Riding with Bonnie and Clyde

The banjo tune “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” took a roundabout path to become the voice of the genre-changing film Bonnie and Clyde, first released in 1967. The movie’s eventual star, Warren Beatty, was behind the scoring and several stories are presented about his decision. The movie script, by Esquire staffers Robert Benton and David Newman, also passed through a succession of hands—including those of French New Wave auteurs François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard—before Beatty, its champion, succeeded in getting the services of American director Arthur Penn. The resulting movie, a fictionalization of criminals Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker’s murderous episodes, had a slow start but eventually galvanized audiences with its dark humor and raucous score. NYT critic Bosley Crowther saw his career at the paper end after fervently dissing the film.

Penn, Arthur (1922–2010)

Arthur Penn was an American stage director, television producer, and filmmaker. During the 1950s, Penn’s successful run as a director of television dramas led to an offer to direct the feature film The Left Handed Gun (1958). Throughout the 1960s, Penn alternated between film and stage work, directing some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

Quando eu sou o Outro: problemas de ethos e identidade no filme Pequeno Grande Homem

RESUMO: Este artigo pretende estudar a relação da construção do ethos e da identidade no personagem principal do filme Pequeno Grande Homem (Little Big Man, 1970) de Arthur Penn, além de salientar as representações do Outro (os nativos norte-americanos) na narrativa fílmica. Através de um encontro interdisciplinar entre componentes da Análise do discurso (AD), da linha francesa de Maingueneau, e os estudos culturais, propomos uma visão mais ampla sobre a questão do eu e do Outro no gênero de faroeste. Os referencias teóricos estão focados em Tzvetan Todorov e Stuart Hall, para analisarmos a questão do Outro, a cultura e a identidade. Para enveredarmos na temática do ethos, buscamos teorias do discurso baseadas nos estudos de Dominique Maingueneau, que, por sinal, pertencem à linha de pesquisa da AD de linha francesa. Pretendemos, através deste estudo, problematizar a questão do Outro, entendendo que o personagem principal do filme desconstrói um ethos pré-discursivo, estabelecido na cultura norte-americana, em que a tradição via o nativo como selvagem e bestial. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Pequeno Grande Homem; outro; ethos; identidade; faroeste. ABSTRACT: This paper intends to analyze the relation of ethos and identity construction in the protagonist of the film Little Big Man (Arthur Penn, 1970), besides stressing out the representations of the Other (the North American natives) in the filmic narrative. Through an interdisciplinary approach between components of the Discourse Analysis from the French studies of Maingueneau, and cultural studies, we propose a substantial vision about the matter of the other and I in the western genre. The theoretical references are focused on Tzvetan Todorov and Stuart Hall, to analyze the matter of the other, culture and identity. To analyze the discursive ethos, we relied on discourse theories based on the studies of Dominique Maingueneau, that, by the way, belong to the French Discourse Analysis. Through this study, we intend to problematize the issue of the other, understanding that the protagonist of the film deconstructs a pre-discursive ethos, established on the North American culture, where tradition saw the native as a savage. KEYWORDS: Little Big Man; other; ethos; identity; western.

Chekhov's Poetic and Social Realism on the Italian Stage, 1924–1964

This article explores the introduction of Chekhov's plays to Italy through émigré circles in the first decades of the twentieth century, and traces how they were appropriated to suit the ideological exigencies of the time during the fascist period. It concludes with observations about Luchino Visconti's celebrated productions of the 1950s, which stressed the idea that Chekhov was first and foremost a political writer, and suggests how this particular view of the dramatist evolved in the early 1960s as the theatre once again reflected social attitudes and values. Anna Sica is a lecturer at the University of Palermo. She has published monographs in Italy on the commedia dell'arte (1997), Arthur Penn (2000), and theatre in New York (2005), as well as articles on Pirandello and contemporary Italian drama in various journals.