Who were Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd and why were they so influential?
Buster Keaton – Barry had a very static facial expression. His deadpan style in the silent-film era combined with his kinetic energy have inspired some of todays most acclaimed stars like Oscar Isaac. Some of his films are, ‘The Cameraman’, ‘Steamboat Bill, Jr. and ‘Our Hospitality’.
Charlie Chaplin – He all about laughs, he was very generous to the people he worked with, and inspired others with his actions and words. His Little Tramp even today is an international icon because of the familiarity with the character, that he us one of us. His performances brought sanity to modern society and humanised the hardships of daily life in this technologically advanced world. He influenced many people from Gene Wilder to young Walt Disney. Some of his films are ‘The Kid’, ‘City Lights’ and ‘The Great Dictator’.
Harold Lloyd – “The King of Daredevil Comedy,” Harold Lloyd is best remembered today as the young man dangling desperately from a clock tower in the 1923 classic Safety Last. At the height of his career, Lloyd was one of the most popular and highest-paid stars of his time. He influenced stars like Bob Clampett.
According to Cousins, why did the hub of film production in the USA move from the East Coast of America to Hollywood?
Hollywood was an ideal place to produce movies since filmmakers couldn’t be sued there for infringing on motion picture film patents held by Thomas Edison and his Motion Picture Patents Company.
Which nation’s film industry does Cousin’s describe as “the best in the world” in the 1910’s and why?
During the First World War the film industries of Europe were devastated, and Hollywood replaced the French and Italian firms as the most popular film makers in the world.
Give an example of two films and two directors from this place and time cited by Cousin’s as remarkable.
What global events had just taken place and were taking place at the time of the film’s production?
In a way Bonnie and Clyde were pioneers, consolidating the vein of violence in American history and exploiting it for the first time in the mass media. At the time, the Vietnam War was still taking place.
Explain how these events may have impacted on the style and content of the film itself.
The film resonated with the young movie-going public, conditioned by the violent images from the Vietnam War that were broadcast on the nightly news and splashed across the front of newspapers.
What global events had just taken place and were taking place at the time of the film’s production?
Casablanca is an exploration of the universal themes of love and sacrifice, but when the film was released in 1942, audiences viewed it as a political allegory about World War II. The film is set in December 1941, the month in which the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
Explain how these events may have impacted on the style and content of the film itself.
There was alot of realism in the film as it was filmed and set during World War II, it focuses on an American expatriate (Bogart) who must choose between his love for a woman (Bergman) and helping her husband (Henreid), a Czechoslovak resistance leader, escape from the Vichy-controlled city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Germans.
What was the name of the first film made by the Lumiere Brothers and when was this?
La Sortie des ouvriers de l’usine Lumière (1895; “Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory”)
What was the ‘Phantom Ride’?
The ‘Phantom Ride was an early genre of film popular in Britain and the US at the end of the 19th century. The films simply show the progress of a vehicle moving forwards, usually shot by strapping a cameraman to the front.
What was ground-breaking about the silent films ‘The Sick Kitten’ and ‘Life of an American Fireman’?
The Sick Kitten (1903) directed by George Albert Smith, showed the innovation to use a close up. ‘Life of an American Fireman’ (1903) directed by Edwin S. Porter and George S. Fleming, created the idea of continuity editing, getting the audience to follow the story without needing to repeat the action twice.
What was the name of the first ‘film star’ in Hollywood?
Florence Lawrence, a Canadian-American actress who began her career in the silent film era and was known for her beauty and charm, is considered by many to be the first movie star in Hollywood. She appeared in over 270 movies over the course of her career.
Realism in film relies on both narrative and visual realism, it produces a slice of ‘real’ life on screen by focusing on dull aspects of everyday life. In Bonnie and Clyde, realism is shown throughout, in scenes in particular is the nature-landscape kind of rural places in which they find to rest at. In particular later on in the film, C.W goes to a camp looking area to get water. It shows the realism of the time of the Great Depression and after effects of the economic crash.
Tone
The tone, which is the mood or atmosphere of a film scene, in Bonnie and Clyde is a calm and romantic yet at the same time extremely violent (the end scene) tone. The tone changing so much in Bonnie and Clyde could be foregrounding Bonnie and Clyde themselves and their bipolar personality’s.
Visual Style (French New Wave)
In Bonnie and Clyde the influence of the French New Wave is shown in many aspects. The style and editing used in this film show typical French New Wave techniques of characterisation of the protagonists, fast cuts, and spontaneous music to shift the tone abruptly.
In Bonnie and Clyde, Bonnie holds just as much power as Clyde as they work together and posses the same motives. Yet throughout, the representation of women is different to men as they turn against each other like the characters Blanche Barrow and Bonnie Parker (seen below). They seem to turn against each other perhaps because Bonnie wants to be the only female holding the power and also because Blanche is not a criminal like Bonnie.
Men
Throughout Bonnie and Clyde, there are obvious men who hold more power like Clyde and his brother Buck Barrow (image 2), compared to C.W (image 1), as they treat C.W as someone with less power. This is changed because C.W has to look after them, showing his ture friendship yet when he brings them to his dad to take care of them, his dad convinces him to help set Bonnie and Clyde up in order for them to be captured and killed. C.W turns into the powerful character. So in Bonnie and Clyde, men are represented as power holders and are used to show the difference of status (Clyde v.s C.W).
Authority Figures
While Bonnie and Clyde are on the run, they seem to keep dodging the authority, though this Sheriff captures them they decide to mess with him, showing the lack of power held by the Sheriff when it came to ‘powerful’ criminals like Bonnie and Clyde. Yet at the end, the authority make a comeback and manage to capture Bonnie and Clyde.
People Of Colour
The people of colour in Bonnie and Clyde is not hugely spoken on and the plot does not include much about the people of colour and their significance, despite their significance in the Great Depression in real life back in the 1930s. However a previous farm worker appears with another previous farm worker (image below) when Bonnie and Clyde and practising shooting. Bonnie and Clyde lend their gun to these farm workers to use, giving them much joy. Their is a moment of silence as appreciation in this scene, showing Bonnie and Clyde’s sympathetic personality’s when not in their criminal mindsets, just being normal people.
Working Class Americans
In the movie Bonnie and Clyde, working class Americans were represented in a way that showed that the people of time were suffering from economic collapse. This can be seen in scenes like when C.W drives to a rural area in which people are camped in to find some water for Bonnie and Clyde (image 1), and when Bonnie and Clyde are found practising shooting guns and the previous farm workers show up with their family in the car (image 2). Bonnie and Clyde symbolise the two naïve lovers who decide to carve out their own American Dream by rejecting the failing economic systems during the Great Depression. Though Bonnie and Clyde were actually liked by a lot of the public because so much of the working-class population of the United States were hit hard by the depression, many were more sympathetic to criminals who were targeting banks and other financial institutions, which were perceived to have been behind the economic collapse.
What style of editing is used in Bonnie and Clyde?
Arthur Penn uses shot-reverse-shot in the diner conversation, tempo, timing, along with joining shots to enhance the film. The simplistic editing and use of close ups encourages the audience to focus on the dynamic between the characters as Clyde is revealed to be insightful and intuitive and Bonnie to be surprised and impressed. The most renowned scene in the film is the final scene of the film where Penn used various shots to capture several emotions and actions within seconds of film time. He also utilises narrative seuencing to tell the infamous tale of Bonnie and Clyde.
diegetic : used Rapid jarring cuts between Clyde, Malcolm and Bonnie are used as they hear the diegetic sound of frightened birds flying away. This sound of the birds foreshadows their own sudden deaths in the seconds that follow.
non-diegetic : not as loud as the shutter sound: this opening music can be compared to the fanfare given through sound at the start of Casablanca
Location, a key part of mise-en-scene, is crucial to the film Bonnie and Clyde. The film itself, set in Texas, shows many scenes that emphasize the film set being in Texas like the diverse landscapes featured in the film and the strong southern culture.
Sets (interiors)
There are many interior sets in Bonnie and Clyde because they are always on the run. For example this scene shown below, it is a good example of the simplistic yet at the time good enough for them life they had. They didn’t have much but after robbing the banks were able to afford more things. So the sets featured in the film continuously get better and better because of their increasing money from robbing.
Costumes
The costumes in Bonnie and Clyde are important in the sense that they show the typical styles of the era in which the film was set in (the early 1930’s). It also shows each characters persona, like for example in this scene, Bonnie is wearing her clothes that she wears for work as she meets Clyde before her work begins in the morning. It shows her lack of wealth before meeting Clyde and that shes really only just a Texan girl from the village. Clyde, throughout the film, is shown to dress smart and business like, as if he’s always ready to go out and make money. It shows his serious character persona with a hint of glamour and wealth.
Props
The main props in Bonnie and Clyde consist of guns used for shooting and defense. Here, Bonnie and Clyde are practicing shooting their guns. The use of props helps to emphasize the narrative of the film and show that the film is a crime/action.
