Greatly influenced by the French New Wave and other international film movements, many American directors in the late 1960s and 1970s sought to revolutionize Hollywood cinema in a similar way. The New Hollywood movement, also known as the “American New Wave” and the “Hollywood Renaissance,” challenged traditional Hollywood standards and practices in countless ways, creating a more innovative and artistic style of filmmaking. Due to the advent and popularity of television, the significant decrease in movie theater attendance, the increase in production costs, and the changing tastes of the American public, especially the younger generations, Hollywood studios were in a state of financial disaster. Many film studios then hired a succession of young directors to revitalize the business and allow them to experiment and have almost complete creative control over their films. Furthermore, the abandonment of the restrictive Motion Picture Production Code in 1967 and the subsequent adoption of the MPAA's rating system in 1968 opened the door to an era of greater freedom and artistic expression. One of the most important and influential directors of New Hollywood was the Italian-American Martin Scorsese. His first major critical success, and what is often considered his "breakthrough" film, was 1973's Mean Streets. This film helped establish Scorsese's distinctive style of narrative, theme, and aesthetics. Scorsese has developed a unique and distinct directorial style for his films, with recurring themes, settings, cinematography, and editing techniques, among other elements. This has led numerous film critics to declare Scorsese an “auteur,” similar to Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, and other auteur directors of the French New Wave. no, André. "The Last Temptation of Travis Bickle." Off the Screen (1997). Print.Dirks, Tim. “History of 1970s Cinema.” Film site. Network. November 3, 2010.Friedman, Lester D. American Cinema of the 1970s: Themes and Variations. Oxford: Berg, 2007. Print.Jacobs, Diane. Hollywood Renaissance. New York: Dell Pub., 1980. Print.King, Geoff. New Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction. New York: Columbia UP, 2002. Print.Kolker, Robert Phillip. A cinema of solitude: Penn, Stone, Kubrick, Scorsese, Spielberg, Altman. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000. Print.Raymond, Marc. “Martin Scorsese”. The Senses of Cinema (2002). Print.Ryan, Michael. Camera Politics: politics and ideology of contemporary Hollywood cinema. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP, 1988. Print.Schatz, Thomas. New Hollywood violence. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2004. Print.