Classic + New Hollywood - Context

CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD

The Studio System

  • from the 1920s to the 1950s, Hollywood was dominated by eight large studios

The Big Five

  1. MGM

  2. Warner Bros.

  3. Paramount

  4. RKO

  5. Fox

  • each studio has its own identity - different styles / stars

  • studios had contracts with stars - only allowed in their films

  • big five produced + distributed films and owned their theatre chains

The Little Three

  • Universal

  • Columbia

  • United Artists

  • produced and distributed films but did not own theatre chains

  • These eight studios controlled and distributed 95% of films shown in the USA

  • studio production peaked in the 40s and cinema attendance were at their highest

  • in 1948 the US Supreme Court ruled that major Hollywood studios had to end ‘block-booking’ This was where studios sold units of films to theatres - preventing independent studios getting their film shown

  • led to break down of vertically intergrated studios

  • 1950s cinema attendance declined

Significant classic Hollywood stars:

  • James Dean

  • Cary Grant

  • Audrey Hepburn

  • Marilyn Monroe

  • Judy Garland

Film Form in Classical Hollywood Films

  • Classical Hollywood style developed during 1910s + 20s and was solidified in the 30s.

  • It is a set of conventions + guidelines which we still see in Hollywood films today

  • The narratives are a ‘chain of events in a cause and effect relationship’

  • They were shot in a controlled environment, often on the studio lot, yet made to appear realistic.

  • invisible or continuity editing

  • one main plot with a limited number of Subplots

guidelines for shooting a scene in Classical Hollywood style:

  • first establish time + place + characters

  • exterior shot establish location

  • reveal character’s spatial positions

  • once locations + characters are established, characters can act out their goals

  • classical scene ends with one step towards the goal

NEW HOLLYWOOD

  • the 1950s + 60s was a period of decline in Hollywood

  • new generation of filmmakers came to prominence in the mid to late 1960s, freed from the constraints of the studio system and produced fresh new films for younger audiences

  • This revived Hollywood cinema and audience attendance increased

What is New Hollywood?

  • New Hollywood is a critical term that can refer to the more experimental films of the 1960s

  • It is the director rather than the studio who has the key authorial role

  • As the studio system was in decline, they were less bound bt institutional styles and open to experimentation

  • many films still produced by major studios

  • studios did not reject the star system and instead were still keen to exploit stars such as Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford

  • In this era, stars were also auteurs, often with a level of creative control over their films

Styles of New Hollywood

  • Low budget- director-driven, on location,

  • influence of European New Wave aesthetics

  • realist character-driven narratives

  • anti-authoritarian themes

  • liberal attitudes to sex and drugs

  • politically charged