Within the section in this chapter on innovation I emphasised the necessary condition of recognition of innovation. I suggested that recognition of innovation might be articulated, in particular by critical and trade discourses. In addition, I noted that textual evidence of adoption of the innovation, of imitation of the innovative element or quality, would be sufficient to demonstrate that practitioners had recognized the innovation. I also qualified the extent of recognition, conceding that recognition could be limited to the particular sector of the film industry that went on to adopt the novel aspect. Furthermore, I
suggested that imitation of the innovation might be accompanied by other features shared with the innovative film, such as creative personnel or elements of the marketing
campaign, and this would assist identification of instances of imitation.
In the following chapters I will focus on analysing those discursive acts that evidence recognition of innovation in Bonnie and Clyde, and in chapter five consider critical discourses that suggest imitation of Bonnie and Clyde by later films. Motivated by a historical reception study approach, I will focus on the way(s) in which the film has been characterised across time. I will also consider how shifts in the characterisation of the film relate to shifts in its critical status. In particular I will emphasise discursive frames that position Bonnie and Clyde as aesthetically innovative, and maintain this primary focus on discourses around innovation. By favouring close attention to these discourses, and how the film was characterised at the time, the case study will investigate how innovation came to be recognized, rather than simply imposing an interpretive frame to explain both the element of innovation and its recognition.
I will address textual evidence of imitation of Bonnie and Clyde by other films, within chapter five, focussing on Hollywood genre films that feature specific instances of aestheticization. However, there are clearly methodological issues in identifying adoption of an innovation, and its influence, without considering a much wider survey of films. I stress that adoption of an innovation is not dependent upon a relationship of direct influence. Hence I will consider additional evidence that supports the suggestion that specific films have been influenced by Bonnie and Clyde. In the section of this chapter on innovation I have addressed the issue of identifying the innovation, whether as a new product, production process or management approach. A conception of innovation that assumes that the aspect of innovation is clear, and that influence can be simply read from an analysis of later films, is certainly problematic. Bearing this in mind, I will relate the specific aesthetic characteristics of various later films to those analysed in respect of
Bonnie and Clyde. Aesthetic innovation in Bonnie and Clyde, and its subsequent
influence on later films will be considered in terms of the aesthetic characteristics shared between Bonnie and Clyde and each film, and how these relate to the aesthetic norms and conventions of the time.
I have also suggested the possible need for a parallel innovation of critical vocabulary in order to recognize innovation, and to articulate this recognition. Whilst I will address the possibility of a rupture in critical practice in relation to the reception of Bonnie and
vocabularies applied to the film. Where critics foreground particular qualities or aspects of the film, and these are evaluated as distinct or valuable, I will consider how the characterization of these qualities or aspects change in retrospect. In analysing the aesthetic characteristics of Bonnie and Clyde I will also address those aspects that are unmentioned by the critics. This opening chapter has explored the notions of innovation in cinema and cinematic aesthetics. I shall now concentrate on the case study of Bonnie
Chapter 2: Analysing reviews of Bonnie and Clyde
Introduction to case study on Bonnie and Clyde
Whilst chapter one provided a theorisation of the two concepts of innovation and cinema aesthetics, this chapter begins the case study on Bonnie and Clyde, focussing attention upon the critical reception of the film at the time of its theatrical release. I will consider the extent to which Bonnie and Clyde was considered as innovative, but will analyse
reviews more comprehensively to isolate critical tendencies in the synchronic reception in order subsequently to suggest shifts in criticism in the diachronic reception of the film. As previously noted, the thesis focusses primarily on discursive acts that recognize innovation in Bonnie and Clyde, but in order to fully analyse these I will consider all the analysed discourses used to characterise the film, particularly those aspects or qualities of
Bonnie and Clyde that critics privilege in their discourses.
Chapter two will apply two methods of textual analysis to contemporary reviews. The first approach, content analysis, will be used to consider the content of the reviews, what critics discuss about the film and what tropes feature in their characterisation of Bonnie
and Clyde. This will enable me to isolate tendencies amongst the reviews, grouping
reviews according to shared emphases. The second approach, discourse analysis, will be used to consider in more detail how individual critics discuss the film, the organisation of their criticism, the underlying criteria and classificatory schemata they apply in their characterization of the film, and particularly how they characterize the aesthetics of
Bonnie and Clyde. However, although ultimately I will be concerned with the
characterization of the aesthetics of the film, and particularly recognition of aesthetic innovation, I will initially consider the critical characterization of the film more
generally. This will be useful in accounting for the way in which critics de-emphasise the aesthetics of the film, whether generally or specifically for Bonnie and Clyde, for
Hollywood films, or for films of particular genres.
The emphasis upon discourses around aesthetic innovation is informed by the
conceptualisation of recognition of innovation and cinema aesthetics in chapter one. I have stressed the discursive articulation of recognition of innovation, and, following Mukarovsky, emphasised how cinema aesthetics and aestheticization are collectively constituted by critical and trade discourses, as well as industry practices. This chapter, as well as much of chapters three and five, will develop a discourse analytic approach to consider the historical critical reception of Bonnie and Clyde.