week ten - coppola's vampire

#1: What are the five conditions that gave rise to the New Hollywood (here defined as post-1975)?
Elsaesser says that the five conditions that gave rise to the "New Hollywood" were: 1) a new generation of directors - the Movie Brats, as they are frequently called, being those who studied film in college, among other things; 2) new marketing strategies - High Concept films, which Elsaesser dubs as the most crucial, using the blockbuster film to market, distribute, exhibit, etc,; 3) new media ownership and management - which i'm assuming means corporate conglomerations; 4) new technologies of sound and image - special effects, digitization, dolby sound, etc.; 5) new delivery systems - how the films are marketed?


#2: What does Elsaesser mean by New Hollywood being defined either as “the different as same” or “the same as different.”
Here, Elsaesser is asking about Hollywood's films in relation to itself, as opposed to the European films that either model it or rival it. Within the [Hollywood] system, is it being considered new in opposition to the old (the different as same) meaning using Hollywood classicism (old) to further the evolution of it's movies (new), or is it "assimilating its own opposite (the same as different)" by modeling and borrowing and being influenced by European art cinema and elsewhere, therefore breaking out of it's own internal self-reliance.


#3: Elsaesser argues that unlike in Europe, where ruptures in realism were found in art-cinema, in Hollywood ruptures in realism were found in “minor genres and debased modes.” What genre in particular is he talking about? In what ways do you find ruptures in realism in this genre?
He is talking about the horror film. You find ruptures in realism through all aspects of the film, majorly the plot, the camerawork, and the editing. Since the 'monster' is the "causal agent," all of these aspects work to hide it until the last second, in order to build suspense. the audience is not afforded as much knowledge as with many typical (non-horror?) films, because again, there is an aspect of suspense building. for the same reason, the direction (in an action sense) of the camera is used covertly, as well as being edited to create a heightened sense of mystery.


#4: How is the sound/image relationship in horror films fundamentally different than other classical genres?
in most other classical genres, the image tends to precede (or at least, determine) the sound. in horror films, on the other hand, the sound is often times used as a precursor to the action, and to build up the suspense of what might be about to happen. Elsaesser says that haunting music paired with vacant space can be like a fastasm of the mind, where the individual viewer is responsible for imagining the fate of the poor protagonist.


#8: Elsaesser argues that post-classical cinema introduced two major changes to classical narration (p. 200). Identify and define those two changes, and give examples.
The two major changes: narrative progression and character consistency. Narrative progression means 1) the way in which the the plot is presented, and 2) the complexity with which it is presented, and Elsaesser says that concerning post-classical cinema, they have both become much more complex over time, often dealing with major time shifts and/or non-conventional linear structure. For instance, Back to the Future follows a fairly linear model (i.e. plot-how it's portrayed in the film- and story-the events- match up) but includes a thirty year time jump, both forwards and backwards, whereas in Pulp Fiction the plot and the story do not match, because the plot is portrayed in a non-linear fashion. The second major change is character consistency, and Elsaesser says that before post-classical cinema, characters more or less remained static, and "themselves," whereas afterwards, many characters change or morph to become dual figures, or something entirely new. For example, Blade Runner, and the ambiguity of who is a replicant and who is a human, or, as we will see, Bram Stoker's Dracula, where the phantom takes on multiple personas throughout the film (which probably both hurt and helped its critical reviews).