Wednesday, 21 September 2016

Week 1 [Screening Notes] - Bonnie & Clyde [1967]

Warner Brothers/Seven Arts
Director: Arthur Penn
Producer: Warren Beatty
Screenwriters: David Newman and Robert Benton
Additional Materials by Robert Towne
Editor: Dede Allen

How did the film split critical opinion across a generational divide such as Crowther and Kael

Some questions whilst watching the film

1 - How does the film breakdown the classical conventions of Hollywood narratives and aesthetics
2 - Editing patterns such as jump cuts and rapid editing
3 - What are it's French New Wave influences
4 - Certain kind of contents - Bonnie's sexual frustration

- It changed the parameters of screen violence
- Graphic bloodshed was prohibited from cinema via the Production Code
- Atrocious reality of killing which the spectator is confronted with.
-  Produced in an era of political violence in the US (MLK, JFK, Vietnam War, Civil Rights)

Film Notes
- Stills jump cuts opening.
- Exhibiting of alcohol and firearms use withing the narrative.
- Bonnie sexual thirst makes her try to commit sexual acts whilst Clyde is driving during their first getaway.
- Bonnie, the blonde damsel.
- Narrative jumps with fade to black to show a long time passing
- Black male cast in the film, something Hollywood had never really dabbled in.
- Clyde shots bank owner point blank in the face.
- ECU jump cuts (shot reverse shot) action to reaction



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