In our last column on Mark Cousin’s The Story of Film, we looked at the rise of Hong Kong and Bollywood cinema, and the triumph of big budget, high concept blockbusters in Hollywood. More change was on the way in the 1980’s, with the rise of MTV and music videos making a huge impact on American filmmaking. Movies like Flashdance and Top Gun featured wordless action or dance sequences scored with contemporary music, blurring the line between cinema and music videos. But as Hollywood emphasized empty spectacle over story, an independent American cinema began to emerge to challenge “the bauble.”
Filmmaker John Sayles began his career working for low budget filmmaker Roger Corman, writing films like Piranha and Battle Beyond the Stars, using the money to fund his own smaller, character-driven films like Baby, It’s You, & Matewan. Writer-director Spike Lee financed his first film with arts grants, with the film’s success leading to bigger budgeted, studio backed films like School Daze and the critically acclaimed, Do The Right Thing. But the most unique director to emerge from the American independents was David Lynch, whose film Eraserhead became a cult favorite, leading to mainstream success with films like The Elephant Man and Blue Velvet.
New and challenging directors were emerging in France and the United Kingdom. French director Leos Carax’s films Boy Meets Girl and The Lovers On The Bridge told tragic love stories about social outcasts, set on the streets of a grubby, yet still beautiful, Paris. British director Stephen Frears films contemplated the changing face of Britain, focusing on marginalized immigrants (My Beautiful Laundrette) and career criminals (The Hit; The Grifters). Scottish filmmaker Bill Forsyth told charming, whimsical stories about eccentric people in small towns (Local Hero), even centering one around a war between ice cream vendors (Comfort & Joy).
In contrast were the confrontational art films of British directors Peter Greenaway and Derek Jarman. Greenaway’s films were influenced by Renaissance and Baroque painting, full of beautiful pictures of horrific events. Greenaway’s film The Falls was an elaborate faux-documentary about a non-existent world event, while The Draughtsman’s Contract trapped an arrogant painter in an elaborate murder plot. Jarman’s films, influenced by the British punk scene, were more aggressive and political. Full of positive images of gay sexuality, and playfully studded with anachronisms, his films Sebastiane, The Tempest, & Edward II, re-interpreted classical stories & histories for the modern world.
Just as confrontational were the films of director David Cronenberg, who emerged from the low budget film scene of the 1970’s with disturbing, uncompromising horror films such as Rabid and The Brood. Cronenberg eventually worked for the major studios, but the films he created (Videodrome; The Fly; Dead Ringers) would be just as troubling, filled with characters undergoing graphic physical and mental transformations. Hollywood in the 80’s had succumbed to “the bauble,” but intelligent and creative filmmakers were still making movies that challenged and stretched world cinema.
~ Posted by Deanna H.
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