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00:00:11,939 --> 00:00:18,131
The '60s in America had been a day
in the sun, but then night came.
21
00:00:18,156 --> 00:00:22,734
The decade ended with the
deaths of Malcolm X, Jimi Hendrix,
22
00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:28,664
Janis Joplin and Roman Polanski's wife,
Sharon Tate, and their friends.
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00:00:28,689 --> 00:00:32,446
Four hundred colleges
protested against the Vietnam war.
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00:00:32,471 --> 00:00:36,923
In cinema the Hollywood
studio system came to an end.
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So come the new dawn: The '70s.
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You'd think that movies in America
would be slumped in the corner,
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00:00:48,114 --> 00:00:49,657
but you'd be wrong.
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00:00:50,328 --> 00:00:56,515
The rising sun of the new decade
brought fresher air and new honesty.
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00:00:57,217 --> 00:01:02,273
The explicitly personal filmmaking
of the '60s and a "film school" awareness
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00:01:02,298 --> 00:01:07,826
of European cinema and film history
gathered momentum and gained confidence.
31
00:01:08,339 --> 00:01:11,056
The garden started
to bloom again.
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00:01:11,799 --> 00:01:14,835
The new American cinema,
as it came to be called,
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00:01:14,860 --> 00:01:18,664
fell into three separate types:
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00:01:18,689 --> 00:01:22,959
Satirical movies made by people
like this man, Buck Henry,
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00:01:22,984 --> 00:01:26,190
that mocked society
and their times.
36
00:01:26,215 --> 00:01:29,976
Dissident films made
by people like Charles Burnett
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00:01:30,002 --> 00:01:33,808
that challenged
the conventional style in cinema.
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00:01:33,833 --> 00:01:38,311
And assimilationist movies,
made by Robert Towne and others,
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00:01:38,336 --> 00:01:43,350
in which old studio genres
were reworked, with new techniques.
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00:01:44,008 --> 00:01:45,668
First, the mockery.
41
00:01:46,789 --> 00:01:50,638
Many in the counter culture in America
in the '60s and '70s thought:
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00:01:50,663 --> 00:01:55,312
"It's too late to salvage society,
so let's satirize it."
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00:01:55,337 --> 00:01:56,563
And so they did.
44
00:01:57,502 --> 00:02:01,923
American movies
had satirized society for decades.
45
00:02:01,948 --> 00:02:06,842
Here, in the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup,
made in the 1933,
46
00:02:09,143 --> 00:02:13,554
people wait for Rufus T. Firefly,
the president of Freedonia,
47
00:02:13,579 --> 00:02:16,505
to arrive at the top
of the stairway...
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00:02:20,458 --> 00:02:22,600
But he comes in from the bottom.
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00:02:26,384 --> 00:02:28,886
You expecting somebody?
Yes.
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00:02:29,626 --> 00:02:36,902
Hail, hail, Freedonia
Land of the brave
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00:02:36,928 --> 00:02:39,018
A topsy-turvy world.
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00:02:40,252 --> 00:02:43,846
Come the '60s,
psychologist R.D. Laing's suggestion
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00:02:43,871 --> 00:02:48,676
that sanity itself is a bit insane,
and vice versa,
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00:02:48,701 --> 00:02:52,148
made the world feel even more
like a Marx brothers movie.
55
00:02:52,173 --> 00:02:55,908
So it's no surprise to find
that Frank Tashlin, Buck Henry,
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00:02:55,933 --> 00:03:01,637
Robert Altman and Milos Foreman
brought new satirical bite to American film.
57
00:03:05,693 --> 00:03:10,503
Tashlin found consumerism vulgar
and offensive to his gentle eye
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00:03:10,528 --> 00:03:15,564
so made lurid films like this one
which looked like a cartoon.
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00:03:15,589 --> 00:03:18,900
Its color, style and happiness
were meant to show
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00:03:18,925 --> 00:03:23,052
that society is fake
and manic and infantile.
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00:03:23,306 --> 00:03:26,352
We're just demonstrating
the new sign.
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00:03:26,378 --> 00:03:27,940
Mr. Kelly!
Watch it!
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00:03:34,329 --> 00:03:37,483
He made a brilliant kids' book
that tells of a happy possum
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00:03:37,509 --> 00:03:40,254
that's hanging in a tree.
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00:03:40,279 --> 00:03:43,962
Passersby see the possum
but they mistake his smile
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00:03:43,988 --> 00:03:47,258
for a frown, because
he's hanging upside down.
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00:03:47,283 --> 00:03:51,185
They take him on a tour,
into the city, through the air,
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00:03:51,211 --> 00:03:54,705
to make him happy,
to give him an adventure.
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00:03:54,730 --> 00:03:58,083
He sees the world
and doesn't like it.
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00:03:58,109 --> 00:04:00,945
It's scary and crumbling.
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00:04:00,970 --> 00:04:04,043
Eventually the people
return him to his tree.
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00:04:04,068 --> 00:04:05,680
They're pleased.
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00:04:05,705 --> 00:04:09,421
He looks to them like
he's smiling but, of course,
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00:04:09,446 --> 00:04:12,197
as he's upside down,
he's really frowning.
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00:04:13,830 --> 00:04:16,862
A lovely parable about
upsidedownness.
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00:04:17,532 --> 00:04:21,414
The great French playwright Feydeau
said that in order to be funny,
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00:04:21,439 --> 00:04:24,818
you need to, "think sad first."
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00:04:34,645 --> 00:04:37,701
Buck Henry is one of
American cinema's masters
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00:04:37,727 --> 00:04:43,951
of the upside down, of satire.
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00:04:50,291 --> 00:04:54,163
Henry's adaptation
of Joseph Heller's novel, Catch 22,
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00:04:54,188 --> 00:04:58,709
directed by Mike Nichols,
is one of the great movie satires.
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00:04:58,734 --> 00:05:02,987
It's World War II, bomber pilot Yossarian,
on the right here,
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00:05:03,013 --> 00:05:04,865
tries to get out of flying.
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00:05:04,891 --> 00:05:08,603
This scene, which gives the film
and novel its title, explains why:
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00:05:08,629 --> 00:05:09,502
That's all he's got to do
to be grounded?
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00:05:09,527 --> 00:05:10,231
That's all.
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00:05:10,257 --> 00:05:11,436
And then you can ground him?
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00:05:11,461 --> 00:05:14,430
No! Then I cannot ground him.
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00:05:14,456 --> 00:05:15,267
There's a catch.
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A catch?
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00:05:17,097 --> 00:05:18,133
Sure, catch 22.
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00:05:18,159 --> 00:05:23,299
Anyone who wants to get out of combat,
isn't really crazy so I can't ground them.
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Okay.
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00:05:26,621 --> 00:05:28,309
Let me see if I got this straight.
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00:05:28,335 --> 00:05:31,845
In order to be grounded,
I've got to be crazy,
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00:05:31,871 --> 00:05:34,345
and I must be crazy
to keep flying.
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00:05:34,370 --> 00:05:37,578
But if I ask to be grounded
that means I'm not crazy anymore,
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00:05:37,604 --> 00:05:38,573
and I have to keep flying.
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00:05:38,598 --> 00:05:40,506
You've got it,
that's catch 22.
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00:05:47,250 --> 00:05:49,409
That's some catch,
that catch 22.
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00:05:49,434 --> 00:05:51,667
Yossarian's world
is upside down.
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00:05:53,664 --> 00:05:54,669
Like you.
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00:05:58,003 --> 00:05:58,815
Like us!
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00:05:59,460 --> 00:06:03,911
You'll be surprised how easy
it is to like us once you begin.
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00:06:03,936 --> 00:06:06,723
You see Yossarian, we're going
to put you on easy street.
106
00:06:06,748 --> 00:06:08,390
We're gonna promote
you to major.
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00:06:08,415 --> 00:06:10,185
We're gonna give
you another medal.
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00:06:10,210 --> 00:06:12,914
We're gonna glorify your exploits,
send you home a hero.
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00:06:12,940 --> 00:06:14,651
You'll have parades
in your honor.
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00:06:14,676 --> 00:06:18,120
You can make speeches,
raise money for war bonds.
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00:06:18,145 --> 00:06:22,038
And all you have to do
is be our pal.
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00:06:22,063 --> 00:06:24,208
Say nice things about us.
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00:06:24,233 --> 00:06:26,621
Tell the folks at home
what a good job we're doing.
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00:06:28,570 --> 00:06:32,868
Henry not only wrote the film
but, here, acted in it too.
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00:06:32,893 --> 00:06:34,417
Take our offer, Yossarian.
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00:06:35,628 --> 00:06:39,664
That brilliant exchange,
which is Joe Heller's, of:
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00:06:39,690 --> 00:06:43,316
"We want you to like us,"
is one of the, I think,
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00:06:43,341 --> 00:06:48,302
great pieces
of American character.
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00:06:49,339 --> 00:06:53,750
"We're going to chop your children
into little bits and feed them to the fish,
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00:06:53,775 --> 00:06:57,180
but basically what we want
is for you to like us."
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00:06:57,205 --> 00:07:02,147
It's very, very... It's the reason
a lot of people didn't like the movie.
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00:07:02,172 --> 00:07:05,550
They perceived it as being
anti-American or un-American.
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00:07:05,789 --> 00:07:09,372
Orson Welles plays
General Dreedle.
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00:07:10,597 --> 00:07:13,516
If you've got any sense
and you hire Orson
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00:07:13,541 --> 00:07:18,437
to play a part in your movie,
you have already determined
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00:07:18,462 --> 00:07:21,177
that he will be the
center of something.
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00:07:21,838 --> 00:07:27,691
And not necessarily good, or detrimental,
but he will be a force field.
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00:07:27,716 --> 00:07:30,329
Orson did something
I've never seen an actor do.
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00:07:30,354 --> 00:07:34,315
We're out there doing the long scene
where Yosarrian gets naked,
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00:07:34,340 --> 00:07:40,088
Yossarian gets the medal from the general
for doing everything wrong.
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00:07:40,113 --> 00:07:43,226
Orson says to Nichols,
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00:07:43,251 --> 00:07:45,835
"you know something?
In this exchange, Mike,
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00:07:45,860 --> 00:07:48,592
I know you hear it exactly
the way you want it.
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00:07:48,617 --> 00:07:51,503
Why don't you just stand
where you are
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00:07:51,528 --> 00:07:54,942
and give me each line
as it comes up,
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00:07:54,967 --> 00:07:58,564
and I will do it exactly
the way you give it to me."
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00:07:58,589 --> 00:08:03,231
So that whole exchange,
it's Orson copying exactly
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00:08:03,256 --> 00:08:06,809
what Mike says for every line.
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00:08:06,834 --> 00:08:09,279
I mean that's so fabulous.
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00:08:09,304 --> 00:08:14,230
Well, one: I know
he was up all night drinking cognac.
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00:08:14,256 --> 00:08:17,472
So, there wasn't a lot of time
for memorizing lines.
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00:08:17,497 --> 00:08:19,168
I don't think he ever did.
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00:08:19,194 --> 00:08:22,766
Except maybe one line at a time.
They were all wonderful.
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00:08:23,894 --> 00:08:27,517
If he wants to receive a medal
without any clothes on,
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00:08:27,542 --> 00:08:29,129
what the hell business
is it of yours?
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00:08:29,154 --> 00:08:31,588
That's my sentiments exactly, sir.
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00:08:31,613 --> 00:08:33,591
Here's your medal, captain.
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00:08:35,635 --> 00:08:39,874
You're a very weird person,
Yossarian.
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00:08:39,899 --> 00:08:41,112
Thank you, sir.
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00:08:41,877 --> 00:08:45,970
An actor will do anything to avoid
seeming to copy anyone else.
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00:08:45,976 --> 00:08:50,500
"Don't give me that line! Just give
me the sense of what you..." You know.
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00:08:50,525 --> 00:08:53,257
And in this turnabout I thought,
"well, that's great."
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00:08:53,263 --> 00:08:59,637
He's saving time and he's doing
it exactly the way Mike hears it.
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00:09:00,716 --> 00:09:05,447
Catch 22 came out at the same time
as Robert Altman's film Mash.
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00:09:06,573 --> 00:09:07,798
Another war.
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00:09:08,220 --> 00:09:12,017
Army surgeons operating
on appalling injuries.
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00:09:12,042 --> 00:09:14,402
But Altman's approach
is innovative.
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00:09:14,427 --> 00:09:18,055
He fills the screen with actors,
mix them all up.
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00:09:18,081 --> 00:09:21,250
Records all their dialogue
at the same time.
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00:09:21,275 --> 00:09:25,734
Then mixes a complicated
sound track of overlapping dialogue.
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00:09:25,861 --> 00:09:28,013
The fact that they're
wearing masks here
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00:09:28,038 --> 00:09:31,739
means we can't see their lips
so he has even more freedom.
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00:09:32,684 --> 00:09:37,352
And though the situation is tragic,
the attitude is light hearted,
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00:09:37,378 --> 00:09:38,715
mocking even.
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00:09:38,775 --> 00:09:40,580
An upside down world.
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00:09:40,607 --> 00:09:43,429
Huxley, move out the way
because I'm looking around over there.
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00:09:43,455 --> 00:09:48,010
Baby we're going to see some stitches
like you've never saw before.
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00:09:48,035 --> 00:09:49,768
Attention, attention.
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00:09:49,794 --> 00:09:50,623
Okay, here she goes.
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00:09:50,649 --> 00:09:51,798
This is from
colonel Blake's office.
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00:09:51,823 --> 00:09:55,171
The American medical association
has just declared marijuana
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00:09:55,197 --> 00:09:56,209
a dangerous drug.
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00:09:56,234 --> 00:10:00,588
Despite earlier claims by some physicians
that it is no more harmful than alcohol,
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00:10:00,614 --> 00:10:02,792
this is not found to be the case.
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00:10:02,818 --> 00:10:03,856
That is all.
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00:10:04,308 --> 00:10:07,995
And because Altman
used zooms and long lenses,
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00:10:08,021 --> 00:10:10,912
actors weren't even sure
if they were on camera or not.
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00:10:20,981 --> 00:10:24,750
The satirical tone for such films
was set by buck Henry's adaptation
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00:10:24,775 --> 00:10:26,837
of the novel The Graduate.
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00:10:27,536 --> 00:10:32,959
It was a massive hit
around the world.
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00:10:32,959 --> 00:10:37,134
This student, Benjamin, floats
in the California blue swimming pool
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00:10:37,159 --> 00:10:39,383
of his bourgeois L.A. Parents.
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00:10:39,731 --> 00:10:45,197
A world of beer and boredom.
He's expressionless, inert.
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00:10:48,975 --> 00:10:52,891
Benjamin has an affair
with one of his parent's friends.
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00:11:03,288 --> 00:11:08,653
Well, my theory is
that what the great audience
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00:11:08,679 --> 00:11:11,737
of younger people recognized
in the film was:
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00:11:11,762 --> 00:11:16,621
Our generation's sense
of not being part of the generation
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00:11:16,648 --> 00:11:19,457
older than we were,
and a little bit lost,
189
00:11:20,351 --> 00:11:23,549
which was...
just about everyone who didn't know
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00:11:23,574 --> 00:11:28,226
they were going to become a doctor
and hoped they weren't going to Vietnam.
191
00:11:29,601 --> 00:11:31,362
We all were Benjamin.
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00:11:31,387 --> 00:11:34,419
Turman said, "I bought this book
because I am Benjamin,"
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00:11:34,445 --> 00:11:37,922
and Nichols said, "i am making this film
because I am Benjamin."
194
00:11:39,157 --> 00:11:43,982
Dustin Hoffman's performance played
on this everyman quality of Benjamin.
195
00:11:44,007 --> 00:11:47,853
He walks like a robot.
Dresses anonymously.
196
00:11:47,878 --> 00:11:51,127
Drinks beer and slumps
in front of the TV.
197
00:11:55,157 --> 00:11:59,136
A blank sheet that Buck Henry's
generation would understand.
198
00:11:59,161 --> 00:12:01,524
My generation
would understand it.
199
00:12:01,549 --> 00:12:07,336
My generation and my, yes,
I'll use the word, my class.
200
00:12:07,361 --> 00:12:10,243
But it managed
to go far beyond that, I think.
201
00:12:10,268 --> 00:12:15,111
He says, "what did you study?"
And she says, after a pause, "art."
202
00:12:15,151 --> 00:12:20,637
Which is, of course,
a stunner to him as it should be to us.
203
00:12:20,662 --> 00:12:24,340
That: "Oh my god,
there was an aesthetic here?
204
00:12:24,365 --> 00:12:31,178
An intellectual side?
A creative bone in this graveyard?"
205
00:12:31,203 --> 00:12:33,729
It's really interesting.
206
00:12:34,929 --> 00:12:36,449
What was your major?
207
00:12:40,317 --> 00:12:43,793
Benjamin, why are you asking me
all these questions?
208
00:12:43,819 --> 00:12:46,185
Because I'm interested,
Mrs. Robinson!
209
00:12:46,210 --> 00:12:48,994
Now what was
your major subject at college?
210
00:12:50,864 --> 00:12:52,976
Art.
Art?
211
00:12:55,516 --> 00:13:01,917
But I thought...
212
00:13:01,994 --> 00:13:05,497
I guess you kind of lost interest
in it over the years then.
213
00:13:06,853 --> 00:13:10,677
That whole sequence
of them in bed together
214
00:13:10,703 --> 00:13:14,257
is virtually lifted
from the book.
215
00:13:14,282 --> 00:13:19,830
And it's an interesting exercise
in the difference between reading something
216
00:13:19,856 --> 00:13:24,254
and looking at something,
because in the middle of it Mike said:
217
00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:27,787
"Well, you know it's fine,
but they're just lying there talking.
218
00:13:27,812 --> 00:13:29,725
We've got to do something."
219
00:13:29,751 --> 00:13:32,581
So, Sam O'Steen, the editor,
came up with the idea
220
00:13:32,606 --> 00:13:35,358
of turning the lights off and on
221
00:13:35,383 --> 00:13:42,224
to give a kind of pacing to the scene
that wasn't there just in the dialogue.
222
00:13:42,249 --> 00:13:45,420
And it was very nice.
223
00:13:45,445 --> 00:13:49,642
That's just a little lesson in filmmaking
that I hope will profit you
224
00:13:49,667 --> 00:13:51,302
and all the rest of us.
225
00:13:51,997 --> 00:13:54,122
Will you wait a minute please?
226
00:13:56,966 --> 00:13:59,001
Mrs. Robinson.
227
00:13:59,026 --> 00:14:03,756
Do you think we could say a few words
to each other first this time.
228
00:14:03,781 --> 00:14:06,413
I don't think we have
much to say to each other.
229
00:14:13,207 --> 00:14:16,588
As we've seen, Milos Forman
started making films
230
00:14:16,613 --> 00:14:21,190
in communist Czechoslovakia, like this one,
The Fireman's Ball.
231
00:14:21,215 --> 00:14:27,241
Dead pan, documentary-like,
making these fireman look clueless and funny.
232
00:14:28,408 --> 00:14:31,184
In America in the '70s,
Forman had to adjust
233
00:14:31,209 --> 00:14:33,545
his approach remarkably little.
234
00:14:34,231 --> 00:14:36,440
We're in a mental institution.
235
00:14:36,465 --> 00:14:39,357
Forman again shoots
with naturalistic light,
236
00:14:39,383 --> 00:14:41,759
close-ups to see
the actors' faces.
237
00:14:43,868 --> 00:14:50,249
It's just that I don't want anyone
to try and slip me saltpeter,
238
00:14:50,275 --> 00:14:52,221
do you know what I mean?
239
00:14:52,248 --> 00:14:53,530
It's alright, nurse Pilbow.
240
00:14:53,555 --> 00:14:57,666
If Mr. McMurphy doesn't want
to take his medication orally,
241
00:14:57,693 --> 00:15:00,854
I'm sure we can arrange
that he can have it some other way.
242
00:15:01,828 --> 00:15:06,216
Jack Nicholson isn't mentally ill,
he's just pretending to be.
243
00:15:06,241 --> 00:15:11,104
Another film where the world
of the story is upside down.
244
00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:16,428
After the satirists came
the dissident American filmmakers
245
00:15:16,453 --> 00:15:20,639
of the '70s
who challenged film style.
246
00:15:22,307 --> 00:15:25,630
The first of these radicals is
Dennis Hopper.
247
00:15:25,655 --> 00:15:28,614
His film, The last movie,
was Hopper's follow up
248
00:15:28,639 --> 00:15:31,487
to the massive success
of Easy rider.
249
00:15:31,512 --> 00:15:32,887
We're in Peru.
250
00:15:33,027 --> 00:15:35,601
An America film crew
is making a western.
251
00:15:35,627 --> 00:15:39,071
Hopper films this
as a making-of documentary,
252
00:15:39,096 --> 00:15:42,064
but this
is the actual movie story.
253
00:15:42,089 --> 00:15:46,445
Hopper, dressed in denim here,
plays a production manager on the film.
254
00:15:53,236 --> 00:15:57,735
The shoot finishes,
the crew leaves but Hopper stays on.
255
00:15:57,760 --> 00:16:00,715
Then remarkable things happen.
256
00:16:00,741 --> 00:16:04,857
The locals make icons
of the film equipment out of bamboo
257
00:16:04,883 --> 00:16:07,714
and treat these
like they're real.
258
00:16:07,739 --> 00:16:11,600
It's as if the film
was a kind of god that visited them.
259
00:16:11,625 --> 00:16:15,485
And because they didn't understand
that the punch-ups on set were fake,
260
00:16:15,511 --> 00:16:19,315
they recreate
them with real violence.
261
00:16:19,341 --> 00:16:21,246
Anarchy ensues.
262
00:16:21,271 --> 00:16:23,760
Hopper was drunk
for much of the shoot.
263
00:16:28,758 --> 00:16:31,847
The last movie was a
brilliant, daring hate letter
264
00:16:31,872 --> 00:16:36,363
to American film
and movie exploitation.
265
00:16:38,949 --> 00:16:43,442
But the stupid critics
called it a fiasco, and it bombed.
266
00:16:43,467 --> 00:16:46,218
Hopper said
to have cried every night.
267
00:16:49,782 --> 00:16:54,447
Robert Altman was as radical
as Hopper and, a year after Mash,
268
00:16:54,472 --> 00:16:57,501
he released this film
McCabe and Mrs. Miller,
269
00:16:57,526 --> 00:16:59,581
another anti-western.
270
00:17:00,430 --> 00:17:04,999
As in Mash,
Altman's camera roams, the lenses are long.
271
00:17:05,001 --> 00:17:06,846
The colors are muted.
272
00:17:06,848 --> 00:17:12,944
Julie Christie is a savvy madame who helps
a naïve, opportunist man to run a brothel.
273
00:17:13,837 --> 00:17:17,128
But they ultimately
fail in their aims.
274
00:17:17,130 --> 00:17:21,025
Unlike the John Ford films,
there are no heroes here.
275
00:17:21,028 --> 00:17:26,802
Just characters lost in the snow,
in Altman's low contrast imagery.
276
00:17:26,807 --> 00:17:30,526
Out of their depth
and uncertain about the world.
277
00:17:36,654 --> 00:17:41,609
Visual uncertainty to match
a '70s uncertainty
278
00:17:41,634 --> 00:17:44,787
about what American history
even means.
279
00:17:58,785 --> 00:18:04,026
This man, Francis Copolla,
started as a dissident.
280
00:18:04,051 --> 00:18:07,057
There was something
of Orson Welles about him.
281
00:18:07,082 --> 00:18:10,491
His film The godfather
is an assimilationist one,
282
00:18:10,516 --> 00:18:14,074
but its success allowed him
to direct something more radical.
283
00:18:16,336 --> 00:18:21,971
His film The conversation was about this:
The new type of sound equipment.
284
00:18:21,996 --> 00:18:27,567
A professional surveillance expert is in
his lair, surrounded by the new equipment,
285
00:18:27,593 --> 00:18:31,552
that allows him
to eavesdrop on things far away.
286
00:18:31,577 --> 00:18:35,771
He accidentally records
a conversation between apparent lovers.
287
00:18:35,860 --> 00:18:38,448
He can't see them
but Copolla shows us them,
288
00:18:38,473 --> 00:18:44,839
filmed in long lens, the visual equivalent
of the man's distance microphone.
289
00:18:48,310 --> 00:18:51,953
The man becomes obsessed
with a mystery on the tape.
290
00:18:51,979 --> 00:18:55,389
In doing so he almost
has a breakdown.
291
00:18:56,944 --> 00:19:00,255
He'd kill us
if he got the chance.
292
00:19:02,911 --> 00:19:06,379
Coppola's film was
about getting so lost in the fragments
293
00:19:06,404 --> 00:19:10,918
of other people's behaviors
that your own life dissolves.
294
00:19:16,538 --> 00:19:21,139
In 1970, Coppola met a passionate,
nervy young filmmaker
295
00:19:21,164 --> 00:19:23,709
at the Sorrento film festival
in Italy.
296
00:19:25,422 --> 00:19:30,512
Not nearly as radical as Hopper
or Altman, nor as Wellesian as Copolla.
297
00:19:30,537 --> 00:19:36,809
Martin Scorsese, our fourth '70s dissident,
became the most respected of them all.
298
00:19:37,643 --> 00:19:41,173
In a single phrase, he expressed
more clearly than anyone
299
00:19:41,198 --> 00:19:43,337
the aims of new Hollywood.
300
00:19:44,427 --> 00:19:48,934
He said: "We were fighting
to open up the form."
301
00:19:51,076 --> 00:19:55,971
Scorsese was brought up on these streets
in New York City's little Italy.
302
00:19:55,996 --> 00:19:59,824
He was often unwell as a child
so found himself observing
303
00:19:59,849 --> 00:20:03,234
the life of the streets
rather than participating in them.
304
00:20:06,273 --> 00:20:10,621
His first great film
Mean Streets, is about those streets.
305
00:20:11,501 --> 00:20:16,489
Scorsese said of a scene like this,
filmed in a church with a tracking camera:
306
00:20:16,729 --> 00:20:20,147
"The whole idea was
to make a story of a modern Saint
307
00:20:20,173 --> 00:20:25,041
in his own society,
but his society happens to be gangsters."
308
00:20:25,333 --> 00:20:27,850
It's all bullshit
except the pain, right?
309
00:20:28,161 --> 00:20:34,383
As if to prove his desire for sainthood,
its main character holds his finger in a flame.
310
00:20:34,409 --> 00:20:37,132
Confessing his sins.
311
00:20:39,408 --> 00:20:43,880
In 1976, Scorsese filmed
a screenplay about a Vietnam veteran
312
00:20:43,906 --> 00:20:46,688
driving around New York
in a taxi.
313
00:20:52,319 --> 00:20:56,566
Filmed in slow motion,
the taxi glided through the steamy night,
314
00:20:56,591 --> 00:20:58,151
like an iron coffin.
315
00:20:58,597 --> 00:21:01,979
The world of the story was
New York's hell's kitchen.
316
00:21:02,005 --> 00:21:04,105
Junkies, porno theatres.
317
00:21:04,131 --> 00:21:06,755
This world disgusted
the taxi driver.
318
00:21:06,781 --> 00:21:09,967
The film was written by Paul
Schrader who drank heavily
319
00:21:09,992 --> 00:21:13,952
like his main character Travis Bickle,
who lived in his car,
320
00:21:13,978 --> 00:21:17,829
whose self-obsession
was festering like Bickle's.
321
00:21:17,918 --> 00:21:23,662
The motivator behind
Taxi Driver was existentialism.
322
00:21:23,664 --> 00:21:29,706
So the two things
that I re-read just before writing
323
00:21:29,731 --> 00:21:36,451
it were "Nausea" by Sartre
and "L'étranger" by Camus.
324
00:21:37,037 --> 00:21:40,093
And that's
what I was trying to do.
325
00:21:40,095 --> 00:21:44,458
I was trying to do that character
in an American context.
326
00:21:44,463 --> 00:21:47,678
Bickle's world
is one of booze and porn.
327
00:21:47,703 --> 00:21:50,306
He walks around
in the blue light of dawn.
328
00:21:50,308 --> 00:21:52,543
He finds it painful to be alive.
329
00:21:57,298 --> 00:22:01,672
Here, Bickle is making a phone call
to a woman he's obsessed by.
330
00:22:02,711 --> 00:22:08,413
Scorsese has the camera track away
from Bickle, almost in embarrassment.
331
00:22:08,419 --> 00:22:11,736
He later explained that it was
too painful to watch the scene.
332
00:22:13,478 --> 00:22:15,526
This is wholly modern.
333
00:22:19,424 --> 00:22:23,132
Its emotional wisdom is close
to the way that Mizoguchi
334
00:22:23,157 --> 00:22:28,964
kept his camera away from raw emotion,
not showing his characters' faces.
335
00:22:30,649 --> 00:22:33,669
Taxi driver
was a huge success.
336
00:22:33,694 --> 00:22:37,812
The new directors' storming
of the Hollywood citadel seemed to be easy.
337
00:22:38,593 --> 00:22:41,121
They were pushing
on an open door.
338
00:22:42,174 --> 00:22:46,281
And so Scorsese, De Niro,
and Schrader pushed harder.
339
00:22:48,955 --> 00:22:52,593
At this table in Musso
and Frank's restaurant in Hollywood,
340
00:22:52,619 --> 00:22:56,211
where Charlie Chaplin
and Douglas Fairbanks used to eat,
341
00:22:56,236 --> 00:22:59,751
De Niro told Scorsese
that he'd be interested
342
00:22:59,797 --> 00:23:03,352
in acting in a film about
a boxer called Jake Lamotta.
343
00:23:03,685 --> 00:23:07,428
The resulting film, Raging Bull,
written by Schrader,
344
00:23:07,453 --> 00:23:10,713
was about
this self-destructive man.
345
00:23:11,407 --> 00:23:15,930
A catholic boxer on a downward slope
who reaches rock bottom
346
00:23:15,955 --> 00:23:18,120
before finding redemption.
347
00:23:18,146 --> 00:23:23,356
This scene was shot documentary style,
long lenses, flat lighting and staging.
348
00:23:23,381 --> 00:23:25,721
It was visually influenced
by the documentary
349
00:23:25,746 --> 00:23:29,506
Scorsese had made about his parents,
Italianamerican.
350
00:23:30,601 --> 00:23:35,315
The same type of shot, sofa,
table lamps, and domesticity.
351
00:23:41,224 --> 00:23:45,416
The boxing scenes were from
another stylistic universe.
352
00:23:45,441 --> 00:23:51,292
Slow motion shots, like bloody statutes
of Christ in a baroque cathedral one minute.
353
00:23:54,822 --> 00:24:00,504
Then fast cutting, wide angle lenses
and tracking like Orson Welles the next.
354
00:24:06,693 --> 00:24:08,415
Tell me why.
355
00:24:08,441 --> 00:24:13,223
I could have been somebody,
instead of a bum, which is what I am.
356
00:24:13,248 --> 00:24:15,220
Let's face it.
357
00:24:15,246 --> 00:24:16,362
It was you, Charlie
358
00:24:16,608 --> 00:24:19,807
At the end, the boxer recites
Marlon Brando's lines
359
00:24:19,832 --> 00:24:23,712
in On the waterfront,
the most reflective moment in the film.
360
00:24:24,111 --> 00:24:25,740
You got about five minutes.
361
00:24:25,765 --> 00:24:26,579
Okay.
362
00:24:26,604 --> 00:24:27,246
Do you need anything?
363
00:24:27,272 --> 00:24:27,947
Nah.
364
00:24:27,972 --> 00:24:30,148
Are you sure?
365
00:24:30,174 --> 00:24:31,041
I'm sure.
366
00:24:31,066 --> 00:24:34,142
Never before had
such explicit Italian Catholicism
367
00:24:34,167 --> 00:24:36,452
been the theme
of an American film.
368
00:24:36,953 --> 00:24:40,400
Ethnicity and the specifics of ghetto life
369
00:24:40,425 --> 00:24:44,589
were one of the things
that romantic cinema had screened out.
370
00:24:45,564 --> 00:24:49,067
You could feel Scorsese's
very nervous system in his films
371
00:24:49,093 --> 00:24:52,443
and his city's metabolic rate.
372
00:24:56,122 --> 00:24:59,630
The existential dilemma, you know:
"Should I exist?"
373
00:24:59,655 --> 00:25:10,228
And, you know,
the post-modern answer is, you know...
374
00:25:10,254 --> 00:25:15,065
to put quotes around "exist" and the
meaning of that. You know what I mean?
375
00:25:15,091 --> 00:25:23,931
And as a result, you know, we've lived
in a kind of mash-up world, progressively,
376
00:25:23,956 --> 00:25:32,650
where a lot of things that
we've thought were...
377
00:25:32,676 --> 00:25:36,158
Were the standards,
the artistic standards.
378
00:25:36,184 --> 00:25:40,402
A certain kind of harmony
a certain kind of balance,
379
00:25:40,428 --> 00:25:44,191
a certain kind of beauty, you know,
the concept of beauty.
380
00:25:44,216 --> 00:25:49,454
And once you get
in that post-modern frame of mind,
381
00:25:49,479 --> 00:25:55,075
once you start talking about meta-cinema
there really is no inner...
382
00:25:55,100 --> 00:25:56,848
there is no center anymore.
383
00:25:56,873 --> 00:26:03,251
And so, it's just a collection.
A pastiche.
384
00:26:04,289 --> 00:26:08,317
When Paul Schrader came to direct,
he was a dissident too,
385
00:26:08,342 --> 00:26:12,204
but his particular rebellion took
the form of, of all things,
386
00:26:12,229 --> 00:26:15,535
a fascination with
religious grace.
387
00:26:17,741 --> 00:26:21,442
Schrader's film American gigolo,
is about a male prostitute,
388
00:26:21,467 --> 00:26:25,214
floating through the world,
'80s red lighting.
389
00:26:29,224 --> 00:26:32,816
His masterpiece Light sleeper
is about a drug dealer,
390
00:26:32,841 --> 00:26:37,211
also floating, peeping
at the world in night-time blue.
391
00:26:37,849 --> 00:26:40,400
Each man is spiritually empty.
392
00:26:40,403 --> 00:26:45,500
In both films, Schrader wanted to show
their rescue from this emptiness.
393
00:26:46,754 --> 00:26:50,787
How did he do this?
His solution was astonishing.
394
00:26:51,929 --> 00:26:56,119
He borrowed this great ending,
from Robert Bresson's film Pickpocket,
395
00:26:56,144 --> 00:26:59,685
where a man in prison is visited
by a woman, and somehow,
396
00:26:59,710 --> 00:27:04,854
her touch represents the incursion
of heavenly grace into the world.
397
00:27:08,644 --> 00:27:10,883
It's taken me so long
to come to you.
398
00:27:13,354 --> 00:27:17,104
In American gigolo the male prostitute
is also in prison,
399
00:27:17,129 --> 00:27:21,791
and again finds grace through
a woman in exactly the same way.
400
00:27:37,545 --> 00:27:42,408
And in the ending of Light sleeper,
the drug dealer has a similar revelation.
401
00:27:42,433 --> 00:27:46,359
Again shot with
the exact same camera angles.
402
00:27:50,997 --> 00:27:56,913
American gigolo was
a very dissimilar film to Pickpocket.
403
00:27:56,938 --> 00:28:01,213
This was all a film
about a superficial person
404
00:28:01,239 --> 00:28:04,244
and surfaces and glamour.
405
00:28:04,296 --> 00:28:10,966
And, you know, kind of perversely
I took the ending of Pickpocket
406
00:28:10,992 --> 00:28:17,425
and put it on "American gigolo" even though
I didn't think it was that kind of film.
407
00:28:17,450 --> 00:28:30,846
And so it's really a kind
of a perverse, almost an in-joke kind...
408
00:28:30,872 --> 00:28:34,647
And because, you know, the reference
doesn't really mean anything.
409
00:28:34,673 --> 00:28:36,273
Really.
410
00:28:36,298 --> 00:28:44,035
And so then, some years later I was writing
another one of these one-character stories
411
00:28:44,061 --> 00:28:51,613
and this one was about
a middle-aged drug dealer, "Light sleeper."
412
00:28:51,638 --> 00:28:54,300
And I was writing that and I said,
"now this is the one
413
00:28:54,325 --> 00:28:56,193
I should have put
the Pickpocket ending on!
414
00:28:56,218 --> 00:28:58,378
I put it on the wrong film!
415
00:28:58,403 --> 00:29:02,912
So, I'll put it on this one,
this is where it belongs."
416
00:29:03,976 --> 00:29:10,716
I did four films that are sort of alike
and then they're double bookends.
417
00:29:10,742 --> 00:29:16,047
So there's Taxi driver,
which is bookended by Light sleeper,
418
00:29:16,072 --> 00:29:20,513
And American gigolo,
which is bookended by The Walker.
419
00:29:20,539 --> 00:29:23,995
"Taxi driver" and "Light sleeper"
is you have:
420
00:29:24,021 --> 00:29:26,035
one's in the front seat,
one's in the back seat.
421
00:29:26,060 --> 00:29:29,891
And Gigolo and Walker is:
422
00:29:29,916 --> 00:29:32,025
one's in the closet and one's not.
423
00:29:35,655 --> 00:29:44,489
You know, frankly I kind of miss,
you know, the existential cinema
424
00:29:44,515 --> 00:29:48,028
and I wish
there could be more of it.
425
00:29:48,053 --> 00:29:50,606
On the other hand,
sometimes you look at it and you say,
426
00:29:50,632 --> 00:29:54,416
"Oh god, this feels old." You know?
"God, this feels old."
427
00:29:55,133 --> 00:29:58,698
Hopper, Altman, Copolla,
Scorsese, Schrader.
428
00:29:58,723 --> 00:30:03,556
Five brilliant, white, male dissidents
of Christian heritage,
429
00:30:03,581 --> 00:30:06,592
trying to open up
the form of American film
430
00:30:06,617 --> 00:30:09,020
in the heyday of the 1970s.
431
00:30:11,646 --> 00:30:15,196
The story of the movies in the '70s
was full of rebels,
432
00:30:15,221 --> 00:30:20,496
but then came this man: Charles Burnett,
a different kind of outsider.
433
00:30:21,626 --> 00:30:25,610
Burnett made one of the greatest films
of the '70s, Killer of sheep,
434
00:30:25,636 --> 00:30:28,203
but even how he got
into movies is revealing.
435
00:30:28,211 --> 00:30:32,155
There were part of us
who got into films as a reaction
436
00:30:32,180 --> 00:30:34,799
to some of what Hollywood
was making, all the stereo types
437
00:30:34,824 --> 00:30:36,213
and things like that, you know?
438
00:30:36,238 --> 00:30:39,887
We had debates about that all the time,
we had discussions all the time
439
00:30:39,912 --> 00:30:43,667
about what is a black film
and what is our responsibility
440
00:30:43,692 --> 00:30:44,777
and things like that.
441
00:30:45,356 --> 00:30:49,511
One of the founding films in America
was this famously racist one,
442
00:30:49,536 --> 00:30:53,068
The birth of a nation,
here black senators
443
00:30:53,093 --> 00:30:55,043
were portrayed as drunks.
444
00:30:56,164 --> 00:31:00,671
It took nearly 60 years before
black filmmakers like Gordon Parks
445
00:31:00,697 --> 00:31:04,509
and Charles Burnett got
to make good feature films.
446
00:31:06,194 --> 00:31:08,189
The delay was shameful.
447
00:31:09,658 --> 00:31:13,704
Even liberal places like this,
UCLA's film school,
448
00:31:13,729 --> 00:31:18,107
played an ambiguous role in the emergence
of black cinema in America.
449
00:31:18,357 --> 00:31:21,213
UCLA in the film department
didn't show any black films at all.
450
00:31:21,238 --> 00:31:24,769
Any African films or anything like that,
they were all American films
451
00:31:24,795 --> 00:31:26,686
and European films
and things like that, you know?
452
00:31:28,076 --> 00:31:30,479
Not even from North Africa
or any place.
453
00:31:30,505 --> 00:31:33,108
It was only until this
person by the name of...
454
00:31:33,134 --> 00:31:35,762
a teacher by the name of
Elyseo Taylor came in,
455
00:31:35,788 --> 00:31:38,114
and Elyseo Taylor was the
first black teacher, I think,
456
00:31:38,139 --> 00:31:40,221
at the film department at UCLA.
457
00:31:40,248 --> 00:31:41,986
And he was very radical
and outspoken.
458
00:31:42,011 --> 00:31:46,145
And he introduced third world cinema
at UCLA and, you know,
459
00:31:46,171 --> 00:31:49,267
Latin American cinema,
all this kind of stuff, you know.
460
00:31:49,292 --> 00:31:54,760
And then he brought in Ousmane Sembene
and people like that, you know?
461
00:31:54,785 --> 00:31:58,976
And so we had to see in person and then
we’ve seen him screen African films, you know?
462
00:31:59,001 --> 00:32:02,758
That was the first time and it was
a mind-blowing experience, you know?
463
00:32:02,784 --> 00:32:07,168
And things... And so at that point
it was very, you know, in early '70s,
464
00:32:07,194 --> 00:32:10,610
that I got a chance
to experience, you know, African film.
465
00:32:10,635 --> 00:32:12,321
"Why was it mind-blowing?"
466
00:32:15,156 --> 00:32:17,924
It's like, all those films,
like, third world cinema,
467
00:32:17,949 --> 00:32:20,360
and everything,
because they spoke to us. You know?
468
00:32:20,385 --> 00:32:24,172
It wasn't... I mean...
It was like the same thing when I saw Ozu
469
00:32:24,198 --> 00:32:25,821
and people
like that, you know, Kurosawa?
470
00:32:25,847 --> 00:32:29,702
You saw this all this propaganda
about people. You know?
471
00:32:29,727 --> 00:32:32,678
And this myth that was created about,
as though they weren't human.
472
00:32:32,704 --> 00:32:37,377
And, you know, it wasn't until
I saw these films that, you know,
473
00:32:37,403 --> 00:32:40,785
it's like you realize
that your neighbor exists.
474
00:32:40,810 --> 00:32:42,558
That there's a person, you know?
475
00:32:42,584 --> 00:32:48,127
That, you know, like,
you've been robbed of a reality.
476
00:32:48,152 --> 00:32:53,420
Part of your reality
had been distorted and compromised.
477
00:32:53,445 --> 00:32:54,729
You'd been brainwashed.
478
00:32:55,802 --> 00:32:59,362
People telling their stories
outside this formula. You know?
479
00:32:59,364 --> 00:33:04,023
And like, they were real people,
live people and stories that were,
480
00:33:04,049 --> 00:33:09,109
you know, about how do you
live in post-colonial society?
481
00:33:09,135 --> 00:33:11,157
And on the basis of stuff
like that, you know?
482
00:33:11,159 --> 00:33:16,709
Which in a way we were suffering under,
you know, in a certain way. You know?
483
00:33:16,734 --> 00:33:21,682
And just daily life of a person,
like in Ozu and things like that, you know?
484
00:33:21,708 --> 00:33:24,768
And just make drama out of that.
485
00:33:26,018 --> 00:33:31,740
In 1977, here in Watts and Compton in L.A.,
Charles Burnett took these ideas
486
00:33:31,740 --> 00:33:34,835
and made a masterpiece,
Killer of sheep.
487
00:33:35,833 --> 00:33:40,292
I had looked at a lot of photographic books
and paintings and stuff like that.
488
00:33:40,318 --> 00:33:43,373
And I was really aware of compositions from
a lot of these photo-journalist things,
489
00:33:43,398 --> 00:33:45,959
but I wanted to tell it
from the kids point of view mostly,
490
00:33:45,984 --> 00:33:48,915
because I didn't want it
to look Hollywood at all, you know?
491
00:33:55,229 --> 00:34:00,422
Burnett filmed in black and white,
often shooting details of kids play,
492
00:34:00,448 --> 00:34:05,214
and used great black music,
like Paul Robeson here.
493
00:34:15,184 --> 00:34:19,057
As a kid I saw things
that I wasn't satisfied with
494
00:34:19,082 --> 00:34:22,041
and putting in the school system
and things like that
495
00:34:22,066 --> 00:34:24,717
because I thought
it just killed a lot of kids, you know?
496
00:34:24,742 --> 00:34:29,309
The whole system, and I wanted
to write about it and make films about it.
497
00:34:45,319 --> 00:34:48,017
So the only thing I'd do,
I would put a narrative together
498
00:34:48,042 --> 00:34:50,756
from all these incidences
that I have seen and experienced.
499
00:34:50,782 --> 00:34:52,829
And let it comment on itself,
you know?
500
00:34:52,854 --> 00:34:55,787
But I was looking at the poetic part
of what I saw,
501
00:34:55,813 --> 00:34:58,661
the oddities and the absurdities
and things like that.
502
00:34:58,686 --> 00:35:02,720
But there were a lot of poetic moments
in the community where I grew up in.
503
00:35:10,157 --> 00:35:14,753
Where black consciousness was a belated,
exciting new dissident force
504
00:35:14,778 --> 00:35:16,921
in American film of the '70s,
505
00:35:16,947 --> 00:35:20,930
another innovation came
from a more surprising direction.
506
00:35:20,955 --> 00:35:25,202
As the first movie moguls were Jewish,
and as some of the greatest directors,
507
00:35:25,227 --> 00:35:28,509
like Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder
were Jewish,
508
00:35:28,534 --> 00:35:31,982
you'd think that Jewishness
would be central to American film.
509
00:35:33,482 --> 00:35:36,827
But Jewish characters and situations
were more likely to be found
510
00:35:36,852 --> 00:35:39,541
around the edges of stories.
511
00:35:39,566 --> 00:35:42,668
Like here in
The shop around the corner.
512
00:35:42,694 --> 00:35:48,198
The woman is a central character,
charming, white Anglo Saxon protestant.
513
00:35:48,223 --> 00:35:51,503
Felix Bressart on the left,
who fled the Nazis,
514
00:35:51,528 --> 00:35:55,160
is not the hero of the piece,
but his logic and humor
515
00:35:55,185 --> 00:35:56,618
provide the film's beauty.
516
00:35:56,838 --> 00:35:58,244
Oh, then let's drop
the whole thing.
517
00:35:58,269 --> 00:36:01,851
You see, I thought of giving it
to my wife's uncle for Christmas.
518
00:36:01,876 --> 00:36:03,708
Oh, I'm so sorry, can't you
give him something else?
519
00:36:03,733 --> 00:36:06,004
It's not so easy.
520
00:36:06,029 --> 00:36:08,197
You see, I don't like him.
521
00:36:08,222 --> 00:36:12,294
I hate to spend a nickel on him,
and still I must give him a present.
522
00:36:12,328 --> 00:36:15,216
So I thought, if I have to give
him a present, at least give him
523
00:36:15,242 --> 00:36:17,177
something he won't enjoy.
524
00:36:17,202 --> 00:36:19,780
The box costs $2.29,
that's a lot of money,
525
00:36:19,805 --> 00:36:23,780
but it's worth it to ruin
my wife's uncle's Christmas.
526
00:36:24,945 --> 00:36:29,634
But then this man came along:
Woody Allen!
527
00:36:29,659 --> 00:36:32,015
Here he's Alvie in Annie Hall.
528
00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:35,162
He's an intellectual,
explicitly Jewish character
529
00:36:35,187 --> 00:36:38,693
at the center of the frame,
at the center of the film,
530
00:36:38,718 --> 00:36:40,555
talking directly to camera.
531
00:36:41,005 --> 00:36:44,053
He's an Ingmar Bergman fan
and about as far away
532
00:36:44,078 --> 00:36:46,735
from Hollywood beefcake
as you can get,
533
00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:52,055
yet he falls in love with a mid-western girl,
Diane Keaton's Annie hall.
534
00:36:52,198 --> 00:36:53,417
I can't put it in the pot!
535
00:36:53,443 --> 00:36:54,951
I can't put a live thing
in hot water!
536
00:36:54,977 --> 00:36:55,352
Let me do it.
537
00:36:55,378 --> 00:36:56,037
What did you think
we were gonna do?
538
00:36:56,063 --> 00:36:57,435
Take him to the movies?
539
00:36:57,437 --> 00:37:00,415
Oh good, Alvie, oh thank you!
Okay, it's in.
540
00:37:00,696 --> 00:37:03,603
The joke was that New York Jewishness
is alien to just about everywhere
541
00:37:03,629 --> 00:37:06,188
except New York itself.
542
00:37:06,214 --> 00:37:07,160
I can't get it out.
543
00:37:07,186 --> 00:37:08,260
This thing's heavy
544
00:37:08,437 --> 00:37:12,569
In this scene Annie and Alvie
are trying to cook lobsters.
545
00:37:12,594 --> 00:37:16,529
Cooking isn't very New York
and boiling lobsters certainly isn't.
546
00:37:17,118 --> 00:37:19,191
We should have gotten steaks
'cause they don't have legs.
547
00:37:19,216 --> 00:37:20,153
They don't run around.
548
00:37:20,179 --> 00:37:22,373
Great, great, god!
Jesus!
549
00:37:22,399 --> 00:37:22,992
Alright, alright
550
00:37:23,018 --> 00:37:25,865
The scene's a single shot,
there's no cut.
551
00:37:25,890 --> 00:37:28,446
The kitchen light
is hit by mistake.
552
00:37:29,542 --> 00:37:32,698
One of the funniest moment
in American cinema.
553
00:37:32,723 --> 00:37:34,930
One more, Alvie, please?
One more.
554
00:37:37,753 --> 00:37:42,021
Chaplin played the lead role
in his films too, and Annie Hall
555
00:37:42,046 --> 00:37:45,535
is the offspring of Charlie Chaplin's film
City Lights.
556
00:37:46,765 --> 00:37:51,843
Chaplin is the butt of his own jokes too,
but makes a blind girl see.
557
00:37:53,055 --> 00:37:55,816
Allen makes the woman
believe in herself.
558
00:37:56,885 --> 00:38:00,206
He does this montage to show
her magic moments.
559
00:38:01,250 --> 00:38:03,971
Both are Pygmalion myths.
560
00:38:03,973 --> 00:38:06,677
Brilliant films that
nonetheless reminded us
561
00:38:06,702 --> 00:38:10,698
of how few women were
themselves making films in America.
562
00:38:11,999 --> 00:38:15,965
In the late '70s, Allen went
from the freeform shooting of Annie Hall
563
00:38:15,990 --> 00:38:20,822
to the compositional rigor
of films like this one, Manhattan.
564
00:38:21,263 --> 00:38:24,415
A city symphony
if ever there was one.
565
00:38:26,818 --> 00:38:30,695
Widescreen images in love
with the built world.
566
00:38:31,082 --> 00:38:35,790
Again Allen's Jewish character
is at the center of the story.
567
00:38:47,347 --> 00:38:51,845
Hopper, Altman, Copolla, Scorsese,
Schrader, Parks, Burnett,
568
00:38:51,870 --> 00:38:57,885
and Allen were all, in some way,
against old style Hollywood.
569
00:38:59,342 --> 00:39:01,915
They were about
the modern truths.
570
00:39:02,712 --> 00:39:04,889
About people and places.
571
00:39:05,526 --> 00:39:08,185
An article in the New Yorker magazine said,
572
00:39:08,210 --> 00:39:11,614
"our recent films have
been about self-hatred.
573
00:39:11,639 --> 00:39:15,776
There's been no room
for decency or nobility."
574
00:39:16,653 --> 00:39:20,701
But a third set of American filmmakers
were less against nobility,
575
00:39:20,727 --> 00:39:22,913
or Hollywood, or romance.
576
00:39:23,991 --> 00:39:27,308
These were the assimilationists.
577
00:39:31,941 --> 00:39:34,560
Take this man,
Peter Bogdanovich.
578
00:39:34,585 --> 00:39:36,812
Passionate film historian.
579
00:39:36,838 --> 00:39:39,522
Friend of Orson Welles
and John Ford.
580
00:39:40,068 --> 00:39:43,831
There's no way he could be
totally against the old guard.
581
00:39:44,571 --> 00:39:48,772
This movie shows
how he mixed old and new.
582
00:39:48,797 --> 00:39:53,972
We're in an old Texan town.
Young people are driving at night.
583
00:39:53,997 --> 00:39:56,926
Bogdanovich uses
old movie style.
584
00:39:56,951 --> 00:40:00,737
Black and white,
conventional reverse angle editing.
585
00:40:00,762 --> 00:40:05,701
They meet Ben Johnson,
a regular actor in old John Ford movies,
586
00:40:05,727 --> 00:40:09,453
who plays Sam the Lion,
a decent, heroic man.
587
00:40:10,306 --> 00:40:12,232
Country music plays.
588
00:40:13,024 --> 00:40:15,906
Need any money?
No, we've got plenty.
589
00:40:15,931 --> 00:40:20,032
Well you better take some
for some insurance.
590
00:40:20,057 --> 00:40:23,620
Take money below that border,
it sort of melts sometimes.
591
00:40:23,645 --> 00:40:25,656
Thanks Sam.
592
00:40:25,681 --> 00:40:28,350
And try not to drink too much
of that bogey water.
593
00:40:28,376 --> 00:40:33,488
At first look this could be a John Ford
western like My darling Clementine"
594
00:40:33,513 --> 00:40:34,987
But then look what happens.
595
00:40:37,586 --> 00:40:43,112
This woman, played by Cloris Leachman,
is agonizingly lonely.
596
00:40:43,137 --> 00:40:47,024
She's been having an affair
with Timothy Bottoms, but here,
597
00:40:47,049 --> 00:40:49,829
at the end of the film,
has found out that
598
00:40:49,854 --> 00:40:52,651
he's dumped her for
the local beauty.
599
00:40:55,247 --> 00:40:58,463
He's too inarticulate even
to apologize.
600
00:40:58,488 --> 00:41:03,401
Never you mind, honey.
Never you mind.
601
00:41:06,277 --> 00:41:12,803
Bogdanovich and his creative partner
Polly Platt have Leachman do the forgiving.
602
00:41:12,828 --> 00:41:18,247
Then, a slow 16 second dissolve,
as long as the longest dissolve
603
00:41:18,273 --> 00:41:23,574
that Orson Welles ever used.
604
00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:27,055
And we're tracking and panning
in the town.
605
00:41:27,080 --> 00:41:31,004
A ghost town
with all idealism gone.
606
00:41:31,029 --> 00:41:33,415
A rotten place to live.
607
00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:37,499
The camera pans round to show
a closed-down movie theatre,
608
00:41:37,524 --> 00:41:41,016
where romantic films
once were shown.
609
00:42:00,688 --> 00:42:02,406
The American assimilationists
610
00:42:02,431 --> 00:42:05,382
weren't as interested
in opening up the form,
611
00:42:05,407 --> 00:42:08,271
as restoring its power
by applying it
612
00:42:08,297 --> 00:42:11,747
to edgier, more
thoughtful content.
613
00:42:12,784 --> 00:42:17,001
They worked in the clear light
of the new day of '70s cinema.
614
00:42:17,026 --> 00:42:20,970
Their films were
spatially clear but tense.
615
00:42:25,117 --> 00:42:29,443
Almost all their central characters
were male,
616
00:42:29,468 --> 00:42:32,786
never more so than in the films of the
assimilationist director
617
00:42:32,811 --> 00:42:36,704
of this scene from The wild bunch,
Sam Peckinpah.
618
00:42:37,346 --> 00:42:41,729
Peckinpah took and stretched
Sergio Leone's Neo-realist idea
619
00:42:41,754 --> 00:42:45,173
of extending time,
to slow down a scene.
620
00:42:46,738 --> 00:42:51,321
Doing so revealed the scene's
constituent agony and beauty.
621
00:42:52,793 --> 00:42:56,530
His beautiful widescreen film
Pat Garret and Billy the kid,"
622
00:42:56,555 --> 00:43:01,921
shows how torn Peckinpah was,
by the mid-'70s, about American history.
623
00:43:09,987 --> 00:43:13,718
The film's set at the end
of the 1800s.
624
00:43:13,743 --> 00:43:16,584
The Wild West
has been commercialized.
625
00:43:16,609 --> 00:43:19,791
Idealism has long flowed
down the river.
626
00:43:24,422 --> 00:43:30,311
Here, outlaw-turned-sheriff,
Pat Garrett, sees a family drifting by.
627
00:43:30,336 --> 00:43:34,527
Pointlessly, inevitably,
the father and Garrett end up
628
00:43:34,552 --> 00:43:37,514
pointing their guns
at each other.
629
00:43:39,176 --> 00:43:42,386
The macho west,
the beautiful west.
630
00:43:44,182 --> 00:43:48,717
Cattle barons have hired Pat Garrett
to kill his former friend,
631
00:43:48,742 --> 00:43:50,638
the outlaw Billy the kid.
632
00:43:51,038 --> 00:43:54,259
Both are part of the past,
ghosts.
633
00:43:55,373 --> 00:43:57,609
When Garret finally kills Billy,
634
00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:09,257
he quickly shoots
himself in the mirror.
635
00:44:09,283 --> 00:44:11,821
Something Peckinpah once did.
636
00:44:12,475 --> 00:44:14,926
It's as if Garrett
couldn't face himself.
637
00:44:14,928 --> 00:44:17,433
The void within, the shame.
638
00:44:19,190 --> 00:44:22,885
Just before Garrett kills Billy,
he meets this coffin maker,
639
00:44:22,910 --> 00:44:26,881
who's played by Peckinpah himself,
in half-light,
640
00:44:26,907 --> 00:44:31,680
as if he's been there all the time,
like Garret's conscience.
641
00:44:33,876 --> 00:44:35,356
Go on, get it over with.
642
00:44:36,164 --> 00:44:40,521
Peckinpah hated producers and was
as temperamentally against the system
643
00:44:40,547 --> 00:44:44,505
as Erich Von Stroheim
was in silent days.
644
00:44:47,629 --> 00:44:51,368
Peckinpah was too romantic
to detest the myth of the west,
645
00:44:51,394 --> 00:44:54,837
and the assimilationist director
of our next film, Badlands,
646
00:44:54,862 --> 00:44:58,811
was too romantic to detest
the myth of the outsider.
647
00:45:01,304 --> 00:45:06,343
A young man with James Dean hair
and '50s denims.
648
00:45:08,464 --> 00:45:10,252
His young girlfriend.
649
00:45:10,277 --> 00:45:12,388
Asleep like a child.
650
00:45:12,413 --> 00:45:15,416
He climbs a tree,
drops her an egg.
651
00:45:15,441 --> 00:45:18,486
They're like Adam and Eve
in the garden of Eden.
652
00:45:18,511 --> 00:45:20,762
But they play war games.
653
00:45:20,787 --> 00:45:24,513
It's like he's in Vietnam.
654
00:45:24,984 --> 00:45:27,748
He gave me lectures on how a gun works,
how to take it apart...
655
00:45:27,774 --> 00:45:29,999
This actor, Martin Sheen,
would later star
656
00:45:30,025 --> 00:45:34,034
in the most operatic Vietnam film,
Apocalypse now.
657
00:45:34,664 --> 00:45:38,250
These characters are even
more damaged than James Dean.
658
00:45:38,275 --> 00:45:41,539
They're so needy,
they're almost mentally ill.
659
00:45:42,642 --> 00:45:45,389
The film was made by one
of the most reclusive figures
660
00:45:45,415 --> 00:45:48,398
in film history,
Terrence Malick.
661
00:45:48,423 --> 00:45:51,612
Malick studied philosophy
and it shows.
662
00:45:53,865 --> 00:45:58,102
His follow up to Badlands
was this one, Days of heaven.
663
00:45:58,127 --> 00:46:02,147
We're on a Texan estate,
a golden world.
664
00:46:02,172 --> 00:46:03,255
The camera flows.
665
00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:05,600
What are you talking about?
That's not fair!
666
00:46:05,626 --> 00:46:07,299
Then leave, you're fired.
667
00:46:07,324 --> 00:46:11,597
Cinematographer Néstor Almendros
attached the camera to his own body
668
00:46:11,623 --> 00:46:15,428
with a cantilevered brace
called a panaglide.
669
00:46:15,453 --> 00:46:18,049
This was the first time
this was done.
670
00:46:18,074 --> 00:46:21,136
Panaglides would soon evolve
into steadicams
671
00:46:21,161 --> 00:46:25,836
which gave a floating feeling
to much of cinema of the '80s and since.
672
00:46:27,561 --> 00:46:31,991
One of the main characters
is this migrant worker.
673
00:46:32,016 --> 00:46:36,095
Malick cuts between him
and landscape shots.
674
00:46:39,423 --> 00:46:43,143
He's trying somehow
to apprehend the infinite.
675
00:46:44,463 --> 00:46:47,220
Almendros, who had worked
with François Truffaut,
676
00:46:47,245 --> 00:46:50,128
tried to capture
the beautiful natural light
677
00:46:50,154 --> 00:46:52,486
of D.W. Griffiths' films.
678
00:46:53,178 --> 00:46:57,897
Malick had key scenes shot after the sun
has dipped below the horizon
679
00:46:57,923 --> 00:47:02,107
but before its glowing light
has died from the sky.
680
00:47:02,132 --> 00:47:08,748
This magic hour lasts only twenty minutes,
so there's always a panic to capture it.
681
00:47:17,397 --> 00:47:20,882
To simulate a locust swarm,
Malick and his D.P.
682
00:47:20,907 --> 00:47:23,297
dropped peanut shells
from a helicopter
683
00:47:23,322 --> 00:47:27,972
whose rotor blades made them into a whirl,
then reversed the shot
684
00:47:27,998 --> 00:47:32,797
so that the locusts
appeared to be swarm upwards.
685
00:47:32,822 --> 00:47:36,514
Actors and extras in such scenes
had to walk backwards
686
00:47:36,539 --> 00:47:40,685
so that when the film was reversed
their action would appear normal.
687
00:47:47,494 --> 00:47:52,438
At the climax of the film,
wheat fields go on fire.
688
00:47:58,225 --> 00:48:01,222
Only the light from the flames
was used.
689
00:48:01,247 --> 00:48:03,387
The resulting
images have amongst
690
00:48:03,412 --> 00:48:07,214
the shallowest focus
of any in cinema history.
691
00:48:07,809 --> 00:48:11,030
The delicacy of this,
the cave-like darkness
692
00:48:11,055 --> 00:48:14,892
worked brilliantly
with the film's mythic ambitions.
693
00:48:24,045 --> 00:48:27,244
It's only been recently revealed
that Haskell Wexler
694
00:48:27,269 --> 00:48:29,165
shot much of
Days of heaven."
695
00:48:29,405 --> 00:48:35,611
Actually in the final film
about 46 minutes are my shooting.
696
00:48:35,640 --> 00:48:44,807
Terry is just a special,
far out, or far in person
697
00:48:44,838 --> 00:48:48,551
and certain aspects that I note
698
00:48:48,576 --> 00:48:55,953
he has a certain intimate
contact with nature.
699
00:48:55,979 --> 00:49:06,219
That life concept of connection
to the earth, and to people as well,
700
00:49:06,246 --> 00:49:10,710
and that's the way he writes
and that's the way he thinks.
701
00:49:11,181 --> 00:49:14,891
And he seems to think
like D.W. Griffith too.
702
00:49:14,916 --> 00:49:17,949
Griffith said that cinema
is the wind in the trees
703
00:49:17,974 --> 00:49:20,761
and Mallick loves
to film wind too,
704
00:49:20,786 --> 00:49:23,136
Its poetic properties.
705
00:49:23,162 --> 00:49:26,868
And in this film from Soviet director
Andrei Tarkovsky,
706
00:49:26,893 --> 00:49:29,500
whose work has so much
in common with Malick,
707
00:49:29,525 --> 00:49:34,112
wind seems to be nature coming alive,
part of the story.
708
00:49:48,428 --> 00:49:52,841
Malick has only made a handful of films,
but they are love letters to life,
709
00:49:52,866 --> 00:49:58,595
as if their screenplays were by philosophers
like David Hume, or Martin Heidegger.
710
00:50:02,451 --> 00:50:04,933
One of greatest American films
of the '70s
711
00:50:04,958 --> 00:50:09,949
to mix old techniques with new style
was this movie: Cabaret.
712
00:50:14,114 --> 00:50:17,568
A clean-cut young man
singing a melodic song.
713
00:50:17,570 --> 00:50:20,191
Could be
an old style Hollywood musical.
714
00:50:20,193 --> 00:50:23,436
Except musicals
weren't usually shot in close-ups.
715
00:50:23,461 --> 00:50:24,899
And there are lots of them here.
716
00:50:24,926 --> 00:50:26,774
? Now fatherland, fatherland ?
717
00:50:26,776 --> 00:50:29,297
? show us the sign ?
718
00:50:29,299 --> 00:50:30,774
? your children ?
719
00:50:30,776 --> 00:50:35,143
? have waited to see ?
720
00:50:35,145 --> 00:50:37,628
? the morning will come ?
721
00:50:37,630 --> 00:50:38,433
? when the world... ?
722
00:50:38,459 --> 00:50:41,090
They tilt up as people stand.
723
00:50:41,092 --> 00:50:43,777
Because we're in Nazi Germany.
724
00:50:43,779 --> 00:50:46,365
The faces become
more impassioned.
725
00:50:46,367 --> 00:50:48,685
A shiver runs down our spine.
726
00:50:48,686 --> 00:50:53,085
? Tomorrow belongs to me ?
727
00:50:53,087 --> 00:50:56,176
? now fatherland, fatherland ?
728
00:50:56,178 --> 00:50:57,640
? show us the sign ??
729
00:50:57,666 --> 00:51:01,246
The film showed the life and loves
of Christopher Isherwood's character,
730
00:51:01,271 --> 00:51:05,342
Sally Bowles,
in decadent Berlin of the 1930s.
731
00:51:05,742 --> 00:51:09,170
Cabaret's director, Bob Fosse,
was old Hollywood,
732
00:51:09,195 --> 00:51:13,838
born of musical theatre parents
and steeped in Broadway.
733
00:51:13,863 --> 00:51:17,478
He choreographed and directed
using the best of the old techniques.
734
00:51:24,428 --> 00:51:27,069
This song is about living
for the moment.
735
00:51:27,094 --> 00:51:30,883
Its performer, Liza Minelli,
daughter of Judy Garland,
736
00:51:30,909 --> 00:51:34,462
is a direct link
to old school Hollywood.
737
00:51:34,487 --> 00:51:41,276
But the political messages and celebration
of non-conformist sexuality are very '70s.
738
00:51:42,177 --> 00:51:50,551
? Life is a cabaret, old chum ?
? come to the cabaret ??
739
00:51:58,017 --> 00:51:59,438
That I cannot do.
740
00:51:59,961 --> 00:52:05,840
Another assimilationist film
from 1972 was even more amoral.
741
00:52:05,842 --> 00:52:10,089
Francis Ford Copolla's, The godfather,
was the most successful upgrading
742
00:52:10,114 --> 00:52:14,817
of another '30s American genre:
the gangster movie.
743
00:52:15,126 --> 00:52:18,750
Coppola had it shot
like a Rembrandt painting.
744
00:52:18,775 --> 00:52:23,553
No trendy '70s long lenses,
no helicopter shots.
745
00:52:23,578 --> 00:52:28,317
Gordon Willis, his cinematographer,
lit Marlon Brando from overhead
746
00:52:28,343 --> 00:52:30,875
to create shadows
in his eye sockets.
747
00:52:30,877 --> 00:52:34,675
Audiences couldn't see clearly
the eyes of the don.
748
00:52:35,293 --> 00:52:36,269
I understand.
749
00:52:36,902 --> 00:52:40,230
This so-called north lighting
was rare in American cinema,
750
00:52:40,255 --> 00:52:44,000
and had not been used well
since the days of Marlene Dietrich.
751
00:52:44,026 --> 00:52:45,434
You had a good trade,
made a good living.
752
00:52:45,435 --> 00:52:48,256
Police protected you
in the courts of law.
753
00:52:48,257 --> 00:52:50,341
You didn't need
a friend like me.
754
00:52:52,554 --> 00:52:58,246
But now you come to me and you say,
"Don Corleone, give me justice."
755
00:52:58,721 --> 00:53:02,893
The low lighting levels also meant
that focus was shallow,
756
00:53:02,918 --> 00:53:08,679
constraining actors to minimal movements,
internalizing their performance.
757
00:53:08,981 --> 00:53:13,532
Gangster pictures of the '30s were
about the rise and fall of individuals,
758
00:53:13,558 --> 00:53:17,630
but The godfather
showed a network of relationships.
759
00:53:18,346 --> 00:53:21,501
Robert Towne contributed
to its screenplay.
760
00:53:22,616 --> 00:53:24,531
Francis called me one day
and said,
761
00:53:24,556 --> 00:53:28,136
"Jeez, I don't have the scene
between the two leads in my movie."
762
00:53:28,725 --> 00:53:34,100
Then it fell to me to decide what
the nature of that scene would or should be.
763
00:53:34,126 --> 00:53:41,744
So, I had something structural to do...
I mean...
764
00:53:41,770 --> 00:53:46,387
in the sense of the way that I placed it
and what it was about.
765
00:53:47,583 --> 00:53:53,149
When it was your time that you would be
the one to hold the strings.
766
00:53:54,499 --> 00:54:00,381
Senator Corleone,
governor Corleone or something.
767
00:54:00,407 --> 00:54:02,083
Another pezzonovante.
768
00:54:07,893 --> 00:54:12,159
Well, there wasn't enough time, Michael.
Wasn't enough time.
769
00:54:12,184 --> 00:54:16,234
We'll get there, pop.
We'll get there.
770
00:54:20,494 --> 00:54:25,230
Now listen, whoever comes to you
with this Barzini meeting,
771
00:54:25,255 --> 00:54:28,788
he's the traitor.
Don't forget that.
772
00:54:41,548 --> 00:54:44,566
Over dinner one day,
during the shooting of The godfather,
773
00:54:44,591 --> 00:54:47,720
its producer, Robert Evans,
commissioned another film
774
00:54:47,745 --> 00:54:49,732
about the lust for power.
775
00:54:50,194 --> 00:54:53,912
Our final assimilationist movie
of the '70s.
776
00:54:54,819 --> 00:54:59,626
Its style was old Hollywood,
a film noir almost,
777
00:54:59,652 --> 00:55:03,734
but somehow baking
in the clear light of the '70s day.
778
00:55:04,467 --> 00:55:08,847
It would be based on the true story
of how the head of Los Angeles's department
779
00:55:08,873 --> 00:55:15,617
of water and power, William Mulholland,
redirected water from the Owens valley,
780
00:55:15,642 --> 00:55:19,273
depriving farmers of water in order to expand L.A.
781
00:55:19,298 --> 00:55:22,085
And fill its swimming pools.
782
00:55:22,105 --> 00:55:24,553
A rape of the land.
783
00:55:26,038 --> 00:55:30,548
Los Angeles has a kind of,
and particularly in those days,
784
00:55:30,573 --> 00:55:36,159
a lazy, sense out,
dreamy quality to it, you know?
785
00:55:36,184 --> 00:55:43,135
And that, for him, to discover
the dark shadows in this sunny place.
786
00:55:43,172 --> 00:55:49,140
And the crime was right in front of his,
eyes every time he turned on his spigot.
787
00:55:49,166 --> 00:55:52,779
Robert Towne's screenplay
became Chinatown.
788
00:55:52,804 --> 00:55:56,712
It was shot widescreen,
had muted '30s color,
789
00:55:56,737 --> 00:56:00,213
and starred Jack Nicholson
as a puzzled private eye,
790
00:56:00,238 --> 00:56:01,788
driving around L.A.
791
00:56:01,813 --> 00:56:05,129
Who unknowingly stumbles
into the appalling story
792
00:56:05,154 --> 00:56:07,013
of the theft of the water.
793
00:56:07,224 --> 00:56:11,905
I think that the sunny quality
there is because the corruption
794
00:56:11,931 --> 00:56:16,567
is just so pervasive,
so all encompassing.
795
00:56:16,592 --> 00:56:21,709
It's not just one criminal,
it's not just one Maltese falcon.
796
00:56:21,712 --> 00:56:23,133
It's everyone.
797
00:56:25,796 --> 00:56:33,797
Every really good detective story,
that you find satisfying,
798
00:56:33,823 --> 00:56:36,580
always has
that element in it.
799
00:56:37,936 --> 00:56:41,998
Brigid O'Shaughnessy
in "The Maltese falcon."
800
00:56:42,023 --> 00:56:44,623
Let's just say, "I'm desperate
and I need your help,"
801
00:56:44,649 --> 00:56:47,454
but the killer is right in front
of his eyes from the very beginning.
802
00:56:47,480 --> 00:56:48,727
It's her.
803
00:56:48,752 --> 00:57:00,951
But it takes him the entire exploration
for him to discover what he knew all along,
804
00:57:00,977 --> 00:57:02,864
which was the killer.
805
00:57:02,889 --> 00:57:05,493
He can't see that,
in the case of this, it's literal.
806
00:57:05,518 --> 00:57:08,066
Help me Mr. Spade,
I need help so badly.
807
00:57:08,091 --> 00:57:11,415
I have no right to ask you,
I know I haven't but I do ask you.
808
00:57:11,441 --> 00:57:13,380
Help me!
809
00:57:13,405 --> 00:57:16,604
You won't need much
of anybody's help, you're good.
810
00:57:16,629 --> 00:57:19,872
It's chiefly your eyes, I think,
and that throb you get in your voice
811
00:57:19,898 --> 00:57:23,001
when you say things like:
"Be generous, Mr. Spade."
812
00:57:23,027 --> 00:57:24,396
I deserve that.
813
00:57:25,172 --> 00:57:27,637
But the lie was
in the way I said it.
814
00:57:27,662 --> 00:57:31,234
Not at all in what I said.
815
00:57:31,260 --> 00:57:35,572
It's my own fault
if you can't believe me now.
816
00:57:35,762 --> 00:57:37,727
Now you are dangerous.
817
00:57:38,387 --> 00:57:43,339
The director of The Maltese falcon,
John Huston, played the business man
818
00:57:43,365 --> 00:57:47,593
who steals the water and rapes
his daughter in Townes' screenplay.
819
00:57:48,173 --> 00:57:50,956
It was a time before
World War II.
820
00:57:50,981 --> 00:57:56,711
It was a time when the full extent
of the possibilities of human evil
821
00:57:56,737 --> 00:57:58,155
hadn't occurred to him.
822
00:57:58,181 --> 00:58:05,145
Most of them follow along the lines
of the usual graft and corruption.
823
00:58:05,170 --> 00:58:14,902
A man who would be willing
to violate his daughter.
824
00:58:14,927 --> 00:58:17,108
That's just
not a nice thing to do.
825
00:58:17,134 --> 00:58:22,621
The presence of evil is kind of
brilliantly rendered by both,
826
00:58:22,646 --> 00:58:30,849
Roman and John, who's that kind
of false bonhomie and pleasantness.
827
00:58:30,874 --> 00:58:34,590
Yeah, he says,
"I've still got a few teeth in my head
828
00:58:34,615 --> 00:58:37,360
and a few friends
in town" he says.
829
00:58:37,635 --> 00:58:39,965
My daughter is
a very jealous woman.
830
00:58:39,990 --> 00:58:43,203
I didn't want her to find out
about the girl.
831
00:58:43,229 --> 00:58:45,221
How did you find out?
832
00:58:45,246 --> 00:58:50,054
I still got a few teeth left
in my head, and a few friends in town.
833
00:58:52,456 --> 00:58:53,749
Okay.
834
00:58:54,805 --> 00:58:58,031
Because it goes
beyond mere greed.
835
00:58:58,056 --> 00:59:01,531
What do you hope to get
that you don't already have?
836
00:59:01,556 --> 00:59:11,284
And his answer to that is,
"the future, Mr. Gittes. The future."
837
00:59:11,447 --> 00:59:13,867
I just want to know what you're worth?
Over 10 million?
838
00:59:13,892 --> 00:59:15,248
Oh my, yes.
839
00:59:15,273 --> 00:59:18,386
Why are you doing it?
How much better can you eat?
840
00:59:18,411 --> 00:59:20,588
What can you buy
that you can't already afford?
841
00:59:20,613 --> 00:59:24,950
The future Mr. Gittes,
the future!
842
00:59:24,975 --> 00:59:26,893
Now where's the girl?
843
00:59:26,918 --> 00:59:29,518
I want the only daughter
I got left.
844
00:59:29,543 --> 00:59:32,711
As you found out,
Evelyn was lost to me a long time ago.
845
00:59:32,736 --> 00:59:34,635
Who do you blame for that?
Her?
846
00:59:35,578 --> 00:59:38,401
The film was directed by
Roman Polanski.
847
00:59:39,628 --> 00:59:43,554
Three years earlier, Polanski's wife
and unborn child and friends
848
00:59:43,579 --> 00:59:48,367
had been horrifically murdered
by Charles Manson's gang of deluded hippies.
849
00:59:49,494 --> 00:59:53,975
Polanski's early life had been tragic,
but the murders seemed to strip him
850
00:59:54,001 --> 00:59:56,871
of any lingering delusions
about people.
851
00:59:58,151 --> 01:00:02,740
Polanski's life had had far too great
an amplitude to even countenance
852
01:00:02,766 --> 01:00:06,648
the shallow pleasures
of escapist romantic cinema.
853
01:00:07,341 --> 01:00:11,491
Nor had he any time
for the fleeting, impressionistic lightness
854
01:00:11,517 --> 01:00:14,872
of Jules et Jim
by Truffaut, for example.
855
01:00:24,836 --> 01:00:28,276
He had Chinatown filmed
with wide angle lenses,
856
01:00:28,301 --> 01:00:33,040
bright lights and precise framing,
like an MGM musical almost,
857
01:00:33,065 --> 01:00:37,556
except that the movie was about rape,
incest, power and greed.
858
01:00:38,531 --> 01:00:43,464
Towne wrote an ending with some hope,
but Polanski made it much darker.
859
01:00:43,489 --> 01:00:48,089
In his version, Huston's daughter
who had a child by him
860
01:00:48,114 --> 01:00:50,169
is shot through the eye.
861
01:00:53,561 --> 01:00:57,148
We're in proper film noir territory
in this ending.
862
01:00:57,173 --> 01:01:00,555
A car horn creates
a sense of panic.
863
01:01:00,580 --> 01:01:05,414
A hand held swish pan to reveal
the scene of the atrocity.
864
01:01:29,479 --> 01:01:34,481
Towne called this tragic ending
"the tunnel at the end of the light."
865
01:01:36,733 --> 01:01:40,843
Chinatown was a high point
in American film of its time.
866
01:01:40,868 --> 01:01:45,625
New American cinema was full
of mockery and stylistically bold.
867
01:01:45,651 --> 01:01:49,330
It was old school,
laced with new truths.
868
01:01:49,355 --> 01:01:54,601
It felt like the best movie party
to be at in the '70s.
869
01:01:54,626 --> 01:01:57,008
But there are other parties
around the world
870
01:01:57,033 --> 01:02:01,705
that were just as exciting,
radical, and self-possessed.
77588
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