BEHIND THE ART HOUSE: The Evolution of Art-House Distribution after World War II and the Rise of the Selling of Films as High Culture
This dissertation focuses on the hitherto under-examined role played by art-film distributors in the creation and development of what I call "art-film culture" in the United States from 1945 to 1962. It is based in large part on original interviews with film distributors, film critics, and exhibitors, as well as newly discovered archival material from numerous sources. After World War II, Italian neorealism exploded on the American cultural scene, creating the first significant wave of art-houses, which led leading independent movie houses to adopt art-film policies in response to industry changes, and brought the attention of major critics to art films. This boom was facilitated by these postwar shifts in film distribution following the Paramount decrees as well as demographic charge and cold-war government import and export policies designed to assist the Hollywood film industry. The art-house phenomenon, though confined to niche, upper-middle class taste cultures in college towns and major cities, had an impact and influence on American film culture beyond its actual audiences. The art film helped contribute to evolutions in public móres, the rise of teaching film in universities, emulations of art-house style in more mainstream American films, and a change in the way film itself was considered. Art film distributors such as Arthur Mayer and Janus Films facilitated the consecration of film as "art," to be considered on a level with other fine arts such as ballet or painting. The evidence demonstrates that the independent art-house phenomenon had already peaked with the rise of the French new wave (such films as Breathless [1960, released in the U.S. 1961] and Jules and Jim [1962, U.S. 1962]), as major studios became more involved in the importation of foreign films. At the same time, however, the stylistic and adult-geared elements of art films were appropriated by Hollywood releases.
Film studies, American studies, art film, film distribution, film exhibition, history, Janus
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