Movies

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

Steelhead asks what I mean by film being rediscovered in the 1950s and 1960s.
Well, at the risk of overgeneralizing, there had been some pioneer critics
of film as an art form--going back to Vachel Lindsay in the U.S., Rudolf
Arnheim and Bela Belazs in Europe, among others, but despite isolated critics
like Agee and MacDonald, American film was not held in high regard--or at 
least as other than "entertainment"--by mainstream critics.  By the mid-1950s,
a lot of forces were coming into play.  Old films like CASABLANCA, THE
WIZARD OF OZ and even CITIZEN KANE were being shown on tv--and some, like
WIZARD and KANE, becoming successes for the first time (KANE was a critical
success but a financial disappointment when released, WIZARD did not do very
well for a big-budget, big-name MGM film).  In Hollywood itself, a new 
generation of filmmakers was seriously engaging social issues, often coupled
with new acting styles--Elia Kazan, Brando, James Dean just a few involved.
And the art house/repertory cinemas were growing in importance, as the Baby
Boom came of age and sought out entertainment at the movies.  From abroad,
Bergman, Fellini and others were created a strange, new cinema that ignited
the imaginations of filmgoers and filmmakers alike.  So by the end of the
1960s, film was beginning to establish itself as an academic discipline in
various places around the country.

That's the short version, anyway!

And TRP is one of the heirs of that legacy.


Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)