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Classical Hollywood Cinema
Classical Hollywood cinema is a term used in film criticism to describe both a narrative and visual style of filmmaking which became characteristic of American cinema between the 1910s (rapidly after World War I) and the 1960s. It eventually became the most powerful and pervasive style of filmmaking worldwide. Similar or associated terms include classical Hollywood narrative, the Golden Age of Hollywood, Old Hollywood, and classical continuity. For centuries, the only visual standard of narrative storytelling art was the theatre. Since the first narrative films in the mid-late 1890s, filmmakers have sought to capture the power of live theatre on the cinema screen. Most of these filmmakers started as directors on the late 19th-century stage, and likewise most film actors had roots in vaudeville (e.g. The Marx Brothers) or theatrical melodramas. Visually, early narrative films had adapted little from the stage, and their narratives had adapted very little from vaudeville and m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gone With The Wind (film)
''Gone with the Wind'' is a 1939 American epic historical romance film adapted from the 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell. The film was produced by David O. Selznick of Selznick International Pictures and directed by Victor Fleming. Set in the American South against the backdrop of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era, the film tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara ( Vivien Leigh), the strong-willed daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, following her romantic pursuit of Ashley Wilkes ( Leslie Howard), who is married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland), and her subsequent marriage to Rhett Butler (Clark Gable). The film had a troubled production. The start of filming was delayed for two years until January 1939 because of Selznick's determination to secure Gable for the role of Rhett. The role of Scarlett was difficult to cast, and 1,400 unknown women were interviewed for the part. The original screenplay by Sidney Howard underwent many revis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slapstick
Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such as saws and ladders. The term arises from a device developed for use in the broad, physical comedy style known as '' commedia dell'arte'' in 16th-century Italy. The " slap stick" consists of two thin slats of wood, which make a "slap" when striking another actor, with little force needed to make a loud—and comical—sound. The physical slap stick remains a key component of the plot in the traditional and popular Punch and Judy puppet show. Other examples of slapstick humor include '' The Naked Gun'' and Mr. Bean. Origins The name "slapstick" originates from the Italian ''Batacchio'' or ''Bataccio'' – called the " slap stick" in English – a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in '' commedia dell'arte''. When struck ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interbellum Generation
Interbellum Generation is a term (derived from the Latin ''inter'' "between" and ''bellum'' "war") that is sometimes used to denote people born in the United States during the first decade of the 20th century, often expressed specifically as the years 1901 to 1913. The name comes from the fact that those born during this time were too young to have served in the military during World War I, and were generally too old to serve as enlisted personnel in World War II though many of them joined the armed forces then. Therefore the Interbellum Generation was sandwiched between the Lost Generation and the Greatest Generation. Members of this generation came of age either during the Roaring Twenties or the initial phase of the Great Depression, prior to the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the promulgation of the New Deal. This fact contributed to the core of this generation holding lifelong left-liberal views in politics, especially on economic issues, although with a few p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Jazz Singer
''The Jazz Singer'' is a 1927 American musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music score as well as lip-synchronous singing and speech (in several isolated sequences). Its release heralded the commercial ascendance of sound films and effectively marked the end of the silent film era. It was produced by Warner Bros. with the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system and features six songs performed by Al Jolson. Based on the 1925 play of the same title by Samson Raphaelson, the plot was adapted from his short story "The Day of Atonement". The film depicts the fictional story of Jakie Rabinowitz, a young man who defies the traditions of his devout Jewish family. After singing popular tunes in a beer garden, he is punished by his father, a hazzan (cantor), prompting Jakie to run away from home. Some years later, now calling himself Jack Robin, he has become a talented jazz singer, performing in blac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Studio System
A studio system is a method of filmmaking wherein the production and distribution of films is dominated by a small number of large movie studios. It is most often used in reference to Hollywood motion picture studios during the Golden Age of Hollywood from the 1920s to 1960s, wherein studios produced films primarily on their own filmmaking lots with creative personnel under often long-term contract, and dominated exhibition through vertical integration, i.e., the ownership or effective control of distributors and exhibition, guaranteeing additional sales of films through manipulative booking techniques such as block booking. The studio system was challenged under the antitrust laws in a 1948 Supreme Court ruling which sought to separate production from the distribution and exhibition and ended such practices, thereby hastening the end of the studio system. By 1954, with television competing for audience and the last of the operational links between a major production studio and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Birth Of A Nation
''The Birth of a Nation'', originally called ''The Clansman'', is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play ''The Clansman''. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with Frank E. Woods and produced the film with Harry Aitken. ''The Birth of a Nation'' is a landmark of film history, lauded for its technical virtuosity. It was the first non-serial American 12- reel film ever made. Its plot, part fiction and part history, chronicles the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth and the relationship of two families in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras over the course of several years—the pro- Union (Northern) Stonemans and the pro- Confederacy (Southern) Camerons. It was originally shown in two parts separated by an intermission, and it was the first American-made film to have a musical score for an orchestra. It pioneered closeups and fadeou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Gish as the 17th greatest female movie star of classic Hollywood cinema. Gish was a prominent film star from 1912 into the 1920s, being particularly associated with the films of director D. W. Griffith. This included her leading role in the highest-grossing film of the silent era, Griffith's ''The Birth of a Nation'' (1915). Her other major films and performances from the silent era are: '' Intolerance'' (1916), ''Broken Blossoms'' (1919), ''Way Down East'' (1920), '' Orphans of the Storm'' (1921), '' La Bohème'' (1926), and '' The Wind'' (1928). At the dawn of the sound era, she returned to the stage and appeared in fil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georges Sadoul
Georges Sadoul (4 February 1904 – 13 October 1967) was a French film critic, journalist and cinema writer. He is known for writing encyclopedias of film and filmmakers, many of which have been translated into English. Biography Sadoul was born in Nancy. He was trained at the Sorbonne and the IDHEC, a French cinema school. His father, Charles Sadoul, was a well-known ethnologist. At the age of 19, a student in Nancy, he collaborated with ''L'Est Républicain'' and founded the Nancy-Paris Committee. The objective of this committee is to allow the population of Nancy to meet Parisian productions and artists. He notably brought there Jean Epstein, Henry Prunières, André Lurçat, Jacques Rivière, Jacques Copeau and André Lhote. Once a surrealist, he became a member of the French Communist Party in 1932. He is editor-in-chief of the magazine for young people, published by the PCF, ''Mon Camarade.'' He was responsible for the cinematographic section of the journal ''Rega ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yevgeni Bauer
Yevgeni Franzevich Bauer (russian: Евгений Францевич Бауэр) (1865 – ) was a Russian film director of silent films, a theatre artist and a screenwriter. His work had a great influence on the aesthetics of Russian cinematography at the beginning of the 20th century. Bauer made more than seventy films between 1913 and 1917 of which 26 survived. He already used the relatively long sequence shots and displacements that would come to be associated with camera virtuosos. ''Los Angeles Times'' film critic Kenneth Turan called Bauer "The greatest director you've never heard of." Georges Sadoul called him "the first true artist in the history of cinema". Biography Bauer was born in Moscow in 1865, the son of the Bohemian immigrant musician Franz Bauer and his wife, an operatic singer. From childhood, Bauer displayed artistic tendencies and participated in his favourite dramatised scenes (his sister was a professional actress). In 1887, Bauer graduated from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Léonce Perret
Léonce Joseph Perret (14 March 1880 – 12 August 1935) was a prolific and innovative French film actor, director and producer.The Museum of Modern Art(retrieved 7 June 2007) He also worked as a stage actor and director. Often described as avant-garde for his unorthodox directing methods, Léonce Perret introduced innovative camera, lighting and film scoring techniques to French cinema. Léonce Perret began his career as a relatively undistinguished stage actor. He was recruited to the film industry by the Gaumont Film Company. His numerous short films gained significant accolade in French cinematography. Until his emigration to the United States in 1917, he was a fixture of the Gaumont Film Company. On American soil, he produced several popular films, the most notable being ''Lest We Forget'' (''N'oublions jamais'') in 1918. After returning to France, he directed the successful '' Koenigsmark'' in 1923. His film '' Madame Sans-Gêne'' (1925), starring Gloria Swanson, was the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Sjöström
Victor David Sjöström (; 20 September 1879 – 3 January 1960), also known in the United States as Victor Seastrom, was a pioneering Swedish film director, screenwriter, and actor. He began his career in Sweden, before moving to Hollywood in 1924. Sjöström worked primarily in the silent era; his best known films include ''The Phantom Carriage'' (1921), ''He Who Gets Slapped'' (1924), and '' The Wind'' (1928). Sjöström was Sweden's most prominent director in the "Golden Age of Silent Film" in Europe. Later in life, he played the leading role in Ingmar Bergman's '' Wild Strawberries'' (1957). Biography Born in Årjäng/ Silbodal, in the Värmland region of Sweden, he was only a year old when his father, Olof Adolf Sjöström, moved the family to Brooklyn, New York. His mother died in 1886, he was seven years old. Sjöström returned to Sweden where he lived with relatives in Stockholm, beginning his acting career at 17 as a member of a touring theater company. Drawn from t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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