splendor in the grass 1.ppt

Splendor in the Grass (1961) is another of director Elisa Kazans dramatic, hyperbolic films with daring and controversial content for its times - sexual repression and neurosis. The intriguing, over-wrought film is a tragic, coming-of-age melodrama The time period of the plot occurs during the late 1920s and early 30s at the start of the disastrous Depression in a rural, SE Kansas town, coinciding with the intensity of a first love and the devastating consequences of repressed sexuality upon a pair of love-struck teenagers. The average American were busy buying automobiles and household appliances , and speculating in the stock market, where big money could be made. In the 1929, the stock market crashed and the economy collapsed and Hoover was defeated for reelection by Franklin Roosevelt. The 1920s were intoxicating times. The tensions and new possibilities made for such a heady atmosphere that a crash is inevitable. When the stock exchange crashed, those tensions and possibilities crashed with it . During the economic boom of the roaring twenties, the traditional values of rural America were changed by the Jazz Age, symbolized by women smoking drinking and wearing short shirts. With the women’s suffrage at its peak in the 1920s and the entrance of the flapper women began to make a statement within society and the Jazz Age was not immune to these new ideals. With women now taking part in the work force after the end of the First World War there were many more possibilities for women in terms of social life and entertainment. Ideas like equality and free sexuality were very popular during the time and women seemed to capitalize during this period. The 1920s saw the emergence of many famous women musicians including Bessie Smith . The films title is taken from English romantic William Wordsworths 1807 Ode, Intimations of Immortality from Reflections of Early Childhood. Some of which is quoted here: Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendor in the grass, o