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The books focus on Bonnie and Clyde begins with Robert Benton and David Newman slow and gradual formation of the Bonnie and Clyde Treatment in 1963. Their positions at Esquire Magazine afforded them sufficient time to leave work and visit the museum of Modern Art where they incessantly watched Hitchcock films in the museums retrospective. The two wrote the treatment with every intention that it would break down the norms of current cinema in the U.S. and establish a more European, art oriented style. The two writers were heavily influenced by the French new wave, and modeled their treatment and script after that style, targeting Francois Truffaut as their ideal director and almost part of the very script.
Truffaut however had his eyes set on Fahrenheit 451 as his first American project and turned it down, but recommended it to Jon Luc Godard, another one of Benton and Newman’s New Wave idols. Godard, however, had an entirely different vision for the project and was subsequently removed from the project, both of his own will and the production team’s. After Godard’s disappointing departure, Benton and Newman seemed to lose hope in their project and started to write Broadway musicals together.
The book then switched to following Warren Beatty after 1965 when he bought the option for the Bonnie and Clyde screenplay for $75,000. After trying to get Truffaut and Godard to direct the film failed yet again for Beatty, he finally convinced Arthur Penn to agree to the project in 1966, after the director had previously turned it down three times already.
The book provides valuable insight into the birth and assembly of Bonnie and Clyde and shows the inner workings of the films production. From Benton and Newman’s American French New Wave dream, to Beatty and Penn’s reworking of the script and groundbreaking final project that eventually led to the Oscar Nomination in 1967 and years of influence.
The article, François Truffaut- The Anarchist Imagination, is mostly about Truffaut's filmmaking techniques, what characterizes his style, and how this is seen in most, if not all, of his films. Judith Shatnoff describes Truffaut's use of shortened of lengthened scenes for a specific effect, a change of pace, or simply for the global beauty of the film. His editing is very ingenious and exemplified by odd camera angles, sudden zooms into bird eye views, cut-outs, and high-key exposures. Truffaut uses many long flashbacks in his films to show the viewer what led to the present situation in the film, and how the past affected the characters.
One characteristic if his films is the startling tonic juxtapositions, which leave the audience somewhat confused about the nature of the film: are they viewing a comedy? Or a drama? The viewers are puzzled on how to react to the characters situation, which changes swiftly from ironic or cynical tones to joyful moments, to moment of despairs. Behind these cinematographic techniques lies what Truffaut seems to believe about life: that "existence is a succession of dirty jokes; nothing lasts, struggle is futile, hope is obscene". This change of tone gives more of a realistic sense to the film, since life is not continuously pleasurable, nor depressing.
However, Truffaut's films go beyond that; what are more meaningful are his recurrent uses of typical characters, actors (Jeanne Moreau is present in a few of his films for example), and the crafting of scenes. The characters are recognizable because they portray similar types of people (strong, weak, good and bad), but they change throughout the films and our references are always modified. Truffaut's stories hide important ideas in them, but he does not make them stand out in anyway either.
Judith Shatnoff describes Truffaut as an "anarchist", because "he does as he pleases" and his attitude to the films is very personal; "his intellectual vision controls an emotional context for a creative purpose".
The article relates to La Mariée était en Noir, because the techniques that Truffaut uses in most of his films are present in this film.
Julie Kohler (Jeanne Moreau), the heroine, is a very strong character who wants revenge for the death of her husband. Nevertheless, at times, she seems to be the victim of her will to carry on her mission. The audience does not see her in the same way at the beginning of the movie and at the end of it. At first, she simply appears to be the victim of an unfortunate accident, and then she becomes a cold-blooded killer who will stop at nothing, even after finding out that the five men she was pursuing did not have the same implications in her husband's death. These five men died in accordance with his character (the paintor next to his canvas, the one who pulled the trigger in jail...).
Truffaut includes many flashbacks in La Mariée était en Noir. Each flashback gives more information to the viewer about what happened on the day Julie Kohler's husband died and who was actually the culprit. The story itself is not that out of the ordinary; it is the stop-and-go motions and the way the story moves back and forth (from present to past) that make the film interesting.
Also, the fast pace, created by the sudden zooms and fast interchanging frames, keeps the viewer going and interested in the film. The angles used in La Mariée était en Noir give an interesting appearance to the shot and make the audience closer to the action.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1998.A3 H573 1984
Staples, Donald E. "The Auteur Theory Re-examined". Cinema Journal, Vol. 6. (1966 - 1967): 1-7.
Donald Staples chronicles the development of the auteur theory in this article. Starting with the birth of auteur theory in the 1954 Cahiers du Cinima article by Frangoise Truffaut, in which Truffaut attempting to criticize .screen-writers. cinema., in which the creative process essentially ended once the screen-writer finished writing the script. From that point, a director merely put the writing on film without leaving a personal creative imprint on the film. As a result of Truffaut.s article, critics began to put emphasis on auteur theory when writing their reviews. It became necessary for a director to use the film as a way of inventing a personal aesthetic and for each film to demonstrate a step in the overall progression of the director.s creativity. The French New Wave is always closely associated with the concept of auteur theory. Director.s who were part of the movement often took control over the creative aspects of their film and oftentimes films by French New Wave directors are particularly distinct in style to the point where a director.s trademarks become recognizable.
Truffaut introduces his compilation of a series of interview with Hitchcock with an anecdote in which he silences a critic of Rear Window who claimed he couldn't see Rear Window's flaws because he was not from New York City. Truffaut responded by saying "Rear Window is not about Greenwich Village, it is a film about cinema, and I do know cinema."
This anecdote applies to Lifeboat and author Steinbeck's dislike of the final material. He criticized the fallacy of things like one man rowing the whole lifeboat, failing to acknowledge the cinematic and symbolic implications this has for Willy's percieved control over the other suvivors.
In the interview, Hitchcock says Lifeboat was an effort to test his theory that psycological films contained mostly close-ups or two/three-shots. He saught to find an environment that would force a director to shoot mostly those shots. This close-up style was later adopted by television, mainly due to the smaller screen size and not the psycological implications.
Hitchcock also here discusses his version of the allegory. He confrims that it is soley about the war (contradicting statements made by the producer). Kovac represented the communist way of dealing with the Nazis. He was the most vocal opponent to the captain, much in the same way early American Anti-Nazi Leagues had strong communist ties. Rittenhouse symbolized the Facist who is eager to give up control of the ship in a tumultous time to a dictator, much in the same way certain parts of society were, including the wealthy, eager to keep the status quo, and saw a dictator Roosevelt as their best hope.