“The Hollywood machine has always crushed any individuality in filmmaking”. Compare the extent the films you have studied display auteur individuality.
The influence of Hollywood on American films was much more prominent under the studio system during the Golden Age of Hollywood, where films were highly reflective of the studios that made them. Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942), for example, is characteristic of Warner Bros’ house style to the extent that the studio could be considered an auteur influence on the film. In contrast, Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967) was made during the New Hollywood era, when there was much greater freedom for the directors producing under studios, but also more room for independent filmmakers and creative individuality. Bonnie and Clyde takes inspiration from the auteurs in the French New Wave, so although Penn’s style is arguably not that of an auteur himself, his influences from the French New Wave certainly were and as a result, Bonnie and Clyde shows secondary auteur individuality.
Much like many of Warner Bros’ other films during the Golden Age of Hollywood, Casablanca is a realistic film with an urban setting and fast-paced dialogue, conforming to Warner Bros’ house style. In the scene where Ilsa has gone to Rick to beg for the letters of transit, their exchanges are snappy, creating a sense of heightened emotion. Although Casablanca is an urban setting, the foreign city also provides exoticism to the film, which Warner Bros used to compete with the other studios and is shown off in the wide shots in the opening of the film. Therefore, there is some individuality in the film’s unique setting, though it still fits the Warner Bros house style. Additionally, the realistic wartime setting gave room for Jack Warner’s political agenda in wanting America to join WWII, showing his influence on the films produced by Warner Bros. Not every Warner Bros films had a political agenda, however, suggesting a degree of individuality in Casablanca.
During the Golden Age of Hollywood the studio system was supported by the star system, with each studio having their own ‘stable’. Whilst Warner Bros did not have a fixed stable, the studio frequently used the same stars, their regular collaborators including James Cagney, Edward Robinson and Humphrey Bogart, all of whom seemed more ‘guy-next-door’ than extremely attractive superstars. This set Warner Bros apart as a studio that favoured realism above everything, even in terms of its actors; for example Bogart’s heavy New York accent in Casablanca stood out from the common Mid-Atlantic accent used in contemporary films. In his earlier Warner Bros’ films, Bogart was known for playing gangster roles, and the studio used this to their advantage, even paying homage to these previous characters at the end of Casablanca, when Rick wears a suit, hat and coat with a turned up collar reflective of his gangster outfits. Therefore, whilst the actors did not have auteur individuality and were frequently typecast within their studio, Warner Bros had individuality from the other studios in terms of the stars that worked for them and the realism of them compared to hyper-glamorous stars at other studios.
Furthermore, Warner Bros showed off these unique assets, which is evident in Casablanca through the catch lights on Ingrid Bergman throughout the film to show her attractiveness. Similarly, in scenes with either Ilsa or Rick and supporting characters, the camera always favours the star; for example, in the conversation between Rick, Captain Renault and the Nazi major the camera remains focused on Rick, even when Rick stands up to leave the table and the other two men remain sat down. Equally, in the scene at the piano with Ilsa and Sam, Ingrid Bergman has a lot more screen-time, showing the importance of stars to the studios’ brands and in this case, Bergman and Bogart making Warner Bros distinct from the other studios.
Even directors at the time submitted to the dominance of the studios, forgoing much creative individuality and conforming to the studio’s house style. This is true of Casablanca‘s director, Michael Curtiz, who regularly worked for Warner Bros and made realistic films for the studio. Additionally, composer Max Steiner used his non-diegetic composed score in Casablanca for the purpose of the studio, manipulating the audience according to who Warner Bros wanted them to sympathise with. Whenever the Nazi characters are shown, the score takes a sinister turn, particularly noticeable during the arrival of the Nazi major at the airport towards the end. However, whilst directors and composers were less artistically powerful than the studios during the Golden Age of Hollywood, their contributions still altered the house style: Steiner composed over 100 scores for Warner Bros and was so influential he composed the signature Warner Bros fanfare that plays at the start of Casablanca, showing some of the artistic individuality of the time, even if it aided the studio’s overall auteur individuality.
Therefore, films produced during the Golden Age of Hollywood, such as Casablanca, were arguably the products of their studio ‘auteur’, which had individuality from the other studios, but many similarities amongst its own films, as all the artists contributed to the studio house style rather than having their own distinctive auteur individuality. In contrast, the individuals became far more important during the New Hollywood era, once the French New Wave had introduced the term ‘auteur’ and the individuality associated with it.
Although stars in the Golden Age of Hollywood did not have much freedom, this changed in New Hollywood, where actor Warren Beatty had enough control over his portrayal of Clyde to emphasise the sexual ambiguity of the character, which might have been omitted without his input and star quality. He also chose to maintain a limp throughout the film to create a sense of naturalism. Beatty’s other significant influence over the film Bonnie and Clyde was as a first-time producer. Despite it being his producing debut, Beatty received 40% of the gross rather than a fixed fee for the film, which shows the increasing importance of individuals compared to the domination of studios during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Director Arthur Penn is arguably less distinct as a creative presence in Bonnie and Clyde due to the amount of inspiration taken from the French New Wave in the film. For example, Bonnie and Clyde was shot on-location in the deep American South to create a sense of realism promoted by the French New Wave. The South had not fully recovered from the Great Depression era, providing an apt, deprived-looking setting for the film, which would not have been the same in the more stable Eastern cities. Since they were shooting on-location, available light was used more instead of expensive lighting set-ups that would have to be transported. To take advantage of the sun as natural lighting, Bonnie and Clyde was often shot at golden hour, such as in the sequence where the Barrow Gang meets up with family members. The warmth of the sun at this time, along with the filters on the lenses make the sequence look dreamlike, which contrasts the harshness of the rest of the film. However, the shadows also create a sense of conflict, as the meet-up is only temporary and the gang have to return to their life of violence on the run.
Other than the one warmer sequence, the film is very harsh and realistic, from setting to dialogue and editing. The French New Wave encourage improvised dialogue, with less focus on the overarching plot and this is evident in Bonnie and Clyde, as the focus is more on the characters themselves. Additionally, in the opening sequence in which Bonnie and Clyde meet for the first time, they often speak over one another, which is more accurate to reality than the carefully constructed and timed dialogue in films such as Casablanca.
The editing in Bonnie and Clyde moves away from the traditional continuity editing in Golden Age of Hollywood films that aimed to tell the story in a straightforward way. The French New Wave made use of editing as an artistic element and featured jump cuts that Arthur Penn was inspired by in the making of Bonnie and Clyde. The opening has jarring editing between the photographs, with loud camera click noises to emphasise the harshness and set up the violent nature of the film. The photos themselves show effects of the Great Depression, immediately grounding the film in a sense of realism that reflects French New Wave films.
Another huge change in Hollywood films from the Golden Age to the New Hollywood period was the presentation of character. The strict Hays Code implemented during the Golden Age restricted sexual or violent imagery in films, showing the limits Hollywood put on creative freedom and expression at the time. Therefore, the protagonists were reduced to ‘heroes’ and the female characters were demure and pure, evident in Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa in Casablanca. However, by the time of New Hollywood, cinema had become more bold through the French New Wave influence and in Bonnie and Clyde, Bonnie is sexualised from the very beginning through the close-up of her red lips and her implied nudity. The French New Wave also featured anti-authoritative characters, such as in Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. Similarly, in Bonnie and Clyde, the protagonists are violent criminals who are against the state and rob banks, yet the audience is positioned with them despite their lacking morals, in stark contrast to the characters in Casablanca.
Ultimately, there was much greater individuality and variety in films made in New Hollywood, compared to the Golden Age of Hollywood, where studios had a monopoly over American cinema and mass-produced films that conformed to their house style. However, through the individual studios, there was auteur individuality in each of their different outputs, meaning the studio Warner Bros had more of a claim to the title ‘auteur’ than director Michael Curtiz for the film Casablanca. Equally, it is not director Arthur Penn that has the auteur individuality in Bonnie and Clyde, but his French New Wave influences, directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Therefore, it could be argued that the ‘Hollywood machine’ had crushed individuality to the degree that it required foreign influence to revive individuality and create the concept of individual auteur style.