The New Wave Americans

Both Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee are apart of a new generation of American filmmakers that were trained entirely through film schools. They’re truly American “Auteurs”, not just in the sense that you can study their individual work and find similarities throughout the body, but more in the sense that their films reflect their own personal vision. According to a group of film critics known as the Cahiers du cinema, regardless if the directors are the screenwriters or not, he or she should use their camera as a pen (camera stylo), write through the mise en scène, and imprint their vision on the work. So if Lee and Scorsese are “Auteurs” we must ask the question, what vision are they trying to imprint on their work? The answer is rather simple, because both directors are trying to achieve similar visions. Scorsese, through “Mean Streets”, is trying to portray a definitive aspect of his a youth as an ‘itailianamerican’, and Spike Lee through “Joe’s Bed Stuy Barbershop “, is trying to do the same thing, a portrait of his youth as a Black American. Although they cover different aspects of their particular culture, these two directors are both making a valiant attempt at penning a vision of their youth culture upon the films they make.


When I the use the words “youth culture” I’m not merely expressing the idea of the overall American counterculture movement. That’s involved, but more specially I’m making a reference to the way Lee and Scorsese viewed their relative cultures through their own eyes, as well as the media were influenced by as ‘young people’.





“Mean Streets” is a more realistic depiction of an Italian American community in the eyes of its writer and director Martin Scorsese. Here we see a mafia life that’s not as flashy, grandiose, or beautiful; as it’s captured in movies like “The Godfather”. He uses his training from film school and his admiration of European cinema, specifically French, and Italian styles to create realism. The advancement of film technology also helps him in penning his vision. An example of this advancement is the creation of smaller cameras the lack of large, clunky equipment. The smaller camera allows Scorsese to get closer into the scene. We see it being used effectively in the fight scene in the bar when one of Charlie‘s friends is called a “mook“. The relatively light weight of the camera allows it to be placed on the shoulder, and we are thrown right into the shot as an audience. We also get a shot thats a long take with few cuts throughout this entire scene. This of course is something Scorsese learned from the French New Wave. The long take with no cuts does the perfect job of making us feel as though we are apart of the fight, this in turn adds to the realism of the film. It also gives us are own gaze, no longer are regulated to just spectators off in the distance. Now there are three gazes, the director, the characters, and are own. We’re left to make our own choices about what we see on the screen. Throughout the film we also get culturally references. We see a glimpse of Martin’s inner struggle with his own religion. However, we’ve seen this in other Italian gangster films; the inclusion of Catholicism is something that happens often. Although this is an important aspect of the story, what’s most impressive in “Mean Streets”, as previously stated, is the use of the camera as actually true to life camera stylo. Through this we see the film is setting up Scorsese’s signature, he’s becoming an ‘Auteur’.




Spike Lee’s “Joe’s Bed Stuy Barbershop” is less about the technical aspects, although we do see him experiment with some techniques he’ll use in later films, and more about the political and economical aspects of the Black community as Lee knows it. Spike having grown up with Blaxplotation films knows all about the stereotypes placed on black characters, and it’s obvious that he wants to avoid this. He also wants to avoid classical Hollywood clichés; however, despite his attempts to stay away from these pitfalls, he fails at both. The movie is a political statement to his personal struggle, a concept we see used again, by French New Wave filmmakers. Portraying authentic Black experience vs. economic advancement, this is the battle being waged not only within the film but also within Lee. He has a choice of, in modern day youth culture terms “Keeping it real”, or “selling out”. By selling out he would make his movies appeal to a more mainstream audience and thus taking him into the world of Hollywood. In that world he wouldn’t struggle to get financing for his films. So which choice does Lee make? We do get the authentic experience of a Black family, something which we aren’t show to often in popular cinema, but we also get the stereotypical Blaxploatation character, and the Classical Hollywood film fatale character. Lovejoy is the kind of criminal, pimp, character that we see glamorized in Blaxploation. He looks pretty, he talks pretty, and he makes his money illegally. Zack’s wife is the classical female noir character that causes the downfall of her male companion. So we see Lee take position on both sides, even in an independently funded student film. However, make no mistake about it, we still see some none stereotypical characters, and an 80% authentic experience, which is better than none. In doing this Lee starts to develop his auteur style of taking on issues within the black community.



Through these two films we see both Spike and Martian represent there cultures as they saw it in the years of their youth. We start to see them develop specific styles, and through studying their body of work we can see these styles, and themes worked over and over again. They’re truly are American ‘Auteurs’.






References:

Bernardoni, James. 1991. The New Hollywood. North Carolina: Mcfarland & Company, Inc. Publishers.

Guerrero, Edward. 1993. Framing Blackness. Philadelphia: Temple University.

Neupert, Richard. 2002. A History of the French New Wave Cinema. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.