James Bond and Art Cinema

Abstract

The James Bond films are an enduring example of “escapist” popular cinema seemingly at odds with the filmmaking traditions of European modernism. However, this chapter offers the 007 film series as a candidate for Britain’s contribution to the European Art Cinema tradition. From Maurice Binder’s opening credits for Dr. No (1962), reminiscent of experimental filmmaker Len Lye, to the discontinuous editing patterns and jump cuts of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), 1960s Bond cinema formally registers the violation of the classical norms and stylistic traits upon which art cinema was predicated. This chapter accordingly identifies how the stylistic transformation of the early Bond films can be woven into the art cinema traditions and political modernism of post-war European filmmaking.