The Foreign Film Renaissance on American Screens, 1946-1973

382 Pages·2010·2.42 MB·English

by  Tino Balio

The Foreign Film Renaissance on American Screens,
1946–1973
wisconsin film studies
Patrick McGilligan
Series Editor
The Foreign Film
Renaissance on
American Screens,
1946– 1973
Tino Balio
The University of Wisconsin Press
Publication of this volume has been made possible, in part,
through support from
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at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
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1 3 5 4 2
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Balio, Tino.
The foreign film renaissance on American screens, 1946–1973 / Tino Balio.
p. cm.—(Wisconsin film studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-299-24794-2 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-299-24793-5 (e-book)
1. Foreign films—United States.
2. Foreign films—United States—Reviews.
I. Title. II. Series: Wisconsin film studies.
PN1995.9.F67B35 2010
791.43´75—dc22
2010011533
Contents
Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 3
Part One: Emergence
1 Antecedents 25
2 Italian Neorealism 40
3 British Film Renaissance 62
Part Two: Import Trends
4 Market Dynamics 79
5 French Films of the 1950s 100
6 Japanese Films of the 1950s 118
7 Ingmar Bergman: The Brand 130
8 The French New Wave 145
9 Angry Young Men: British New Cinema 168
10 The Second Italian Renaissance 182
11 Auteurs from Outside the Epicenter 206
Part Three: Changing Dynamics
12 Enter Hollywood 227
13 The Aura of the New York Film Festival 250
14 Collapse 279
Epilogue 301
Appendix: Variety’s All-Time Foreign Language Films to 2000 309
Notes 313
Select Bibliography 343
Index 347
v

Illustrations
Aldo Fabrizi as Don Pietro in Roberto Rossellini’s Open City(1946) 5
Peter Lorre in Fritz Lang’s M(1933) 29
Danielle Darrieux and Charles Boyer in Anatole Litvak’s
Mayerling(1937) 32
Charles Laughton and Binnie Barnes in Alexander Korda’s
The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) 37
The black American MP Joe (Dots Johnson) and the Italian
street urchin Pasquale (Alfonsino Pasca) in Roberto Rossellini’s
Paisan(1948) 48
Enzo Staiola and Lamberto Maggiorani in Vittorio De Sica’s
The Bicycle Thief(1949) 51
Federico Fellini and Anna Magnani in Roberto Rossellini’s
The Miracle(1950) 53
Carlo Battisti in Vittorio De Sica’s Umberto D(1955) 56
Silvana Mangano in Giuseppe De Santis’s Bitter Rice(1950) 60
Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in Noël Coward’s
Brief Encounter(1946) 65
Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet (1948) 69
Stanley Holloway and Alec Guinness in Charles Crichton’s
The Lavender Hill Mob(1951) 74
Michele Morgan, Pierre Blanchar, and Line Noro in Jean Delannoy’s
Symphonie Pastorale(1948) 102
Georges Poujouly and Brigitte Fossey in René Clément’s
Forbidden Games(1952) 105
Jacques Tati and Nathalie Pascaud in Tati’s Mr. Hulot’s Holiday(1954) 109
Véra Clouzot, Simone Signoret, and Paul Meurisse in
Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Diabolique(1955) 113
Brigitte Bardot in Roger Vadim’s And God Created Woman(1957) 115
Toshiro Mifune and Machiko Kyo in Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon(1951) 119
vii
viii (cid:1) Illustrations
Machiko Kyo and Masayuki Mori in Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu(1954) 122
Takashi Shimura in Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru (1960) 128
Gunnar Björnstrand and Ulla Jacobsson in Ingmar Bergman’s
Smiles of a Summer Night(1957) 132
Victor Sjöström as Isak Borg in Wild Strawberries(1959) 135
Ingrid Thulin as Ester, Gunnel Lindblom as Anna, and Birger Malmsten
as The Bartender in Ingmar Bergman’s The Silence(1964) 143
Breno Mello and Marpessa Dawn in Marcel Camus’s
Black Orhpeus(1959) 150
Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada in Alain Resnais’s Hiroshima
Mon Amour(1960) 152
Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in Jean-Luc Godard’s
Breathless(1961) 155
Oskar Werner and Jeanne Moreau in François Truffaut’s
Jules and Jim(1962) 160
Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, and Georgia Moll in Jean-Luc Godard’s
Contempt(1964) 166
Laurence Harvey and Simone Signoret in Jack Clayton’s
Room at the Top(1959) 172
Albert Finney and Rachel Roberts in Karl Reisz’s Saturday Night
and Sunday Morning(1961) 176
Dora Bryan and Rita Tushingham in Tony Richardson’s A Taste
of Honey(1962) 177
Giulietta Masina and Anthony Quinn in Federico Fellini’s
La Strada(1956) 185
Monica Vitti and Gabriele Ferzetti in Michelangelo Antonioni’s
L’Avventura(1961) 189
Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg in Federico Fellini’s
La Dolce Vita(1961) 192
Renato Salvatori and Annie Girardot in Luchino Visconti’s
Rocco and His Brothers(1961) 194
Sophia Loren and Eleanora Brown in Vittorio De Sica’s
Two Women(1961) 202
Fernando Rey and Silvia Pinal in Luis Buñuel’s Viridiana(1962) 208
Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore in Satyajit Ray’s
The World of Apu (1960) 211
Alexei Batalov in Mikhail Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying(1959) 219
Melina Mercouri and Jules Dassin in Dassin’s Never on Sunday(1960) 230
Illustrations (cid:1) ix
Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant in Claude Lelouch’s
A Man and a Woman(1966) 241
Alan Bates and Anthony Quinn in Michael Cacoyannis’s
Zorba the Greek(1964) 243
Jolanta Umecka and Zygmunt Malanowicz in Roman Polanski’s
Knife in the Water(1963) 252
François Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Cargol in Truffaut’s
The Wild Child(1970) 263
Eiji Okada and Kyoko Kishida in Hiroshi Teshigahara’s
Woman in the Dunes(1964) 265
Alessandro Panseri in Ermanno Olmi’s The Sound of Trumpets(1963) 267
Pia Dagermark in Bo Widerberg’s Elvira Madigan(1967) 278
Barbara Jefford and Milo O’Shea in Joseph Strick’s Ulysses(1967) 285
Lena Nyman and Börje Ahlstedt in Vilgot Sjöman’s
I Am Curious (Yellow)(1969) 290
Maria Schneider and Marlon Brando in Bernardo Bertolucci’s
Last Tango in Paris(1973) 297