American New Wave

"The 'new wave' is neither a movement, nor a school, nor a group; it's a quality" - Francois Truffaut

The French New Wave changed the way the world made movies. A breakdown of form and narrative drowned conventional film in the River Seine. A short list of directors and writers took every process of filmmaking and flambéed it. Their films looked different, they sounded different, and they flowed different. Frustrating for some, unshackling for others. I myself am no scholar in French New Wave, even as an obsessive watcher I find it difficult to get in that zone.

Across the Atlantic, America was about to experience it's own cultural upheaval that would leach its way into it's film too. Social and political changes combatting post-war society brought in new ideas, and reels from overseas made its way into theaters in the country. A wave was about to hit the US.

East Texas Film Society's inaugural film series was based around this American New Wave; otherwise known as New Hollywood. Prominent directors such as Peter Bogdanovich, Hal Ashby, Arthur Penn, Robert Altman, and Mike Nichols are only a handful of figures whose work in the end of the 60's and the beginning of 70's became culturally important landmarks in cinema. Other directors, some of perhaps more fame, rose to great prominence merely a couple of years later; George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Francis Coppola, William Friedkin, Brian DePalma, and Martin Scorsese. At the same time, established filmmakers a decade or more earlier were able to move with the times and continue their relevancy, such as the great Sidney Lumet, and the oft cited John Cassavetes.

For our selection of films to screen in Mineola's historic landmark theater, The Historic Select, we had to narrow down a varied period into a bite size run of popular or forgotten classics.

The Graduate, 1967, dir. Mike Nichols

Without a doubt, The Graduate is one of the most popular films of New Hollywood. Dustin Hoffman stars in his debut film role and knocks it out of the park. His Benjamin Braddock is unsure, anxious, and depressed. This is far from the typical lead of any film from Old Hollywood. Braddock's actions in the film play out in a manner which liken to a sense of existential mania; his unsureness leads him to a precarious situation where in the end he hasn't really changed, and he still hasn't figured out what he wants. This is a common thread of many New Hollywood features. Benjamin's feelings are externalized for the viewer very clearly in his interactions with water; specifically when he is below water or above water. At the start of the film he is figuratively drowning when his parents force him to show off his new SCUBA gear in the pool. Later on in the film in the midst of his affair with Mrs. Robinson he is floating on the water with a beer and soaking in the sun. There are other water examples in the film to look out for. I found this to be a quite compelling motif to look for.

The Producers, 1968, dir. Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks is not exactly someone you would associate with New Hollywood; however his debut feature film was at the very beginning of the cinematic revolution. It might as well be called "Taboo: The Movie". Never has a film played hilarity so hard around Nazi's and geriatric prostitution. Coupling the story with the exciting performances by Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder yields an incredible comedy with some truly gut busting moments. Again, we're watching anxious characters, but also we're presented with protagonists with malicious intentions. Mel Brooks takes the musical/comedy genre to a place that Old Hollywood never could; nor would. Much like Braddock in The Graduate, Bialystock and Bloom end their story not really having changed and seeing them grifting again in jail.

Midnight Cowboy, 1969, dir. John Schlessinger

What to say about this masterpiece. Midnight Cowboy is perhaps one of the most "absolute cinema" films of the New Hollywood era. Certainly, it's at the top of the list when it comes to it's formalism. Often called "transgressive" due to it's reluctance to have anything joyous happen in the movie, it features situations and characters that push the boundary of what audiences would be ALLOWED to watch. It was rated X, which in 1969 is essentially the equivalent of a modern R rating; but that is telling to how naive audiences were in the sixties to the true American culture post-Nuclear Family. Set in New York, a Texas boy named Joe Buck (Jon Voight) travels to the Big Apple to make money as a gigolo, really thinking he's hot shit. Very quickly he finds himself down on his luck when faced with the reality of NYC's ease of chewing the naive up and spitting them out. Buck makes the acquaintance of local grifter and bum Rico "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman again!!). Their relationship begins with a grift, and evolves into a codependent homeless nightmare. The downtrodden friendship takes them eventually to sunny Florida, but at a great cost. Midnight Cowboy is interesting in it's willingness to be brutally honest about the time and people within it. Warhol parties, homosexual encounters, male prostitutes, and yuppies are all given equal narrative weight. Schlessinger, a gay man himself, seemed to have also let in some ambiguity of Buck and Rizzo's codependence appearing as an unspoken homosexual relationship. What a film.

Five Easy Pieces, 1970, Bob Rafelson

One of the darlings of American cinema is Jack Nicholson. Surprisingly, his first leading role was more than a decade into his long career. Having worked with B-movie mogul Roger Corman for many years as a actor and a writer, he made his mark finally as Bobby Dupea in Five Easy Pieces. Five Easy Pieces is a contemplative film, more subtle than the last two we arranged at The Historic Select. I was the only one in the theater who had seen it before. Dupea is former piano prodigy who has become jaded to his upper middle class upbringing and has conceded to a life of a rambler. Moving from job to job, town to town, and girl to girl, he finds himself eventually in a position where he must go back home to Washington to visit his dying father. Hoping for closure, he travels home with girlfriend (Karen Black) but refuses to allow her to meet his family; embarrassed by her for being of lower class than he sees himself. Eventually he seeks out the closure he wishes for but only finds it's unsatisfactory and not meeting his expectations, again solidifying his disdain for his father and the life he grew up with. The story and characterization of Five Easy Pieces is more complex and than all the other movies we picked for our inaugural series; it certainly would be it's own blog post if elaborated further. It continues the trend of a protagonist battling with meaning and existence, and not allowing themselves (or unwilling) to change.

Dirty Harry, 1971, Don Siegel

Perhaps the true black-sheep of the series, Dirty Harry is not necessarily enlightened. But it is a crowd-pleaser with some sub-text in there that can't be ignored. Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is a San Francisco homicide inspector after the serial killer 'Scorpio'; modeled in some ways after the real-life Zodiac killer. Callahan is a stand-in for the audience, and American culture in the turn of the decade. Tumultuous times in part due to racial/civil, political, and social issues make Harry our representative by saying enough is enough. Also at the time in history, the rise of the serial killer induces a panic in media and news. His modus operandi is direct action; doing the job by any means necessary. When the force gives you the Dirty work, sometimes you have to play dirty. Callahan's disdain for the law means he is unhinged and the audience gets to play out its fantasy of fighting scum off-the-books. Scorpio represents everything wrong with society, and it's no accident that the first scene of the movie is the killer with a rifle scoping onto an innocent women, going for a swim, from the top of a Frisco skyscraper. Some of the coolest action sequences appear in this movie and helped to define the 70's action and thriller genres, which in turn spread its tendrils into all succeeding decades.

After making it through this film series and planting a base for growth, East Texas Film Society is eager to arrange more themed film series. Perhaps in the future we will revisit the New Hollywood series with films from 1972 and beyond; or, as filmmaking became more accessible to all in the 1970's we may find a good list of films by female or non-white filmmakers. Posthumously looking back on the era, I have some other films that weren't quite in the conversation due to elimination or ignorance. I recommend, dear reader, some more highlights of the beginning of the American New Wave:

Seconds, 1966, dir. John Frankenheimer

Bonnie and Clyde, 1967, dir. Arthur Penn

Targets, 1968, dir. Peter Bogdanovich

Easy Rider, 1969, dir. Dennis Hopper

The Landlord, 1970, dir. Hal Ashby

Little Murders, 1971, dir. Robert Altman

Check out our upcoming screenings here.