Other 50’s Issues

Other 50’S ISSUES

Breakdown of the Production Code:

Issue due to independent filmmakers importing foreign films w. frank portrayals of nudity, violence, and sexual themes.

Recall that with Mutual vs. Ohio in 1915–over Griffith’s Birth of a Nation–the Supreme Court decided that film did not fall under the first amendment, so states and local communities enacted censorship boards as well as the Hollywood Production Code in the 1920s.  Restrictions were eased by Hollywood’s wartime ‛marriage’ to the government, then the issue flared up again in 1952 with The Miracle case: Rosselini’s film depicted a case of Immaculate Conception and was denounced as ‛sacrilege.’

Producer/Distributor Joseph Burstyn took the case to the U.S. Supreme court which ruled that movies were ‟a significant medium for the communication of ideas” and were, therefore, entitled to protections under the First and Fourteenth amendments.

This victory, and the influx of other ‛liberal’ foreign films, caused the independent filmmakers to take note. Producer/Director Otto Preminger refused to delete words or actions deemed offense by the code from his films The Moon is Blue (1953; in which Maggie McNamara talked of being a ‘virgin’), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955; in which Frank Sinatra played a heroin addict.), or Anatomy of a Murder (1959). Denied the ‘seal of approval’ these films became big hits.

Kazan’s Baby Doll (1956) condemned by Legion of Decency.

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WATCH: Baby Doll ‘getting familiar’ clip

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Resulted in the Code being revised in 1956, to allow the treatment of more mature subjects, such as drugs, prostitution, abortion, and kidnapping, but not sexual deviance, venereal disease, or nudity.  Crime began to be treated less moralistically and melodramatically, so that it became possible by the end of the decade to sympathize w. criminals as human beings, though they did not become wholly admirable ones until Bonnie and Clyde.

By 1959, the popular film A Summer Place, adapted from a best-selling novel, contained treatment of voyeurism, adultery, frigidity, alcoholism, unwed pregnancy, and fornication.

(The next cultural taboo the American cinema was to overcome was the convention vs. graphic, excessive, and/or poetic depiction of brutality and violence. This, however, could not occur until Pres. Kennedy and his alleged assassin had been gunned down before running movie cameras in Dallas in 1963, and the war in Vietnam had been brought nightly for much of the decade that followed into American living rooms by TV.

Led to end of Legions influence and death of Prod Code which was scrapped for MPAA ratings which does not proscribe content but rather classifies them as to appropriate for certain segments of public according to age.  Many people believe that the ratings system has contributed to the decline of high-quality films in G and PG and to sharp increase in exploitative sex and violence in R and X. “Like the concept of “Family Viewing Time” on network TV, a system designed to protect children from debasing entertainment has served to debase the entertainment of both children and adults.”)

Elia Kazan and the introduction of METHOD ACTING in FILM 

Elia Kazan:  An émigré from Turkey, Kazan joined the Group Theater (New York followers of Stanislavski’s ‘system’) in 1932 and rose from stage manager and property man to director.

The Method, which became so identified with Kazan’s and Lee Strasberg’s teaching at the Actors Studio, was once simplistically defined by Kazan himself as ‟turning psychology into behavior.” 

WATCH: Method Acting from A Streetcar Named Desire

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WATCH: A method acting exercise

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Kazan has said: ‟You lay bare to the actor; you make him understand and appreciate the structure beneath the lines.  That’s what’s often called the subtext and dealing with the subtext is one of the critical elements in directing actors.  In other words, not what is said, but what happens.” –Powers, John.  ‟Dialogue on Film,” American Film, New York: March, 1976

Changes in this style of acting were made by Russian dramatist and acting coach Constantin Stanislavski who–with the publication of his book, ‟An Actor Prepares” — introduced his ‟Stanislavski System” or ‟Method” in 1924.  This practice stressed experiencing real emotions and representing real behavior of people emphasized two key concepts:

Emotional Memory:  For example, if you as the actor are playing a scene in which your father dies, you would recall the death of a loved one or some other traumatic loss in your own life and allow yourself to remember those feelings.  How did you feel?  How did you look?  Did your hands tremble?  Did you cry?  By developing the ability to recall these emotions and their outward manifestations (tears, trembling, quivering voice, etc.) you can then transfer this emotional memory into your film or stage role and re-conjure them during appropriate moments of the performance.

Real Behavior:  This concept revolutionized the old, exaggerated acting (grimacing, large movements) of the stage which had been transferred into early films.  While these mannerisms had been necessary on the stage for the audience—seated far from the stage—to actually see and hear the emotions of the actors– they proved laughable for the medium of the close-up.  Since the film close-up can covey emotion through subtly expressive facial and body movements, Stanislavski emphasized more realistic behavior on stage. “Real Behavior” is just what it implies. If the actor should accidentally sneeze or trip in a scene, they should do it “in character” –as if it were supposed to happen at that moment.  For example, during the filming of a scene of On the Waterfront (1954), Eva Marie Saint, as Edie, accidentally dropped her glove.  Instead of stopping the take, director Elia Kazan kept the camera running as Marlon Brando, playing Terry Malloy, picked up the glove and put it on his own hand as they talked.  As a result, throughout the rest of the scene Edie is nervously attempting to retrieve the glove from Terry.  Such an unexpected action adds an underlying tension to the scene which makes it more interesting to watch.

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