Comprehensive Notes on Film History and Analysis
Gance's Polyvision Experiments
Gance's experiments with polyvision highlight the importance of cinema as a visual medium, driven by directors rather than scriptwriters or literary figures. The failures of prominent scriptwriters and metteurs-en-scène from the Tradition of Quality school when attempting comedy underscore this point. Examples include Ferry and Clouzot in Miquette et sa mère (Miquette), Sigurd and Boyer in Tous les chemins mènent à Rome (All Roads Lead to Rome), Scipion and Pagliero in La Rose rouge (The Red Rose), Laudenbach and Delannoy in La Route Napoléon, and Aurenche, Bost, and Autant-Lara in L'Auberge rouge or even Occupe-toi d'Amélie (Keep an Eye on Amelia). Comedy is regarded as the most challenging genre, demanding significant effort, talent, and humility.
Critique of Bourgeois Cinema
The psychological realism prevalent in cinema often claims to be anti-bourgeois. However, the creators themselves (e.g., Aurenche, Bost, Sigurd, Jeanson, Autant-Lara, and Allegret) and the audience (the new readers created by film adaptations) are often bourgeois. This raises questions about the authenticity and impact of anti-bourgeois cinema made by bourgeois individuals for a bourgeois audience. Working-class audiences often do not connect with these films, even when attempts are made to portray their lives. Examples include the lack of identification with dockers in Un homme marche dans la ville or bargemen in Les Amants de Bras-Mort. These audiences preferred naive foreign films showing men "as they should be".
The Quality Ethos and its Pitfalls
Many accomplished metteurs-en-scène and scriptwriters spent considerable time creating minor films before embracing the "quality ethos". The financial incentives often favored commercial success over artistic courage. Films deemed "courageous" can be quite profitable, as seen with Ralph Habib's shift from semi-pornographic films to Les Compagnes de la nuit (Companions of the Night), imitating Andre Cayatte. There's a risk that filmmakers might abandon intellectual pursuits to adapt literary masterpieces simply for commercial gain, filling their movies with funerals. The danger exists where French films, competing in "psychological realism," end up as a long and monotonous funeral procession, heading from Billancourt film studios directly to the cemetery.
Audience Identification and Realism
Repeatedly suggesting that audiences identify with film characters can lead them to believe it, but these audiences may disapprove when they realize that a comedic, unfortunate character or a dysfunctional family mirrors them where their religion is mocked as seen from an elite perspective (i.e. a fourth-floor flat in Saint-Germain-des-Prés).
The Impact of Psychological Realism
A pessimistic view is taken on the impact of psychological realism in cinema. While this "school of psychological realism" may have given us Le Journal d'un cure de campagne, Le Carrosse d'or, Orphée, Casque d'or, or Tati's Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (Monsieur Hulot's Holiday), it may have also diverted audiences into subtle areas of psychology from which they cannot return.
Notes on Adaptations and Creative Choices
Several notes discuss specific adaptations and creative choices made by filmmakers:
An excerpt from Aurenche and Bost's dialogue for the 'Jeanne' episode of Destinies was published in La Revue du cinema.
In La Symphonie pastorale, characters were added and cut, and the fate of Jacques after Gertrude's death was altered from the book.
Aurenche, initially set to direct Le Journal d’un curé de campagne, removed the character Dr. Delbende as he felt he could not direct a character who died halfway through the film. Bresson later kept the character.
Autant-Lara claimed that Le Diable au corps was an anti-war novel, a view not shared by Radiguet’s friend, composer Francis Poulenc.
Aurenche and Bost adapted Colette's Le Blé en herbe in 1946, adding a lesbian character named Dick, who was later removed from the script.
Aurenche and Bost's characters are known for using maxims in their dialogues.
Psychological realism emerged alongside Charles Spaak and Jacques Feyder’s poetic realism.
Aurenche worked on Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne but parted ways with Bresson due to creative differences.
Susan Sontag's Critique of Contemporary Cinema: The Decay of Cinema
Susan Sontag states cinema's first century has been marked by birth, glory, and, recently, irreversible and ignominious decline. While admirable films are still produced, they are "violations of the norms and practices" due to the commercialization, derivative content and lack of appeal from films made today. Cinema, once the "art of the 20th century," now seems decadent. It is argued that cinephilia, a specific love for cinema, has ended. This love stemmed from the belief that cinema was uniquely modern, accessible, poetic, mysterious, erotic, and moral.
Cinephilia
Cinema had "apostles" and was seen as both the book of art and the book of life. Early cinema (around 1895) had two modes: transcription of real life (Lumiere brothers) and invention/artifice (Melies). However, even the Lumiere brothers' banal reality was fantastic. Cinema began with the wonder that reality could be transcribed with immediacy. All of cinema attempts to perpetuate and reinvent that wonder.
The Experience of Cinema-Going
Cinema provided lessons on how to behave, dress, and interact. Beyond self-appropriation, moviegoers experienced surrender and transportation. One also must consider the experience of "going to the movies". Watching a great film on television does not compare to the theatrical experience due to the larger-than-life image and the conditions of paying attention. Kidnap by cinema happens in a dark theater with strangers. Assaultive images and fast cutting have created a lightweight cinema that doesn't demand full attention. The ubiquity of moving images has undermined standards for cinema as both art and entertainment.
Transformation of Filmmaking
In the silent era, there was no difference between art and entertainment with films of high artistic level. The coming of sound led to a decline in image-making brilliance and commercial standards tightened. The Hollywood system dominated filmmaking from 1930-1955. Original directors like Erich von Stroheim and Orson Welles were defeated by the system and went into artistic exile in Europe. In the mid-1950s, vanguard ideas reappeared, rooted in the Italian films of the postwar period. Original, passionate films of high seriousness were made. Going to movies, thinking about movies, and talking about movies became a passion among university students and other young people. Cinephilia became visible in the 1950s in France, with magazines like Cahiers du Cinema and cinematheques/clubs specializing in films from the past and directors' retrospectives. The 1960s and early 1970s were a feverish age of movie-going. There was a conflict between cinema as an industry and cinema as an art and as routine vs. experiment. The balance has tipped in favor of cinema as an industry. The great cinema of the 1960s and 1970s has been repudiated. Hollywood plagiarized and banalized innovations and edits. Production costs increased in the 1980s, worldwide industry standards arose, and the blockbuster became the norm.
The Economics of Modern Cinema
Theatrical release times shortened and movies were designed for video. Movie theaters closed where movies turn into habit-forming home entertainment. Lowering expectations for quality and increased ones for profit made it impossible for ambitious American directors to work at their best. The internationalization of financing and casts was disastrous. There is less space for mavericks like Hans-Jurgen Syberberg and great artists like Godard. The love of cinema has waned and Cinephilia has come under attack. It implies films are unique, unrepeatable, and magic experiences; it is not an era of hyperindustrialized films. It supports the idea of film as a poetic object and inspires those outside the movie industry to make films. If cinephilia is dead, movies are dead; resurrection requires a new kind of cine-love.
The Decline of Hollywood Cinema: Graphs
The data shows two graphs representing the decline of Hollywood cinema.
Percentage of Americans Who Buy a Cinema Ticket Once a Week, 1910-2010.
Price of a Cinema Ticket in the United States, 1910-2017.
The Life and Death of Hollywood by Daniel Bessner
The article discusses the existential threat faced by film and television writers, chronicling the experiences of writer Alena Smith and analyzing the broader industry trends.
Alena Smith's Experience in Hollywood
Alena Smith, a playwright with an MFA from Yale, moved to Hollywood in 2012 seeking a more financially viable career. She found success during the era of prestige television (Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Homeland, Girls), landing staff writer positions on The Newsroom and The Affair. In 2013, Smith developed Dickinson, a gothic comedy based on Emily Dickinson's life, and sold it to Apple in 2017. Smith notes the show was made during a time when streaming services experimented with edgier content to attract subscribers rather than using profit as the primary bottom line.
The Realities of Working for Streaming Services
Smith's experience with Apple was challenging due to a lack of clear communication regarding the company's priorities and metrics. After completing the first season of Dickinson, Smith had to push Apple for a premiere date whilst being asked to commence writing a new season without a green light guarantee. Smith felt pressured to reassure her colleagues to prevent them from taking other jobs. Despite the show's critical success and social media buzz after premiering in 2019, Smith felt undervalued and lacked access to concrete viewership data for leverage. She left after three seasons, citing the unsustainable demands and risks she had to bear. She remains in Hollywood due to limited options of making a living as a writer.
Industry-Wide Issues and the Writers Guild Strike
Deregulation, speculative cash, and corporate consolidation have changed Hollywood. Writers' working lives have been degraded. Entertainment and media corporations consolidated reducing risk and maximizing efficiency. The industry has become a winner-takes-all economy with vast disparities between executive compensation and writer compensation. Though some big-name writers have thrived, many others work in short-term writers' rooms without stability. By early 2023, the median TV writer-producer earned 23 percent less per week, in real dollars, than a decade prior. Feature-film writer earnings declined by nearly 20 percent between 2019 and 2021.
The 2023 WGA Strike and its Outcomes
Writers have been squeezed by studios, leading to a historically unified WGA strike. After five months, the writers achieved gains including a new residuals model for streaming, minimum employment lengths for TV, and more guaranteed paid work on screenplays.
Underlying Problems and Unsustainable Practices
Colossal conglomerates, asset-management companies, and private-equity firms now control the industry with a primary motivation of extracting value instead of vested interest in creativity for capital. This foundational problem was not solved by the union wins. There is an existential crisis within Hollywood. Film and television companies have experienced significant revenue decline, and streaming profitability remains elusive. The streaming bubble has burst due to the Federal Reserve raising interest rates and Wall Street calling in the streamers' bets, leading to industry contraction. Employment has fallen sharply, and layoffs have occurred across major studios and representation agencies.
Historical Context: Worker Action and Federal Regulation
Greed is not new to Hollywood. In the early years, writers created a salaried workers through worker action and federal regulation. The studios monopolized from the Twenties fixing prices. Writing for studios was solid, salaried work. The average yearly income for a full-time writer in 1931 was more than (roughly today). Writers formed a union when MGM and Paramount cut the pay by 50 percent in 1933. The Screen Writers Guild was certified in 1938. Its first contract in 1942 ( equivalent of roughly today) gained power over screenwriting credits.
Supreme Court Ruling and Shift to Freelance Writers
When the Supreme Court ruled, studio power got hit. The eight reigning companies agreements forced to distribute and exhibit the films or relinquish cinemas. The studios preferred freelance writers to salaried employees due to less cash. By the end of the Fifties, writers established limited residual payments. The studios claimed the business was too uncertain to increase writer cuts. The WGA strike expanded to residuals, minimums, pension, and health benefits.
Federal Government and Antitrust Law
The federal government had enforced and expanded antitrust law. In 1970, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) created Financial Interest and Syndication Rules (Fin-Syn). These barred networks from ownership stakes in prime-time prohibiting studios owning TV networks which increased competition. In the mid-Seventies, staffed TV staffers were paid a minimum of roughly a year, double the median family earning. For high-budget feature-film screenplays, writers made a baseline of about , or around in today’s money.
Deregulation and Conglomeration
In the Eighties, the Reagan Revolution hit Hollywood, guardrails began to fall. By '83, the Department of Justice allowed HBO, Columbia Pictures, and CBS to merge TriStar, violating antitrust law. Other entertainment companies moved to create their own conglomerates. In 1985, the DOJ stopped enforcing the Paramount Decrees, and studios acquired theater chains again. Then Clinton Administration carried on. The FCC removed the Fin-Syn rules, and Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act. Viacom merged Blockbuster. Disney merged Capital Cities/ABC.
Initial Impact of Deregulation on Writers
At first, deregulation did not seem to harm them. Mergers and acquisitions grew due to synergies. This coincided with a boom in the theatrical business. Movie budgets increased with increased pay for screenwriters. In the late Eighties and Nineties, executives seemed to have more money to spend than ever before. Studios invested more in development, concepts, and stories.
Shifts in Studio Development
A norm from 1987 was studios might develop writers by paying up front for ideas, then screenplays, then rewrites. One executive who oversaw 120 scripts in development in one year. There were also heightened interests in unsolicited screenplays which proved pay ranging from solid to life-changing. The scripts ranged around in original scripts to high budget that is approximately today. Cable TV rose with new opportunities and more American homes accessed and more HBO series were released. With cable television opening opportunities in late nineties where writers would earn a week on premium and additional sums in lump. Network shows paid writers even more for working longer.
Increasing Conglomerate Power and Hollywood Accounting
By the early Aughts, six conglomerates controlled studios and networks over profitable cable businesses. The conglomerates raked in revenue for prime-time revenue. As these entities grew, business operations became much more complex making it difficult to earn payouts becoming difficult for the studios. They suspected they were being shortchanged on royalties and residuals and profit. The WGA went on strike but writers were ok due to comfortable living not like those of 2023. The strike agreed to AMPTP offer for rebroadcast videos with increased DVDs.
The Great Recession and Private Equity
In February 2008, the United States was three months into the Great Recession. To stimulate the economy, the government started cutting interest rates and provided financial institutions. In late 2008, the interest rate dropped. To speculators, studios looked like a gold mine: redundancies, inefficiencies. And with de-regulation of preceding the frontier. Financial institutions bought up portions of companies creating types of soft monopoly. Bets were even placed against in film. Investment in Netflix over dominate over at-home industry. The Big Three owned stakes in most rival companies. Private equity took over portions of MGM, Miramax, and AMC Theatres, and had scooped up portions of Hulu and DreamWorks. Financial firms removed profits and in place siphoned revenue away from reinvestment. Dividends stock exploded for the entertainment. The studios became subject to oversight focussed on the next long-term efficiency, short-term results and risk avoidance with meeting quota.
Slow Erosion of Writers Earnings: Free Work
Rodman stated for filmmakers by the recession that there was "a slow erosion" with quantity spending to developing for fat to get cut. Executives offered one-step deals and asked the process. Stevens, the woman writers of the king used to describe with changed. Writers offered much more labor for a one-step process. Also, agencies had believed revenue with multiple that high. Executives believed a degree credit and shifted the over increased market and created an increased market.
Influence of IP and Marvel Model
Executives thought best for IP and product. Franchise accounted for 25percent but over 64 percent. Selecting existing characters and cinematic edge of writers. Julie a writer created a story cloth. But that Marvel story franchise. Within the system, writers have withheld basic information. Because Executives might take the projects they might spin. Also, writing on basic information that writers might gain revenue. The biggest story universe earnings, Marvel sometimes creates basic information. Some Marvel writers have forced the due.
The Television Boom and Mini-Rooms: Exploitation
Cash hit differently and credited incredible boom of risk taking. Ratings should be for streams. They set model. Subscriber model equals earnings through profit. More shows might earn for the writers high views. Quantity opened the demand over showrunner. Most writers opened earnings due supply but beat competition. They might set but often dismiss of lack of set of skills. So that this system.
Long-Term Effects on Writers and Diversification
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The Contraction of Streaming and the Future of Writers
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Points related to shorts are addressed by experts listed.
James Bell - Sight and Sound
Sam Adams - Los Angeles Times
Bevin Yeatman - P:O.V.
Eat My Shorts by James Bell
Short films were once exclusive. Now digital video (DV) has made everyone potential filmmakers. What are short films for? In the UK, there are two interests: artistic filmmakers who see shorts as an art form (Derek Jarman, Peter Greenaway, Isaac Julien, Andrew Kötting) vs. the film industry, which sees shorts as personal ads for future feature filmmakers (Lynne Ramsay, Asif Kapadia). Short films lack regular slots in cinemas, and TV broadcasters are uninterested except at late hours. Audiences were small as well. The industry avoided finding a home to them. Until digital video, it was difficult to secure funding. In the late 1990s, few had good funding.
The UK Film Council's Digital Shorts Initiative
Short film consultant Caroline Cooper Charles claims the UK Film Council launched a digital video scheme to support digital short films. Funds were to be matched, and each film less than ten minutes.
Reception and Criticism of Digital Shorts
Cooper Charles was told making decent short films less than was restrictive. Asif Kapadia advises against digital's flexibility. Kapadia stated when you are a film student you know how much film costs and make decisions. Digital costs cause there to be no real decisions later.
Digital's Liberation and Accessibility
Successful shorts embrace, rather than emulate, the format says Soledad Gatti-Pascual. Simon Ellis stories look more like film rather than. Cheaper equipment and desktop have democratized film. No-budget short films can be shot, edited presented to schemes via Web. DVD and Web has helped films. Webstream films help indicate the early features similar to directors as well. Attract events and Brief Encouters at festivals.
Challenges in Theatrical Distribution
Securing theatrical distribution remains difficult. Programming with a feature is rare. Costs to convert are expensive at . Short Circuit Films funds distributors where exhibition depends on managers. Persuading cinemas is easier.
Preferences for Shorter Lengths
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The Emergence of Digital Projection and Alternative Outlets
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The Rise of Touring Showcases and Compilations
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