Counter Cinema

Counter Cinema refers to film makers and institutions refusing to comply to the ideologies of Hollywood cinema. It breaks away from the conventions of Hollywood cinema. Some standard conventions of Hollywood cinema may include, cohesive and linear narrative structure.  It can be argued that counter cinema should not be produced by a corporate company- however against this, is the theory that although a corporate company produced it, the film could still question today's society, make the reader question ones self or make a political statement- which could be considered as counter cinema.

One film that fails to comply with the standard conventions of a Hollywood film in terms of linear scale is The Butterfly Effect, released in 2004. Directed by Eric Bess and J. Mackyre Gruber, The Butterfly Effect complies to some aspects of Hollywood film conventions, by using already well known actors. For instance, the main character in this film is Evan- who is played by the extremely famous Ashton Kutcher. Although it follows hollywood structure in the sense of equilibrium, disequilibrium and resolution. The begining is the equilibrium - where Ashton Kutcher is the popular, good looking student with the girlfriend. However, the disequilibrium comes when Ashton begins reading diaries and has black outs and the whole stereotypical hollywood linear storyline is disrupted. Each time the character has a black out a new storyline is introduced and the character does not have the life that we have previously witnessed him having. The resolultion in this film is not so much the hollywood happy ending as the main character decides that the only way that he can survive is by killing himself. This is very similar to Brechts theory that people should be aware of the effect of the characters actions, which made lead to the evaluation of their actions in society today. It may encourage self reflection as the viewer themselves may be asking " What would I do in that situation?" It teaches us that all decisions have consequences.

Another film that defies the Hollywood linear structure is Inception. Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan released July 2010(also a high budgeted, recent film)applies to most Hollywood film conventions, in the sense of stereotypes and the casting of already famous actors. However Christopher Nolan has edited this film incredibly, in order for a complex story line to be understood by most ( not all) viewers. There are four different timelines, running in-sync with each other, with the same characters in each timeline- involved in the same storyline. Generating questions about today's society, it asks the reader if society is so unbearable that we use sleep as an escapism?  Although it does not show what, at this time, may be classed as realistic, it highlights the danger or power of the increasing advance of  technology. If technology advances to this stage, we could live in an ideological world but the question is- would we want that?Emphasizing the power of ones mind, it focuses on the importance of forming an idea and how easily one can be influenced by another. It's about manipulation of the mind.

References

Boxofficemojo

Newline

Inception Movie Database

Film Theory and Criticism, Mast Cohen Braudy, Oxford University,1992