Vertigo & Cuckoo's Nest Revision -> Auteur & Production Context

Hollywood 1930-1990 (Vertigo & OFOTCN)

- Film Form

- Meaning & Response

- Contexts

- Auteur

Exemplar Questions:

Compare how far your chosen films reflect the auteur signature features of their filmmakers. [40]

Compare how far your chosen films reflect their different production contexts.  [40]

-> Key elements to focus on: AUTEUR, PRODUCTION CONTEXTS -> COMPARE the two films

Auteur:

- How key features of the films reflect an auteur signature

- Discussion of an auteur signature in terms of stylistic and/or thematic features

- Recognition that some auteurs have a stronger signature than others with a corresponding focus on the degree to which both films reflect auteur signature features (Vertigo reflects a stronger auteur signature than Cuckoo's Nest, use this as a comparison point)

- Consideration of the tension between a single auteur and the collaborative nature of filmmaking.

- Recognise factors constraining an auteur (such as the relationship with the producing institution or a conflict between two auteur styles, such as star and director).

Vertigo:

https://jordanilanjcossfilmstudies.blogspot.com/2018/01/factfile-alfred-hitchcock-spike-lee.html -> Hitchcock fact file + more themes in Hitchcock films

https://jordanilanjcossfilmstudies.blogspot.com/2018/01/vertigo-psycho-comparison.html -> If want to make a direct auteur comparison with another Hitchcock film in the exam

https://jordanilanjcossfilmstudies.blogspot.com/2019/01/vertigo-character-profiles.html -> Vertigo Character Profiles

http://resource.download.wjec.co.uk.s3.amazonaws.com/vtc/2017-18/17-18_3-13/pdf/eng/vertigo-and-auteur-study-sheet.pdf -> Hitchcock as Auteur

Auteur traits:

Cameos - has quick cameo in all films

Macguffin - Uses this to drive plot but is of no importance to the story

Mistaken Identity/The Wrong Man - Recurring motif of lost or assumed identity

Ordinary person - Ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances

Blonde Woman - 'Ice cool' blonde female who hero must pursue or tame

Charming Criminal - Villain appears charming & refined instead of cruel & vicious

Point of View Shots: Creates audience identification with characters in a movie

Suspense - Regularly uses suspense to build tension

Overbearing mothers - Depicted as intrusive & domineering

Staircases - Heavily stylised & menacing staircases

Vertigo - 4 main plot points:

1 . Meeting Scottie has with Elster; Madeleine's curious behaviour is first outlined; Scottie is tasked with observing her (music emphasises the tension and mysterious nature in this scene as the non-diegetic sound creates an atmosphere of suspense.)

2 . Scene in Scottie's apartment following his rescue of Madeleine; first scene where they directly interact; personal relationship is established 

3 . Scottie's failure to stop Madeleine's apparent suicide (turning point)

4 . Judy reveals the truth in writing a letter to Scottie explaining her part in his deception and the real Madeleine's murder

Narrative:

Two distinct but linked narratives (1st - Madeleine Elster narrative, 2nd - Judy Barton narrative)

Linked by central theme surrounding Scottie: self possession + control in a dangerous and uncertain world

Film in 2 halves -> Madeleine's suicide as a middle point/marked by Scottie failing to save Madeleine -> saving her would've helped him complete narrative circle -> fails so 'spirals' into psychological breakdown

Vertigo: 3 acts, 2 halves, and a spiral

3 act structure -> Syd Field's 3 acts -> Field  leading American scriptwriter & author. Writer sets the film's plot within the first 20-30 minutes, then protagonist experiences plot point providing them with goal. Half of a movie's run time focuses on protagonist struggling to achieve goal. Second act = confrontation & midpoint = devastating reversal of protagonist's fortune. 3rd act = protagonist's struggle to achieve goal + aftermath.

Spiral = Scottie's mental state -> Spiral continues when he fails again in act 3

Hitchcock as an auteur:
- Late 50's: Studio system at height of development + on verge of changes that'd sweep it away by mid 60's
- After years of success in film/tv: Hitchcock was household name & one of a few directors that largely gained independence from studio interfence
- Late 50's: Hitchcock made films for most of major studios (usually on his terms) & recent hits included Rear Window
- Hitchcock 'signature' = brief cameo in all his films.

Hitchcock worked with close knit team of regulars he trusted to fulfil his vision of pure cinema:

- Robert Burks = DP, George Tomasini = Editor, Henry Bumstead = Art Director, Bernard Hermann = Music, Saul Bass = Titles, Edith Head = Costume + worked repeatedly with certain stars (e.g. Cary Grant/James Stewart) & could hire any of the leading ladies of the day.

• Recognised in the 1950s by the writers of Cahiers du Cinema as a master film-maker, Hitchcock is an example of the classic auteur, a master of mise-en-scène with an unmistakable ‘world view’. The ‘Hitchcock film’ contains elements of style and distinctive marks identifiable with his presence as a creative force who brought together a number of elements – the graphics of Saul Bass, the music of Bernard Herrmann, the performances of Cary Grant and James Stewart. “When we tell a story in cinema, we should resort to dialogue only when it’s impossible to do otherwise. I always try first to tell a story in the cinematic way, through a succession of shots and bits of film in between”. 

• Influenced by German Expressionism and Soviet montage cinema. His elaborate editing techniques came from Soviet films of the 1920s. He particularly acknowledged the significance of the Kuleshov experiment, from which he derived his fondness for the point-of-view shot and for building sequences by cross-cutting between person seeing and things seen. 

• Self- publicist Hitchcock was a commercial film-maker, who sought and achieved boxoffice success. He was always happy to exploit his ‘auteur status’ as a marketing device, through his TV series no less than his films. His films are assigned to him as in the credits and publicity material making him a ‘star’ director. He also ‘signed’ his films through his personal non-speaking appearances in them. In Vertigo he appears outside Elster’s office. 

• The film has recurring themes from Hitchcock’s other work including guilt (Strangers on a Train), voyeurism (Rear Window) and taboo subject matter (Psycho). 

• Vertigo’s themes can be seen as revealing a lot about Hitchcock and the film is often considered his most personal. The representation of Scottie as lonely links to Hitchcock’s lack of childhood friends, Scottie’s treatment of Judy could reflect the way Hitchcock treated actresses working on his films and the guilt Scottie feels could be linked to Hitchcock’s Catholic upbringing. 

• Mastery of the art of film making – the inspired use of scale models and matte painting to create the bell tower scene are a useful example.

Forman’s signature traits

- Casual informality of camera framing and angles, suggestive of documentary -> contrasts with Hitchcock's style

- Seemingly spontaneous ‘candid camera’ style (person who's on-screen isn't 'aware' that their on screen, catching them off guard) -> shown in therapy scene...

- Social analysis – strong critiques of bureaucracy (The Fireman’s Ball)

- Allegory (symbolic narrative) or satire (mockery) strongly underpinned by ‘realism’

- Earlier works made use of non-professional actors and semi-improvised dialogue to present a view of working-class life free from the stereotypes of social realism.

- Stories of ordinary people whose individuality becomes apparent in group scenes

- Forman was an émigré from USSR controlled Czechoslovakia so the right to be free was something he felt personally. The film is on the surface apolitical but like all films with a coded subtext it can be read absolutely as a cautionary tale of societal oppression of individual expression and freedom. McMurphy on such a reading is a political messiah – a freedom fighter ready to die for the cause.

- Forman was born in Czechoslovakia in 1932 and remained in the country until 1968 before immigrating to the USA. He witnessed the Second World War and the ravages of the Nazis not least in terms of his own family – his mother died in Auschwitz. From 1948 the USSR controlled his country which then formed part of the soviet Eastern Bloc. Forman was instrumental in helping create the Czech New Wave – a liberal arts movement critical of despotic government and inspired by similar New Waves in other countries around the globe. In 1968 a relaxation in communist party rule called The Prague Spring (January to August 1968) led to swift military reprisals from the USSR and Forman went into exile. 

- His famous cult movie The Fireman’s Ball (1967) which was a coded critique of communism was banned in his own country once the Prague Spring was crushed. He remains therefore a man interested in maverick iconoclasts and individuals: see Amadeus (1984) as well as of course One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The People vs Larry Flint (1996) and Man on the Moon (1999). 

- Forman has won two Best Director Oscars for Cuckoo’s Nest and Amadeus and remains a much admired auteur although not a prolific one. 

- Unlike some other ‘auteur’ directors like Coppola, Ridley Scott or Spike Lee, Forman doesn’t have a ‘signature’ visual style. Nor does he use experimental or unsettling camera or editing styles like in other films of the New Hollywood. Instead he obeys many Classical Hollywood rules of continuity to create a naturalistic feeling • in the script and performances of his actors, Forman does share style with other New Hollywood directors like John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy, 1970) - encouraging a ‘Method’ or naturalistic approach that reflects ‘real life’ • Forman has commented that this was a result of growing up with Socialist cinema of the 1950s: “artificial movies where nothing was true, nothing was real, everything was exaggerated, showing life as it should be in an ideal socialist society, and life as it is” • for the Czech New Wave, naturalism was an ideological decision that rebelled against the State-sanctioned cinema • Forman has also said he wants to show “all the faces in the crowd,” telling the stories of a whole group of characters not just the protagonist • In terms of screenplay development, Forman does demonstrate an auteur-level of control over the material. He has said that writing the script is “half of directing” 

A consistent theme is the struggle of the Individual vs Society

JN as Auteur:

Jack Nicholson too can be considered an auteur in this film. His career has been structured around his manic, dynamic screen persona and this film is in many ways his quintessential role: a maverick gremlin who disrupts the status quo. He has been a darling of the counter-culture since his cameo in Easy Rider (1968) where he played a small town lawyer who discovers pot. Other notable performances of a long career would be playing the devil in The Witches of Eastwick (1987); playing a corruption-busting detective in the neo-noir Chinatown (1974); giving us the Joker in Batman (1989) and more conventional but powerfully acted roles as in The Shining (1980), A Few Good Men (1992) and The Departed (2006). What is evident from this cursory list is that not only can Nicholson work in many genres but also that heavyweight director auteurs such as Scorsese, Burton, Kubrick and Polanski want to work with him.

Vertigo more Auteur than CN

Agree: Hitchcock has more ‘signature’ stylistic traits than Forman. Innovative use of camera movement and angle - immerses us in character POV (as does editing).Visually tells the story. Forman prefers Classical Hollywood continuity editing and almost documentary camerawork - allowing performances to tell the story and create a naturalism. But this doesn’t create a ‘signature’ style; instead style is subordinate to script. 

Disagree: Forman has just as many personal themes and typical characters as Hitchcock. In fact they both share a distrust of authority. Hitchcock explores this through narratives involving false accusation and mistaken identity. Forman uses irreverent, visionary and misunderstood protagonists

Production Context:

- How key features of the films reflect their production contexts (e.g. stylistic features, the presence of stars, the nature of the narrative and production values)

- Discussion of production contexts in terms of budget, institutional working practices, technological resources and possibly the target audience as defined by the institution

- Recognition that production contexts are likely to have an impact on the nature of the narrative and its representations (which may form the basis of the comparison of the two films)

- Consideration of the relationship between production context and the aims of the director.

- Consider how a film may reflect a director challenging production constraints or being given more freedom.

https://jordanilanjcossfilmstudies.blogspot.com/2018/02/attempt-2-compare-how-far-your-chosen.html -> Example Production Context Essay

https://www.sparknotes.com/film/cuckoo/context/ -> OFOTCN movie Context

https://www.filmsite.org/onef.html -> OFOTCN extra context

Vertigo:

- 1920's art-film movement / stressing experimentation + strong use of imagery

- German expressionism (F.W. Murnah and Fritz Lang) -> method of exposing the inner life of characters through unusual camera angles, moody lighting, and exaggerated mise-en-scene (stage setting)

- Soviet montage cinema - Hitchcock's elaborate editing techniques came from soviet films of the 1920's which relied heavily upon editing and brought formalism to filmmaking. Hitchcock cites editing (and montage) as the lynchpin of worthwhile filmmaking.

- Hitchcock particularly acknowledged the significance of the Kuleshov (effect, from which he deprived his fondness for the point-of-view shot and for building sequences by cross cutting between person seeing and things seen. This effect is demonstrated by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov in the 1910's/20's. It's a mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation and the implication is that viewers brought their own emotional reactions to this sequence of images & attributed those reactions to the actor.

1950's-60's Issues:

- Post WWII America - society full of anxiety

- End of WWII didn't bring a feeling of victory and power to American culture; it created churning discomfort, an uncertainty about the future and a lack of clarity about the past

- Revelations of Germany's extermination of the Jews and the explosion of two atomic bombs over Japan shook the culture an confirmed how easily myths of civility order could fail

- Late 1950's - Americans deeply troubled by so many social shifts

- Vastly approaching the Atomic age

- Communist scare and fear of Russian expansion

- Move towards suburbia and the growth of multinational corporations were flourishing

- The real world issues of the 50's are reflected in Vertigo as Hitchcock presents Scottie as a character with an air of paranoia surrounding him and haunting him which represents the fear that the everyday man faced in America during the 50's due to the many conflicts that were occurring.

Scottie represents America

Gender politics:

Re-identification of gender roles -> loss of male identity and sexuality was a major concern - shown in Vertigo as Judy is in control of Scottie

Vertigo acts out the struggle for socially recognised gender roles, mostly through a battle for sexual domination between Scottie and Madeleine/Judy

Madeleine/Scott relationship encapsulates gender issues in America in the 50's -> women hold all the cards, sexually/intellectually cunning and superior to men -> takes femme fetale to a further extreme

Scottie is old school, goes through coming to terms that world isn't how he knew it -> this links to context as many men in America felt a similar feeling in the aftermath of WW2.

During WWII, women came flooding into the workforce but were reinserted into their former passive routines following men's return from battle

Movies, magazines & newspapers once again extolled the importance of motherhood

Vertigo supports the idea of the submissive domestic female through the character of Madeleine

Many films at this time examined questions of gender -> presents that the attitudes of Hollywood was starting to change in the aftermath of WWII.

Vertigo deals with many concerns through the creation of a deeply repressed man, contained by his fears & driven by his obsessions

Scottie is the timid 1950's man, reduced in stature and capability and can therefore be seen as a metaphor of all the 1950's middle-class, middle-aged men, undone by forces over which he has lost control

Vertigo is one of the most potent investigations of heterosexual panic undertaken in 1950's film

How cinematography shows the production context of Vertigo:
- The colours in Gavin Elster's office foreshadows everything that will happen to Scottie. All the colour values are used as symbols; red consuming the room signifies blood & death, especially the wide shot of the red rug. The use of red reflects the fear of Scottie which is reflective of the production context as this represents the fear that the everyday man faced in America during the 50's due to the many conflicts that were occurring.
- Vertigo conveys its production context as the movie pushes boundaries through cinematography. Vertigo invented the dolly zoom (when the camera zooms in and out, as seen when Scottie tries to rescue Madeleine and chases her up the staircase) which once again reflects the turbulent nature of America during the 50's as this scene shows chaos which reflects the chaos of the conflicts and wars that happened in the 50's

http://resource.download.wjec.co.uk.s3.amazonaws.com/vtc/2017-18/17-18_3-13/pdf/eng/vertigo-and-context-study-sheet.pdf -> Classical Hollywood Notes

http://resource.download.wjec.co.uk.s3.amazonaws.com/vtc/2017-18/17-18_3-13/pdf/eng/one-flew-and-context-study-sheet.pdf -> New Hollywood Notes

OFOTCN Notes:

- Originally a play -> audiences startled -> only ran between 5-6 months

- Kirk Douglas asked Forman to make a film of OFOTCN. 10yrs later he received the book from them due to a mix-up
- No major studio wanted to finance the film
- Made independently with a low budget
- Needed cheap director they respected = Milos Forman
- Big-name directors interview bu wouldn't say what they had in mind
- Forman realises how much picture meant to them, outlined his idea for the film in his meeting
- Forman; 'Czech movie about society' on OFOTCN, could relate, knew how these people felt
- Original script directly from book, however Forman sent new scriptwriter the script changes & screenplay writer was hired for £8k
- Casting conversations: McMurphy -> Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando rejected
- Jack Nicholson: persona was sensitive young man or intellectual badass -> not suitable for McMurphy, however 'The Last Detail' changed this perception
- Forman wanted Burt Reynolds for his 'cheap charisma' if they couldn't wait for Nicholson
- Had to wait 6/7 months if wanted Nicholson as he had previous commitments
- Nurse Ratched: Wanted someone who was personification of evil. Offered to actresses such as Anne Bancroft, Geraldine Page & Angela Lansbury
- Forman met Fletcher -> told Fletcher she wouldn't get part -> 'doesn't belief she isn't helping people', changed direction of character from being gradually nice to being evil so Fletcher was cast
- Chief: Douglas got help from Mel Lambert to cast, Chief wasn't an actor
- Forman wanted unknown members for rest of cast -> distinctive faces + distinctive characters -> wanted cast to look strange as tired of everyone in Hollywood looking the same

- 'entering the world of unknown. Mental institution', Visited 4 mental institutions, Oregon State hospital
- Wanted to make movie in place people lived/died and on location, not at a studio -> created ambience & isolation that's hard to match in a studio
- Rehearsals: half day rehearsing scenes from camera, half day spent on ward being there -> gives sense of being hospitalised & realistic tone
- 3rd day: Personal items bought out -> living in space on ward, Ate at hospital: each floor had game areas
- 5 days into rehearsal: Nicholson arrived -> confused why cast always in character originally
- Cast never broke character -> even at lunch etc
- Dr Brooks helped actors with their problems, put them with patients on different wards to learn about behaviour
- Being in hospital: helped actors stay in character -> brought humility onto set -> no one trying to be a big star -> beneficial for the film
- Forman wanted to capture real moments, camera rolling without cast knowing -> thinking they were rehearsing etc
- Group therapy effective -> actors didn't know when they'd be on camera
- Forman wants simple, direct acting -> guides them through their work -> allows actors to act natural, Forman: 'it must be real'
- Forman + Fletcher never discussed interpretation of Ratched, only she needs to be 'natural'
- Scriptwriter: own mother-in-law talked like Nurse Ratched, helped shape script
- Fletcher sees Ratched as human being & not a witch, believes in what she is doing is right for the patients
- Cast went out to dinner: Fletcher would organise where everyone sat
- Improvisation: fishing trip ad-libbed -> Forman didn't want the fishing trip scene as felt it'd be more impactful with them just staying in the hospital
- Jack was McMurphy: behind the camera as well
- Movie shot sequentially -> apart from fishing trip, Towards end: actors sleeping in actual beds on set, Filmed in January: helped create mood & atmosphere of the movie  

Social  (from eduqas)
- The film is based on the 1962 eponymous bestseller by Ken Kesey. Kesey was part of the hippie movement and went to Woodstock. His novel perfectly captures the counter-culture zeitgeist and the anti-psychiatry movement which had been gaining ground throughout the 1960s and 1970s through such writers and thinkers as R.D. Laing and Foucault. Extract from popular nursery rhyme: “Three geese in a flock One flew East One flew West And one flew over the cuckoo’s nest” A ‘cuckoo’s nest’ is a metaphor for a confining mental institution; a bird is a symbol of freedom and ‘the cuckoo’ is a bird that doesn’t belong in the nest it is reared in. 
The representation of the mental health profession: Aside from Nurse Ratched who is absolutely presented as evil, and the ward nurses and orderlies who are complicit in her control of the ward’s inmates, the only other medical character given major screen time is the ward doctor, Dr. Spivey (08:18). In a realist nod he is played by the real Superintendent of the Oregon State Hospital (Dr. Dean Brooks); he was keen to play in the film as he had a desire to raise the issue of the ‘criminalisation of the mentally ill’. McMurphy and the Dr. have a relaxed grownup chat like equals. Mcmurphy explains that the Penitentiary Work Farm want him assessed for mental illness because he fights and fucks too much. The Dr. feels he is faking mental illness to get out of work. 
The failure of democracy (41:58): Despite the nine relatively cogent patients all voting to watch a baseball game on TV, Nurse Ratched notes: ‘There are eighteen patients on this ward Mr McMurphy and you have to have a majority to change ward policy.’ McMurphy eventually gets the Chief to vote but the vote is ignored. Uncowed he stares at a vacant TV set and by using his imagination and personality, incites a minor rebellion by commentating on a pretend baseball game to the delight of the inmates. Nurse Ratched looks on furious, unable to silence the men (45:24 to 46:28). McMurphy’s victory is followed immediately by a cut to a medical assessment where he tells Dr. Spivey she is a ‘dishonest cunt’. 
The representation of mental illness: McMurphy is not mentally ill – just a gremlin in the system. Chief is not mentally ill just afraid. Billy is not mentally ill just insecure about his relationship with his. The diagnosis of mental illness and its treatment is the issue. McMurphy’s electric shock therapy is disturbingly shot in a long-take big close-up (01:23:08). This is mirrored by two other shocking close-ups: Nurse Ratched being strangled by McMurphy (01:56:44) and finally Chief (and us) discovering the horrible fact that McMurphy has been lobotomised (02:01:16). A great moment illustrating the plasticity of diagnosis is when the patients, who have escaped with McMurphy to go on an illegal fishing trip, literally transform from the mentally ill into the mentally gifted through the power of language alone when McMurphy introduces them to a bemused Harbour Master. Thus the labelling of mental illness is deemed as much a matter of perception as diagnosis. (54:01) “We’re from the state Mental institution… this is … the famous Dr Scanlon …” (54:09) The success of the trip (01:02:31) shows that other forms of non-institutionalised, medically controlled therapy may clearly work for many 4 A Level Film Studies - Focus Film Factsheet patients. The ship of fools is transformed. Later in another therapy session McMurphy discovers that most of the patients are not committed but voluntary. McMurphy tells all the patients that they are no more crazy than the average asshole walking around on the street. (01:09:07) The meeting descends into chaos and then a fight leading to McMurphy, Chief and Cheswick having electric shock therapy (or punishment). 

 How far does the film correspond to any of the New Hollywood features identified by Berliner or Schatz? Record examples and exceptions below:

examples

exceptions

Characters become plot functions; they're characteristics is what drives the film forward Prompts spectator responses that are more uncertain & discomforting than typical Hollywood cinema; the realism of events that occurred on the asylum makes audiences feel uneasy, especially the climax to the escape scene.  Strong emphasis on irresolution for McMurphy

The film-making isn't typical of Hollywood filmmakers that situate their film-making practices in between classical Hollywood & European/Asian art cinema as OFOTCN is way more inspired by the latter through the use of an unknown cast/crew & shooting on location However there is a resolution for Chief who manages to escape which shows that the narrative wasn't placing too much of a strong emphasis on irresolution There is narrative linearity as the film is depicting how McMurphy's mental state deteriorates through the events in the hospital so it is shown in order to present this downfall which differed from 1970 cinema that subverted narrative linearity.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest & Vertigo: film comparison

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Vertigo

Traditional gender roles reversed -> women hold all the power, Nurse Ratched is in charge

Traditional gender roles reversed -> Madeleine/Judy holds power over Scottie

Colour palette: saturation, white. Inside = bleak + outside = colour (McMurphy’s entry, the ending) to emphasise the bleak nature of the mental asylum

Colour palette: blonde hair, uses many colours to stand out

McMurphy = Optimistic initially

Scottie = Pessimistic initially

Women are in control & the men fall under the spell of the women (Candy, Nurse Ratched etc)

Men believe they are in control (e.g. Scottie). The male point of view is the driving force.

Camera influenced by movement -> Ratched is at the centre of the shot to signify she is the centre of attention & power

The camera movements create a claustrophobic atmosphere

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest & Vertigo: context comparison
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: 1970’s	Vertigo: 1950’s
Studio system nearly died out Independent filmmakers (e.g. Scorsese, De Palma, Lucas, Spielberg, Coppola) Explosion in creativity	Studio system held all the power (MGM, Paramount, Disney, Universal, Warner Bros, Columbia Pictures) -> owned all property/ rights to majority of films, films shown in studio owned cinemas, stars = contracts to studios
OFOTCN: Milos Forman -> director, 1st film made in Hollywood by him -> Czech independent director Jack Nicholson -> nobody at the time, advised by agent not to act 6 months before OFOTCN production	Vertigal integration: Studio own film (production, distribution, screening it) -> all money kept in-house Problem: stops creativity, smaller films don’t get made/shown
More risks taken in 1970’s Hollywood	1950’s films = similar pace as know it works

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest	Vertigo
- Risky production; not safe audience pleaser -> low-budget, improvised, non-formulaic	- 1958 – Cold War                  Communist fear in USA
- Actors had freedom to act how they wanted to -> had more creative freedom	- Studio system: A-list actors, big Hollywood studios putting up the money
- Independently produced	- World famous director (Hitchcock)
- Exclusively filmed on location	- Safe audience pleaser
Director = less directing, more 4 observing	- Structured
Forman created a safe zone for the actors	- Controlled

What are the essential differences between the 2 institutional contexts in which Vertigo (1958) and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)were produced?

- In New Hollywood, a new generation of young filmmakers came to prominence in America that influenced the types of films produced, their production & marketing & the way major studios approached film-making. This differed to the studio system where the studio were in control of all of these areas.

- In New Hollywood films, the director rather than the studio takes on the key authorial role

- Films made in this movement are stylistically characterised in their narrative which strongly contrasts with classical norms

- Vertigo was produced in 'the horrible decade' for Hollywood due to the use of spectacle features (e.g. 3D) whereas by the time OFOTCN was released, the commercial success of films had re-risen and Hollywood had turned around its bad reputation.

- New Hollywood filmmakers could shoot in 35mm camera film in exteriors with relative ease which led to the rapid development for location shooting, resulting in a more naturalistic approach to filmmaking, especially when compared to the stylised approach of classical Hollywood spectacles. During OFOTCN's production, location shooting was more viable & a new realism & closeness to everyday life could be adapted due to the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system.

Are there any similarities?

- New hollywood filmmakers adhered to realism in editing more liberally than most of their classical Hollywood predecessors. Editing used for artistic purposes, a practice inspired by European art films & classical Hollywood directors (e.g. Hitchcock)