New Hollywood

For a few years, studios lose control and directors raised on European cinema make American films about doubt, violence and flawed heroes.

When: 1967–1980
Where: USA
Films: 12 · 12 guided
Named by: 21 guides

Where it sits

Film noir · Japanese post-war golden ageNew HollywoodAmerican independent cinema · Cinéma du look

Context

What was happening

America, 1967: the war in Vietnam divides the country, television has cut into cinema audiences, and the big studios are losing money on expensive films the public is not buying. The old Production Code, which for decades governed what a film could show, gives way to a ratings system in 1968.

A new generation is ready. Many come from film school, criticism or television, and they have grown up on the French New Wave, Japanese cinema and the British wave. Studios, unsure what the young audience wants, hand them money and, for a few years, control. Bonnie and Clyde, in 1967, shows it can pay.

The signature

What you see on screen

1The flawed heroAntiheroes who lose, doubt or do wrong, and endings that stay open.
2Documentary lookHandheld cameras, available light, real streets and overlapping voices.
3Darker genresGangsters, detectives and war heroes seen with doubt, not simple pride.
4Distrust of authorityInstitutions fail or lie, and the individual stands alone against them.

The people

Who made it

FFFrancis Ford CoppolaEpic and intimate at once. The Godfather films, The Conversation, and the script of Patton.
MSMartin ScorseseNeighbourhood realism and moral unease. Mean Streets, Taxi Driver.
RARobert AltmanOverlapping voices and wandering ensembles. Nashville.
APArthur PennOpened the door with Bonnie and Clyde, in 1967.
HAHal AshbyHumane films about outsiders. Harold and Maude, Being There.
PBPeter BogdanovichA critic turned director, steeped in old Hollywood. The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon.

The films

Defining films, in order

Its constellation

Where it came from, what it led to

Came from

Film noir Japanese post-war golden age Free Cinema and the British New Wave French New Wave Direct cinema and cinéma véritéCzechoslovak New Wave

Led to

American independent cinemaCinéma du lookHong Kong New Wave

Parallel

New German Cinema

Open the galaxy of movements

Legacy

Where you still see it

Wherever a director is trusted with a dark, personal film, this decade is behind it. Neo-noir kept rewriting the detective, the city and the night. When the studios turned to blockbusters, the author's film moved to Sundance and Miramax. Besson and Beineix wanted American spectacle with French faces; Woo took Scorsese's men to Hong Kong, and Scorsese later remade Infernal Affairs.

Ask the Cine Guide about New Hollywood