Ebook: The Hollywood Renaissance: Revisiting American Cinema’s Most Celebrated Era

In the year 1966, six films were released with the designation ‘Suggested for Mature Audiences’, with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? credited with ushering in more permissive and mature content. Almost a year later, the December 8, 1967 cover of Time featured a picture from Bonnie and Clyde with the somewhat sensationalist headline: ‘The New Cinema: Violence… Sex… Art’. Two years later, the MPAA Ratings System were put into place – acknowledging the success and generational change in the film industry with younger executives and directors adopting a new approach to mainstream filmmaking. Over fifty years on, Yannis Tzioumakis and Peter Krämer’s collection on one of the most explosive eras of Hollywood history examines 13 films from this period, situating each in its historical and political context with reference to important filmmakers, stars, production trends and organisations.
The Hollywood Renaissance investigates these changes in the American film industry and American culture of the mid-1960s which made the Hollywood Renaissance possible. Concluding with a look at the legacy of the Hollywood Renaissance on contemporary American cinema, the volume explores both its aftermath in the late 1970s and the arguments about the emergence of the ‘New New Hollywood’ with its emphasis on the production of blockbuster by an increasingly conglomerated Hollywood majors and its impact on what became known as American independent or indie cinema.