Singin’ in the Rain, The French New Wave, and Bonnie and Clyde

This week in class, my group and I gave a presentation on “Singin’ in the Rain”. “Singin in the Rain” is 1952 film, doubling as a musical and a rom-com. It was directed and choreographed by Gene Kelley and Stanley Donen. The film shows behind the scenes of big movie production in Hollywood in the late 1920s, dealing with the transition from silent films to “talkies”. Starring Gene Kelley, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Connar, the film gives amazing performances and an overall inflicts a “happy-go-lucky” feeling. I think very highly of this film, and am happy that this is the film that my group chose to present. The main character in the film, Don Lockwood, is an actor, who also has a background in singing, dancing, and is a stunt man. Hs is matched with a young Hollywood actress for publicity for their movies, but this actress believes, despite being told multiple times otherwise, that her relationship with Don is real off screen as well. Don meets a showgirl, played by Debbie Reynolds, who becomes his new love interest, making his co-actress upset and jealous. The film goes on to show the shift in hollywood production as well as moving through the relationships of people who were involved in making that shift.

As for the reading this week, we learned about the “French New-Wave” in the 1950’s and 60’s. Around this time, the French filmmakers were making films that broke convention of what was allowed to be shown in film. This led to American filmmakers wanting in on the R-rated activity. In 1967, the MPAA’s Hay’s Code, restricting the use of violence and sexual content, was lifted; films were free to use much more risque shots. These films were more realistically shot, capturing things such as realistic looking bullet holes in someone who has just been shot, less modest sexual scenes, and more use of drugs. Critics in the 1960’s were all over the place in opinions of this film movement, some loved the films, and loved how much more believable and capturing they were with the removal of such tight restrictions on what could be shown. Other critics were not so fond of this new method, with their belief that these things have no reason to be shown to audiences.  

On wednesday, our class had a screening of “Bonnie and Clyde”  a 1967 American biographical crime film directed by Arthur Penn.  The film stars Warren Beatty as Clyde Borrow and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker. The film features Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman, and Estelle Parsons, with Denver Pyle, Dub Taylor, Gene Wilder.  In the movie, Bonnie and Clyde are a couple who’s small acts of mischief turn into larger ones. The couple robs banks, and kills police officers. They meet when Clyde attempts to steal thecar of a woman, who happens to be Bonnie’s mother. Bonnie at the time is bored with her life and her job as a waitress; she is intrigued by Clyde and decides to be his partner in crime. Throughout the movie, Bonnie and Clyde are shown throughout their entire relationship, portraying their kind personalities outside of the crimes they commit, and telling a story of two people falling in love. Together they kill police officers and bank tellers, while being very kind to others, showing sympathy and compassion; to me, Bonnie and Clyde were only out to fight real problems in the world, the messed up police system, and capitalism. At the end of the film, the couple is at their happiest, having just decided that they were going to get married, when police massacre them, but not before they give each other a look of pure love and of knowing they have no regrets. The film was very good, and with knowing that this is a true story, it was much more upsetting to see the ending of the film.