Chapter1英语电影讲稿.ppt

Chapter 1,History and Genre,Introduction,Two basic parameters used when categorizing films: history and genre. History Features: simplicity and shortness Three major historical periods: a. Early cinema b. Classical Hollywood cinema c. Post-Hollywood cinema,Genre a. social drama; b. romance; c. gangster; d. war film; e. science fiction; f. fantasy; g. western; h. disaster; i. crime; j. epic; k. action;,l. musical; m. blockbuster; n. film Noir Neo-Noir; o. comedy; p. horror; q. thriller;,Defining criteria: a. technological developments; b. patterns of industrial organization; c. characteristic artistic features; Genre: Definition: the categories into which, on the basis of shared characteristics, we place artistic, musical, literary or cinematic works.,Significance of the concept of genre: a. best way of organizing films into meaningful groups; b. useful guide as to the potentially significant elements of a given film.,Early film,Technical developments,Patterns of industrial organization a. production was based on the so- called “cameraman system”; b. films were the product of the cameraman; c. cameraman took charge of planning, writing, filming, and editing;,d. monopolized by two companies, Edison and Biograph with setting up Motion Pictures Patent Company; e. the anti-trust claim, filed in1912 and delivered in 1915, broke up the monopolization of MPCC and paved the way for a new stage in the history of cinema.,Characteristic artistic features,a. bear little in common with the cinema of today; b. sought to record and represent aspects of “real life” (actuality filming); c. consisted of a single long distance shot of a single figure; d. relied on spectacle rather than narrative (“the cinema of attractions”).,Classical Hollywood cinema,Time: from the early 1920s through to the late 1950s; Technological advances: a. the emergence of sound introduced by Warner Brothers in Don Juan(1926); b. the arrival of color technology in 1920s and 1930s; e. both color and sound were destined to become staple ingredients of the Hollywood film.,Patterns of industrial organization,a. the emergence of the “studio system; b. the domination of the five major companies( the “ Big five”-Warner Brothers, Loews-MGM, Fox, Paramount and Radio-Keith-Orpheum; the “Little Three”-Columbia, Universal and United Artists); c. an oligopoly and a strategy of vertical integration-combine production, distribution, and exhibition functions);,f. Exert control over the whole process from production to exhibition ; g. Exert control over independent players; h. the “star” and “star vehicle” was born-film built around a number of major stars;,Characteristic artistic features,a. a cinema of narrative; b. from the logic of linear narrative to more sophisticated narrative-based methods of cinematic storytelling;（from “attraction film” to “narrative film”) c. the narrative ingredients of film-such as causality, temporal logic, motivated action, and plot resolution- were in place; d. mastered the art of continuity editing; e. narrative illogicalities excluded and awkward visual transitions ironed out-much smoother and more polished product; f. the major cinematic genres emerged and developed into well-defined forms.,The Ideology of Classical Hollywood Cinema,The classical Hollywood cinema is not a “value-free” set of aesthetic norms and formal principles; it also embodies an ideology. a. Property, enterprise, initiative; b. The work ethic-honest toilsuspicious of idleness; c. Marriage, family, and home; d. Progress, technology, the city; e. Success and wealth-contradictory ideology about success and wealth; f. America as a land of happiness-happy ending;,g. the ideal male-virile man of action; h. the ideal female-wife and mother, perfect companion and mainstay of the home; This ideology is most prominent in the period of classical Hollywood but since it is at root part of a much broader American ideology these values may structure the films of any period.,Post-Classical Hollywood Cinema,Time: from 1960s onward; Challenges: a. the number of film audience dropped from one third once a week in 1946 to fewer than one quarter once a month in 1980s; b. the 1949 anti-trust case against Paramount prohibited the majors from domination of both distribution and exhibition and from owning cinemas;,c. the growth of television in 1950s drew audience away from the big screen and towards the small; d. Hollywoods own over-investment in production; Reponsestactics: a. adjust the supply and demand dynamic; b. deal with the problem of television through cooperation rather than direct competition;,c. the big screen release on DVDvideo pay-per-view TV premium cable film channel network TV,d. the future of the film industry lies not only on the big screen, but also on the increasing variety of other exhibition formats now available.,Two Major Sub-periods: I. first major sub-periods ( “ New Hollywood or “ renaissance” from late 1960s to 1970s); a. a new generation of directors came to the forefront with a series of immense hits; b. combine a mastery of the technical aspects of filmmaking with a thorough knowledge of the aesthetics and history of the cinema; c. admire the tradition of classical Hollywood and draw for ideas and inspiration on the “art films” of the European tradition;,II. Second major sub-period (“ New New Hollywood” from 1980s); a. fresh talents have emerged ; b. some of these later entrant have come from outside the USA; others have worked in the independent sector prior to their arrival in Hollywood; c. highly diversified array of directorial talent;,Characteristic artistic features: a. draw on the traditions of classical Hollywood in flexible, eclectic(兼容并蓄的，变通的）manner; b. genres remain, but their conventions are observed less strictly; c. causal relationship still form the basis of Hollywood narrative, but the connections between events are looser and temporal logic may occasionally be flouted; d. the protagonist may be “aimless” instead of being motivated to achieve a goal; e. foreground its stylistic devices instead of achieving “invisible style”;,Categorization of Genres,Principles: a. no definitive list of the Hollywood genres; b. filmmakers and audiences in practice use the concept of genre as a loose, flexible, and overlapping system; c. generic categories are defi