FLM 156 — The End of Censorship and Beginning of Modern American Cinema, 1965–72
Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): Mick LaSalle
Date(s): Jan 16—Mar 20
Class Recording Available: No
Class Meeting Day: Thursdays
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 6:30—9:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $550
Refund Deadline: Jan 18
Unit(s): 2
Status: Registration opens Dec 2, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Winter
Day: Thursdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 6:30—9:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jan 16—Mar 20
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $550
Refund Deadline: Jan 18
Instructor(s): Mick LaSalle
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Recording Available: No
Status: Registration opens Dec 2, 8:30 am (PT)
In 1968, the Motion Picture Association of America threw out the rigid Production Code, which had censored movies since July 1934 and instituted the rating system that movies use today. This new freedom brought modernity to movies and occasioned an explosion of innovation and creativity not seen since the early days of sound film in the 1930s.
How the Production Code met its end is a fascinating story, beginning with an attempt to suppress the American distribution of an Italian film, The Miracle (1948), and a French film, La Ronde (1951), which resulted in a Supreme Court decision affirming that movies are a form of protected speech under the Constitution. This course will begin with these early breakers, as well as Baby Doll (1956) and The Pawnbroker (1965), and then go on to explore the immediate aftermath of the Code—looking at trailblazing films such as Goodbye, Columbus (1969), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Five Easy Pieces (1970), and The Godfather (1972). It was a period of great films, but with one significant drawback—movies with good roles for actresses (such as Klute, with Jane Fonda) were few and far between.
How the Production Code met its end is a fascinating story, beginning with an attempt to suppress the American distribution of an Italian film, The Miracle (1948), and a French film, La Ronde (1951), which resulted in a Supreme Court decision affirming that movies are a form of protected speech under the Constitution. This course will begin with these early breakers, as well as Baby Doll (1956) and The Pawnbroker (1965), and then go on to explore the immediate aftermath of the Code—looking at trailblazing films such as Goodbye, Columbus (1969), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Five Easy Pieces (1970), and The Godfather (1972). It was a period of great films, but with one significant drawback—movies with good roles for actresses (such as Klute, with Jane Fonda) were few and far between.
MICK LASALLE
Film Critic, Hearst Newspapers
Mick LaSalle is the author of Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood, Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man, The Beauty of the Real: What Hollywood Can Learn from Contemporary French Actresses, and Dream State: California in the Movies. He writes for the San Francisco Chronicle and other Hearst newspapers. Textbooks for this course:
There are no required textbooks; however, some fee-based online readings may be assigned.