. It was a true representation of establishment vs. youth that was occurring during the 60’s and I think that really allowed younger audiences to connect with the anti-hero. Bonnie and Clyde’s aesthetic was also revolutionary because of its stylistic shooting and editing. The montage style editing allowed for the previously mentioned violence to be portrayed in a more dramatic and suspenseful way. This montage editing creates meaning that may have been lost in the chronological editing that we have been used to watching.
What I believe made Bonnie and Clyde so revolutionary was the inclusion of graphic violence that had not been commonly seen before in American films. Though westerns had some gun violence, blood and gore hadn't fully made their way on to the big screen, and Penn was able to create a dramatic story that was different for it's time. Audiences were not used to seeing a gunshot to the body, and witness the bloody death of a character. Penn also connected the violence in the movie to the violence in America during the Vietnam war in the 60's, and the idea of the youth revolting against the older generations. Bonnie and Clyde was both a visual spectacle and a cultural statement. Though not popular upon it's initial release, we can study Bonnie and Clyde today and understand the unrest that was happening in the 60's through the themes portrayed in the film.
Bonnie and Clyde is clearly influenced by the French New Wave, but is aesthetically revolutionary because its visual and editing style is distinctly American, representing the anti-authoritarian attitudes of the younger 60's generation. I agree with many of my peers that the graphic violence in Bonnie and Clyde was revolutionary, but as Paris said, I think it was the combination of violence and humor that had not been paired like that before that really set the film apart. Beyond the extreme changes in tone, the film's aesthetic was revolutionary because through characterization, visual style and editing techniques the film portrayed the feelings of the young sixties audiences. Finally a Hollywood film was speaking to the antiwar generation, who could identify with the non-conformists characters, and the discontinuous visual style. I think it's also important to note that the editor, Dede Allen, was one of the few female editors at the time, who really changed the way America viewed film editing. The work she did on films like Bonnie and Clyde showed America that film editing is an art form on it's own.
What made Bonnie and Clyde stick out amongst the other films of the evolving 1960s era was its inclusion of blood and gore, sex, humor and freedom. It's violence was key to the historical event and the main characters, who truly did make violent robberies and truly did meet a violent end at the hand of the authorities. Bonnie and Clyde not only had a introduction of increased violence. There was the main aspect of visual aesthetic from the editing was unique to American cinema because of its involvement of violent and intense images. Director Arthur Penn was said to be influenced by the French New Wave that was similar to the editing techniques used in Bonnie and Clyde. At first the film was not appreciated by the older generations in the 1960s for it's racy material and violence, It was catered to the teenage ideals of freedom and romance. Through the years it has been acclaimed for its revolutionary addition of racier storyline and imagery.
I think the violence alone was revolutionary. The final scene was chilling for me to watch, and I can’t imagine how shocking it would have been for someone who hadn’t grown up in an age where violence is everywhere in the media. I also think that it was relatable for the younger generation at the time, especially in terms of its anti-establishment theme, since there was a lot of disconnect between generations at the time. As many have also said, director Arthur Penn was influenced by French New Wave films.
In the 60’s there was an attitude that was anti-authoritarian. Bonnie and Clyde represents this American cultural point through its aesthetic style. For the first time in Hollywood, editing became a form of art in and of itself. The graphic violence in this film was never seen before. The final scene is still regarded today as one of the more graphically violent in the history of film and has been used as inspiration for filmmakers after the fact. The tone of the film transformed drastically throughout, from this violent nature to an American humor. The film also spoke to the generation and the feelings of the young audience at the time. The characters were against conforming, which was something that was very popular in the 60s, after the war.
Bonnie and Clyde was revolutionary in the sense of introducing a new form of graphic violence that was never before seen. Sure, some movies showed blood and mild violence, but Bonnie and Clyde took it to a new level. For example, this film showed a gunshot and its affect on a human body. Not only that but Penn connected the dots from the gory scenes in the movie to America in the 60's when the Vietnam was was occurring. Through this, Penn made a strong statement. Even though it took time for Bonnie and Clyde to rise to the top of the charts, people can look back and be educated of what the Vietnam War looked like through this film.
Bonnie and Clyde was so different and revolutionary because not only was it able to shock audiences, but it modified the gangster film genre. Up to this point, filmmakers were very careful with violence in films, but Penn pushed the boundaries and it was well received among audiences. Critics did not praise it at first, but many recanted their statements after the enthusiasm of the audiences. For this post-Vietnam era, the audience was ready for this type of realistic violence to be shown through film. This film has been criticized for becoming the beginning of extremely violent films. Because of the huge success among audiences, filmmakers were able to show more and more violence and know that the audiences would watch. Bonnie and Clyde also put a new twist on the gangster film genre. The film added the aspects of romance and comedy in the plot. These aspects widened the demographic, which would include a large amount of teenagers. Bonnie and Clyde could also be seen as a defining film in the teenpic genre.
15 comments:
Watching Bonnie & Clyde, it's editing style struck me as unique in comparison to other films we've watched as well as unique to its 1960s counterparts. Having briefly touched on the French New Wave and Russian films in class, it is clear that Arthur Penn, as well as Dede Allen, were highly influenced by pioneers such as Jean-Luc Godard and Sergei Eisenstein, through its editing techniques, including montage to create meaning for character and story development about a bored waitress trying to break out of her mundane life by joining forces with a criminal. Whereas other films we've watched have stuck to chronological editing, Bonnie & Clyde uses the juxtaposition images to create meaning and hint at the passage of time. Additionally, the aesthetics of the film reflect the development between the two characters, using long slow-paced shots at the beginning and picking up the pace through montage and visual juxtaposition as the characters fall in deeper into their criminal lifestyle. The film reaches a crescendo in the violent finale, which utilizes multiple cameras to create quick shots that showed the scene from multiple perspectives.
I believe Bonnie and Clyde is revolutionary because it characterized the shifts that were going on in among U.S. audiences during the 1960s and 70s. Many sources praise this film as the beginning of the New Hollywood era or the American film renaissance. The film was very anti-establishment in nature and had a great deal of shocking violence, especially for the time. Bonnie and Clyde utilized a great deal of blood, making the deaths more realistic and therefore more shocking and emotionally striking. The film also didn’t shy away from the suffering and pain that goes along with these murders, which made it unique and memorable. I thought the film was also shocking in that the main characters of the movie that the audience grew invested in were brutally killed in the end. The director was clearly influenced by French New Wave films with the use of frequent jump cuts. This choppy and abrupt editing was sometimes jarring, but clearly established a film style that supported the narrative. The film also utilized rapid shifts in tone, which was likely out of the norm for the time. A good example of this is the comedic banjo music that would come in intermittently between very dramatic or suspenseful scenes. I was impressed by the emotion that the director was able to get across through the use of montage and the juxtaposing of images. The individual close up shots of Bonnie and Clyde respectively during the final scene right before they were shot down are imprinted in my mind as the characters clearly knew they were set up and facing their death. This powerful imagery and character depth was an aesthetic throughout the film which I greatly enjoyed.
In my humble opinion I believe Bonnie and Clyde brought fourth two major changes to the american film industry. The first, was in their editing technique; instead of sticking to traditional chronological editing they used the french new wave influenced style of montage and kinetic editing styles. We don't see all the action unfold in front of us but it's clear to the audience what is going on in the film. A great example of this editing style would be the scene where the infamous couple gets executed in their car. Typically this scene would show the men shooting and the couple dying but because of their disjunctive editing style we get a longer sequence cutting between the two scenes; which adds a great amount of drama to the scene. In many ways this editing style exposed the amount of time that is wasted in a traditionally edited film. The Second way that Bonnie and Clyde impacted the film industry was their choice to have two murders be the lead and still gain sympathy from the audience. Audiences had seen the character of a man who does bad for the right reasons, but Clyde is basically killing and stealing because of his distrain for the mundane. Bonnie and Clyde wasn't well-received at first fro this exact reason but the quality of the film was eventually able to prevail.
Exciting from the first frame Arthur Penn "Bonnie and Clyde" sets a new standard for criminal drama in the industry. It was extremely revolutionary in its provocative narrative and advanced cinematography. From the very beginning "Bonnie and Clyde" sets itself apart by showing talented Faye Dunaway's naked back, which was considered highly promiscuous at that period of time. In addition, the film is full of rather blunt scenes of graphic violence and death (some may say even promoting this kind of conduct). Breaking many rules of the motion picture production code, practically in showing sex and violence, the film was able to attract a lot of attention and become a starting point of the new more controversial era of Hollywood cinema. What made it so revolutionary was the director's willingness to take risks and challenge pre-convinced notions in the American society in the late 60s.
Another inspiring aspect of the film is cinematography. Having became more acquainted with film noir, it is hard not to see the direct influence of this genre on "Bonnie and Clyde." It has a rather dark and cynical environment to it and pictures the narrative through extreme angles and multiple close-ups.
My classmates above make a good point with the new editing styles that took place in the film were rather revolutionary and overall different from anything we had seen before within the class. For me though, the editing was a little intense to watch because there was so much going on. From the graphic violence to the different editing styles it was hard for me to focus on who and exactly was happening in certain points. I believe that this was on purpose to try and make audiences feel sympathetic for the bad guys because they had no other choice. The dramatic editing style throughout this film is still talked about today and set an example for films later on, but based of films that we have watched previously it is drastically different and somewhat hard to follow at certain points.
In my opinion, as a film, Bonnie and Clyde allowed Hollywood and the American cinema to make a few large steps forward, both narratively and aesthetically. For example, the sexual and violent nature of the film from the bloody shoot-outs and deaths scenes to the passionate relationship between the criminal couple, Bonnie and Clyde played by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. This new aesthetic showed the unrest, violence and sexual revolution happening in America at the time. In addition, the narrative and aesthetic answered the American audience’s need for the film industry to reflect the unrest and tension happening in the country and abroad. Director Arthur Penn also introduced new fast take editing techniques, which were influenced by the French New Wave and Russian cinema. With all these aesthetic and narrative innovations, Arthur Penn was able to produce a turning point in American cinema allowing other directors to express their auteur that is still highly influential today.
Bonnie and Clyde was a film that revolutionized film production with its graphic and casual violence. It was a film released alongside others with similar content—and less visual intensity; which Bonnie and Clyde achieved with blanks and blood bags. No other film of its time would show (center frame) a man shot point blank in the face—and all the blood. To take it a step further, B and C approaches violence with a grain of humor and farcicality. It associated violence and crime with sex, hilarity, and an essence of freedom.
It really romanticized Bonnie and Clyde's story: it set them up to be folk heroes, Robin Hood characters who stood for the downtrodden, therefore promoting youthful delinquency and rising against machinations set by the majority and the older generations. It was a indicator film of its time, as well.
Bonnie and Clyde opened doors to incorporating more grit into film. Prior to Bonnie and Clyde, nobody could have imagined seeing so much blatant violence on screen. However, it connected to the transformation and uprising in America during that time period. It was a true representation of establishment vs. youth that was occurring during the 60’s and I think that really allowed younger audiences to connect with the anti-hero. Bonnie and Clyde’s aesthetic was also revolutionary because of its stylistic shooting and editing. The montage style editing allowed for the previously mentioned violence to be portrayed in a more dramatic and suspenseful way. This montage editing creates meaning that may have been lost in the chronological editing that we have been used to watching.
What I believe made Bonnie and Clyde so revolutionary was the inclusion of graphic violence that had not been commonly seen before in American films. Though westerns had some gun violence, blood and gore hadn't fully made their way on to the big screen, and Penn was able to create a dramatic story that was different for it's time. Audiences were not used to seeing a gunshot to the body, and witness the bloody death of a character. Penn also connected the violence in the movie to the violence in America during the Vietnam war in the 60's, and the idea of the youth revolting against the older generations. Bonnie and Clyde was both a visual spectacle and a cultural statement. Though not popular upon it's initial release, we can study Bonnie and Clyde today and understand the unrest that was happening in the 60's through the themes portrayed in the film.
Bonnie and Clyde is clearly influenced by the French New Wave, but is aesthetically revolutionary because its visual and editing style is distinctly American, representing the anti-authoritarian attitudes of the younger 60's generation. I agree with many of my peers that the graphic violence in Bonnie and Clyde was revolutionary, but as Paris said, I think it was the combination of violence and humor that had not been paired like that before that really set the film apart. Beyond the extreme changes in tone, the film's aesthetic was revolutionary because through characterization, visual style and editing techniques the film portrayed the feelings of the young sixties audiences. Finally a Hollywood film was speaking to the antiwar generation, who could identify with the non-conformists characters, and the discontinuous visual style. I think it's also important to note that the editor, Dede Allen, was one of the few female editors at the time, who really changed the way America viewed film editing. The work she did on films like Bonnie and Clyde showed America that film editing is an art form on it's own.
What made Bonnie and Clyde stick out amongst the other films of the evolving 1960s era was its inclusion of blood and gore, sex, humor and freedom. It's violence was key to the historical event and the main characters, who truly did make violent robberies and truly did meet a violent end at the hand of the authorities. Bonnie and Clyde not only had a introduction of increased violence. There was the main aspect of visual aesthetic from the editing was unique to American cinema because of its involvement of violent and intense images. Director Arthur Penn was said to be influenced by the French New Wave that was similar to the editing techniques used in Bonnie and Clyde. At first the film was not appreciated by the older generations in the 1960s for it's racy material and violence, It was catered to the teenage ideals of freedom and romance. Through the years it has been acclaimed for its revolutionary addition of racier storyline and imagery.
I think the violence alone was revolutionary. The final scene was chilling for me to watch, and I can’t imagine how shocking it would have been for someone who hadn’t grown up in an age where violence is everywhere in the media. I also think that it was relatable for the younger generation at the time, especially in terms of its anti-establishment theme, since there was a lot of disconnect between generations at the time. As many have also said, director Arthur Penn was influenced by French New Wave films.
In the 60’s there was an attitude that was anti-authoritarian. Bonnie and Clyde represents this American cultural point through its aesthetic style. For the first time in Hollywood, editing became a form of art in and of itself. The graphic violence in this film was never seen before. The final scene is still regarded today as one of the more graphically violent in the history of film and has been used as inspiration for filmmakers after the fact. The tone of the film transformed drastically throughout, from this violent nature to an American humor. The film also spoke to the generation and the feelings of the young audience at the time. The characters were against conforming, which was something that was very popular in the 60s, after the war.
Bonnie and Clyde was revolutionary in the sense of introducing a new form of graphic violence that was never before seen. Sure, some movies showed blood and mild violence, but Bonnie and Clyde took it to a new level. For example, this film showed a gunshot and its affect on a human body. Not only that but Penn connected the dots from the gory scenes in the movie to America in the 60's when the Vietnam was was occurring. Through this, Penn made a strong statement. Even though it took time for Bonnie and Clyde to rise to the top of the charts, people can look back and be educated of what the Vietnam War looked like through this film.
Bonnie and Clyde was so different and revolutionary because not only was it able to shock audiences, but it modified the gangster film genre. Up to this point, filmmakers were very careful with violence in films, but Penn pushed the boundaries and it was well received among audiences. Critics did not praise it at first, but many recanted their statements after the enthusiasm of the audiences. For this post-Vietnam era, the audience was ready for this type of realistic violence to be shown through film. This film has been criticized for becoming the beginning of extremely violent films. Because of the huge success among audiences, filmmakers were able to show more and more violence and know that the audiences would watch.
Bonnie and Clyde also put a new twist on the gangster film genre. The film added the aspects of romance and comedy in the plot. These aspects widened the demographic, which would include a large amount of teenagers. Bonnie and Clyde could also be seen as a defining film in the teenpic genre.
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