ABSTRACT
The international advances of the 1950s and the technological experiments in widescreen
and documentary techniques provided the context for the influence of television and theatre in the 1960s and 1970s. The sum effect was twofold: to make the flow of talent and creative
influence more international than ever and, more important, to signal that innovation,
whether its source was new or old, was critical. Indeed, the creative explosion of the 1950s and 1960s was nothing less than a gauntlet: a challenge to the next generation to make artful
what was ordinary and to make art from the extraordinary. The result was an explosion of individualistic invention that has had a profound effect on how the partnership of sound
and image has been manipulated. The innovations have truly been international, with a
German director making an American film (Paris, Texas, 1984) and an American director making a European film (Barry Lyndon, 1975).
