Key Terms - Film 202 - Late Classical Hollywood

Research programs

systematic inquiries into the past - organized around questions that require answers. Consisting of assumptions and background knowledge. A fact takes on signifiance only in the context of this.

Aims to describe a process or state of affairs first, then explaining that process or state of affairs.

Research question

Central questions/focus of the research; guides us and historians across history (rather than rigid conceptions of the type of history we are writing)

Description

Accurate account of this is necessary for all historical research; essential to finding an answer to a historical question - the more sophisticated and long lived a historical discipline is, the richer and more complete its reference material with this will be

Explanation

Argument consisting of evidence for an event or state of affairs; has distinct types including biographical, industrial, aesthetic, technological, and social/political/cultural - essential to finding an answer to a historical question.

involves concepts that organize the evidence produced by specialized knowledge - chronology, causality (individual and group), influence, trends and generalizations, periods, significance

can take the form of stories; different ones derive diverse set of historical arguments

Explanatory argument

The film historian, like a historian of art or politics, proposes this. Having asked how or why, she puts forward an answer, based on an examination of evidenc ein light of assumptions and background knowledge.

evidence

Searched for in order to answer them in the course of an argument; different questions bring differnt things of this. Most arguments rely on this, consisting of information taht gives grounds for believing that the argument is sound.

Helps judge whether the historian has presented a plausible answer to the original question.

Copies of the films tend to be the most central pieces of this to film historians. Film studio or important location can also serve as a source of this

Biographical explanation

Focusing on an individual’s life history

Industrial or economic explanation

focusing on business practices

Aesthetic explanation

Focusing on film art (form, style, genre)

Technological history

focusing on the materials and machines of film

Social/cultural/political history

focusing on the role of cinema in larger history

chronology

Essential to historical explanation - descriptive research is an indispensable aid to establishing the sequence of events

The historian needs to know that this film was made before that one or that event B took place after event A.

But history is not just this - this stops short of explanation, just as a record of high and low tides gives no hint as to why tides change.

History, as we have already seen, centrally involves explanation.

causality

much historical explanation involves cause and effect; working with conceptions of various kinds of causes (individual and group)

influence

Used to explain change. Describes the inspiration that an individual, group, or film can provide for others. Does NOT mean copying - a matter of one artist’s getting ideas from other artists’ work but pursuing those ideas in a personal way

Members of a movement can do this to a director to make a film a certain way, but a chance viewing of a movie can also do this to a director

Involves group and individual activity

Film could be considered significant based on how much it does this

trends and generalizations

Any historical question opens up a body of data for investigation that leads to genreal tendencies. By positing trends, historians generalize, necessarily setting aside interesting exceptions. Tendencies are “for the most part” generalizations - acknowledges that there is more going on than what is trying to be explained.

Looking closely at data (records, films, trade press) → there’s more to exlpore than the initial question

Creating coherent patterns of history tangles; simplifying and streamlining according to the question

periods

Indefinite sequence (no beginning or end with historical chronology and causation)

Historians create periods that mark phases in the development of storytelling style - according to research programs adopted and questions asked

significance

We may study a work as a monument because it’s highly valued as an accomplishment or document because it records some noteworthy historical activity

Three criteria of instrinsic excellence (films outstanding by artistic criteria), influence (create/change a genre, inspire, gain popularity), typicality (vividly representing instances or trends) — these three don’t have to combine, but sometimes they might.

Majors ("Big Five")

Paramount (Famous Players-Lasky), MGM (Loew’s), Fox (20th Century Fox), Warner Bros., RKO

Vertically integrated, owning theater chain and international distribution operation

Minors ("Little Three")

Universal, Columbia, United Artists (UA) - and several indepndent firms

Few or no theaters

HUAC

1946-48: Congress investigating Communist activities in the US as part of the nationwide search by the House Committee on Un-American activities because many Hollywood intellectuals had been sympathetic to Soviet communism - blacklisting occurred while studios began producing anti-communist films

Left a legacy of distrust and wasted talent; resentment felt toward those who gave names during hearings lingered for decades

blacklist

unable to work openly in film industry - some saved careers by moving abroad

Paramount decision

The 1948 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. et al.) that found the eight major Hollywood studios guilty of monopolistic practices. The decision ordered the vertically integrated "Big Five" studios (Paramount, Warner Bros., MGM/Loew's, 20th Century-Fox, RKO) to divest their theater chains and outlawed block-booking, restructuring the studio system and increasing competition.

divestiture

The court-ordered action from the Paramount Decision requiring the vertically integrated "Big Five" studios to sell off their ownership of theater chains. This broke their control over exhibition, forcing them to become solely production and distribution companies.

block-booking

A practice, outlawed by the Paramount Decision, where studios forced theaters to rent packages or "blocks" of films, often including weaker pictures, in order to get the stronger, big-budget releases. This guaranteed an outlet for all studio products and limited theaters' ability to choose films independently.

widescreen technologies

A series of technical innovations in the 1950s (e.g., Cinerama, CinemaScope, VistaVision, Todd-AO) that created movie images with wider aspect ratios than the standard 1.37:1. They were developed to differentiate the theatrical experience from television, offering spectacle through larger, more immersive images and often multi-channel stereophonic sound.

Todd-AO

A high-quality widescreen process from the 1950s that used 65mm film for shooting and 70mm film for projection (with 5mm for soundtracks). It featured a wide 2.1:1 aspect ratio and multi-channel stereophonic sound, and was used for major roadshow attractions like Oklahoma! (1955).

VistaVision

Paramount's widescreen process (introduced with White Christmas, 1954) that ran 35mm film horizontally through the camera. This used a larger negative area per frame, resulting in a higher-quality image with less grain when projected, typically at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

aspect ratio

The relationship of a film frame's width to its height (expressed as width:height, e.g., 1.85:1). The standard "Academy ratio" was about 1.37:1 until the 1950s, when widescreen processes created wider ratios to compete with TV.

Cinerama

An immersive, early 1950s widescreen process that used three synchronized projectors to create a single, very wide (2.59:1) image on a huge, curved screen. It was complex, required special theaters, and was primarily used for travelogue-style "event" films like This Is Cinerama.

CinemaScope

A popular 1950s widescreen process introduced by 20th Century-Fox (first used in The Robe, 1953). It used anamorphic lenses to squeeze a wide image onto standard 35mm film, which was then unsqueezed by a projector lens. It was simpler and cheaper than Cinerama, leading to its widespread adoption with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 or 2.55:1.

anamorphic lens

A lens for making widescreen films using a frame

size close to the Academy ratio. The camera lens takes in a wide field

of view and squeezes it onto the frame, and a similar projector lens

unsqueezes the image onto a wide theater screen. The most famous

anamorphic widescreen processes are CinemaScope and Panavision

Panavision

A company that became the industry leader in widescreen technology. It designed a superior anamorphic lens system to replace CinemaScope (correcting optical problems like "'Scope mumps"), developed lightweight 70mm cameras, and created sophisticated laboratory techniques for format conversion. By the late 1960s, Panavision became the anamorphic standard, with processes like Ultra Panavision 70 used for epics like Ben-Hur (1959).

magnetic sound recording

A sound technology adopted by Hollywood in the early 1950s, replacing earlier optical sound. It used 1/4-inch audiotape or magnetically coated 35mm film to record higher-fidelity, multi-channel stereophonic soundtracks. This innovation was crucial for enhancing widescreen presentations (e.g., CinemaScope's 4 channels, Cinerama's 7 channels) by allowing sound to emanate from multiple speakers around the theater.

3D

A film process that creates an illusion of depth by projecting two superimposed images that viewers merge using polarized glasses (e.g., Natural Vision used in Bwana Devil, 1952). It had a brief craze in the early 1950s with films like House of Wax and Dial M for Murder, faded by 1954, but was later revived in the digital production era.

Smell-o-vision

A short-lived, unsuccessful gimmick from 1958 (alongside AromoRama) that attempted to add synchronized odors to the film viewing experience. It was a passing fad that met with largely negative responses.

Art cinemas

(1) A critical term used to describe films that, while

made within commercial circumstances, take an approach to form

and style influenced by modernist trends (see modernism) within

“high art” and that offer an alternative to mainstream entertain-

ment. (2) A term used in the US film industry to describe imported

films of interest principally to upper-middle-class, college-educated

audiences.

Drive-in theaters

Alternative for exhibitors during a period of falling box-office receipts

MPAA and censorship

motion picture association of america - self-censorship mechanism of the industry

no theater that belonging to the association would show a movie without a certficate of approval, but once the majors divested themselves of their theater chains, exhibitors were free to show unapproved films

Lew Wasserman

movie lover who was determined to expand into representing film stars - first client was Bette Davis who felt like she was commonly casted in poor roles at Warner Bros

Negotiated deals between actors and studios - biggest being james stewart; agent

Package-Unit approach

combing star and project in one deal (producer or agent assembling the script and the talent)

Exploitation films

Cheap pictures cashing in on topical or sensational topics that can be exploited - cheap horror, sci fi, erotic films

AIP

American international pictures that made more upscale explotation items - gum chewing, hamburger mucnhing adolselecnt dying to get out of the house on a weekend (high schoolers taste for horror)

Flashbacks

An alteration of story order in which events occurring in

the present are interrupted by the showing of events that took place

earlier.

Deep focus cinematography

A use of the camera lens and lighting that keeps both the

close and distant planes in sharp focus.

Film noir

(“dark film”) A term applied by French critics to a type of

American film, usually in the detective and thriller genres, with low-

key lighting and a somber mood. Film noir was most prevalent in

the 1940s and 1950s, though it was revived occasionally.

Alfred Hitchcock

thrived in studio system because he was provided top tier technical crews and actors, so he could perfect his style, then with the decline of studios, became one of the most successful indie producer/directors

Focused on suspenseful thrillers - used Vistavision for psychological and thematic effect, esp for vertigo to create a hypnotic dreamline visual

Used his style to intensify and perfect teh emotional and psychological experience of his genre scripts

Douglas Sirk

Danish director who came to Hollywood before WW2 - made a series of melodraamas with Universal in the 50s (Magnificent Obsession, All that Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind, Imitation of Life)

Distinctiveness of his films led to label of Sirkian melodrama because of his expressionistic pools of color and harshly revealing mirrors

His style undercut the script’s pop psychology traumas and pat happy endings (he creates layer of meaning that contradicts or ironizes the simple story and tidy ending - his style exposes emptiness, repression, unresolved pain beneath)