A Hard Day's Night

939 Words4 Pages
In this paper I will study the cultural significance of Richard Lester’s A Hard Day’s Night. Observing any influences it has on other films and cultural phenomena, I shall argue that Lester’s film invented or popularize many filmic conventions now considered standard in the movie and television industry. Arguments will be supported with research on the significance and influences a Hard Day’s Night has had on other films. This paper covers concepts such as; montage theory, jump cuts, camera shots, French New Wave, art film (especially surrealism), realism (mockumentary), and performance of the ‘actors’ (particularly accents) as they relate to a Hard Day’s Night. “The film was so influential in its androgynous imagery that untold, thousands of young men walked into the theatre with short haircuts, and their hair started growing during the movie and didn't get cut again until the 1970s,” is how film critic Roger Ebert described Richard Lester’s 1964 English comedy A Hard Day’s Night, a ground breaking and historical film featuring the…show more content…
Despite the movie’s intentions to benefit from the Beatles success it also meant that the dynamic four from Liverpool had to create some more work of their own. The soundtrack to the movie was The Beatles first album that was purely their work and didn’t contain any cover songs. In contrast to the film having one of the catchiest film titles A Hard Day’s Night it was actually undecided what the film would be called until it was reportedly chosen due to Ringo Starr’s humorous affection of malapropisms. Once the title had been selected the producers requested that the 4 superstars produced a song to validate the title. This resulted in the birth of one of arguably the greatest songs of all time the classic hit was conceived, written, and performed all in a 2 to 3 day
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