HOLLYWOOD FILM 1930-1990 - COMPONENT 1 SECTION A

HOLLYWOOD FILM (1930 - 1990)

BONNIE AND CLYDE + SOME LIKE IT HOT

THE STAR SYSTEM

- Particular actors signed up for long and unbreakable contracts to a studio.

- Typed cast in one role lined to a genre: e.g. Clarke Gable in melodrama, John Wayne in western, Christopher Lee in Horror. 

GOLDEN AGE + NEW HOLLYWOOD

- GOLDEN AGE: 1920's - 1948. Thriving studios, rise of stars, dominant genres etc. Film started to become a huge form of media where theatres were opening largely across America. 

- NEW HOLLYWOOD: 1960 - present. New generation of directors: Scorsese, Spielberg, Coppola, De Palma. Some push against the studios dominance of Cinema. The Hays production code was abolished in 1965 - replaced by the motion picture association. 

CULMINATION OF THE NEW RULES

- Formulaic genres, repetition, familiarity and surprise. 

- Hybrid genres, the rise of indie filmmaking and some overlaps between high budget, high concept films and low budget productions.

- The notion of the star or the performer - with some shifts.

- Presence of dominant studios - some mergers, some new arrivals, but still the notion of a system on an industry style model in Hollywood, where filmmaking and 'Hollywood' remain synonymous. 

- Creation of the idea of an 'AUTEUR" - where the filmmaker has a distinctive style.