Classical Hollywood cinema
Classical Hollywood cinema is a term used in film criticism to describe both a narrative and visual style of filmmaking that first developed in the 1910s to 1920s during the later years of the silent film era. It then became characteristic of American cinema during the Golden Age of Hollywood, between roughly 1927 (with the advent of sound film) and 1960.[1] It eventually became the most powerful and pervasive style of filmmaking worldwide.[2]
Similar or associated terms include classical Hollywood narrative, the Golden Age of Hollywood, Old Hollywood, and classical continuity.[3] The period is also referred to as the studio era, which may also include films of the late silent era.[1]
History
1910s–1927: Silent era and emergence of the classical style
For millennia, 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[4]) or theatrical melodramas. Visually, early narrative films had adapted little from the stage, and their narratives had adapted very little from vaudeville and melodrama. Before the visual style which would become known as "classical continuity", scenes were filmed in full shot and used carefully choreographed staging to portray plot and character relationships. Editing technique was extremely limited, and mostly consisted of close-ups of writing on objects for their legibility.
Though lacking the reality inherent to the stage, film (unlike the stage) offers the freedom to manipulate apparent time and space, and thus create the illusion of realism – that is temporal linearity and spatial continuity. By the early 1910s, when the
In the world generally and America specifically, the influence of Griffith on filmmaking was unmatched. Equally influential were his actors in adapting their performances to the new medium. Lillian Gish, the star of film short The Mothering Heart, is particularly noted for her influence on on-screen performance techniques. Griffith's 1915 epic The Birth of a Nation also starring Gish was ground-breaking for film as a means of storytelling – a masterpiece of literary narrative with numerous innovative visual techniques.[7] The film initiated so many advances in American cinema that it was rendered obsolete within a few years.[8] Though 1913 was a global landmark for filmmaking, 1917 was primarily an American one; the era of "classical Hollywood cinema" is distinguished by a narrative and visual style which began to dominate the film medium in America by 1917.[9]
1927–1960: Sound era and the Golden Age of Hollywood
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The narrative and visual style of classical Hollywood style developed further after the transition to sound-film production. The primary changes in American filmmaking came from the film industry itself, with the height of the studio system. This mode of production, with its reigning star system promoted by several key studios,[10] had preceded sound by several years. By mid-1920, most of the prominent American directors and actors, who had worked independently since the early 1910s, had to become a part of the new studio system to continue to work.
The beginning of the sound era itself is ambiguously defined. To some, it began with
Many great works of cinema that emerged from this period were of highly regimented filmmaking. One reason this was possible is that, as so many films were made, not every one had to be a big hit. A studio could gamble on a medium-budget feature with a good script and relatively unknown actors. This was the case with
Style
The visual-narrative style of classical Hollywood cinema, as elaborated by David Bordwell,[15] was heavily influenced by the ideas of the Renaissance and its resurgence of mankind as the focal point. It is distinguished at three general levels: devices, systems, and the relations of systems.
Devices
The devices most inherent to classical Hollywood cinema are those of
Systems
Narrative logic
Classical narration progresses always through psychological motivation, i.e., by the will of a human character and its struggle with obstacles towards a defined goal. This narrative element is commonly composed of a primary narrative (e.g. a romance) intertwined with a secondary narrative or narratives. This narrative is structured with an unmistakable beginning, middle and end, and generally there is a distinct resolution. Utilizing actors, events, causal effects, main points, and secondary points are basic characteristics of this type of narrative. The characters in classical Hollywood cinema have clearly definable traits, are active, and very goal oriented. They are causal agents motivated by psychological rather than social concerns.[2] The narrative is a chain of cause and effect with causal agents – in classical style, events do not occur randomly.
Cinematic time and space
Time in classical Hollywood is continuous, linear, and uniform, since non-linearity calls attention to the illusory workings of the medium. The only permissible manipulation of time in this format is the flashback. It is mostly used to introduce a memory sequence of a character, e.g., Casablanca.[17]
The greatest rule of classical continuity regarding space is object permanence: the viewer must believe that the scene exists outside the shot of the cinematic frame to maintain the picture's realism. The treatment of space in classical Hollywood strives to overcome or conceal the two-dimensionality of film ("invisible style") and is strongly centered upon the human body. The majority of shots in a classical film focus on gestures or facial expressions (medium-long and medium shots). André Bazin once compared classical film to a photographed play in that the events seem to exist objectively and that cameras only give us the best view of the whole play.[18]
This treatment of space consists of four main aspects: centering, balancing, frontality, and depth. Persons or objects of significance are mostly in the center part of the picture frame and never out of focus. Balancing refers to the visual composition, i. e., characters are evenly distributed throughout the frame. The action is subtly addressed towards the spectator (frontality) and set, lighting (mostly three-point lighting, especially high-key lighting), and costumes are designed to separate foreground from the background (depth).
Legacy
The New Hollywood of the mid-1960s to early 1980s was influenced by the romanticism of the classical era,[19] as was the French New Wave.[20]
Major figures from classical Hollywood cinema
These were recognized on the American Film Institute's list ranking the top 25 male and 25 female greatest screen legends of American film history.[21] As of 2024, Sophia Loren (89) is the only living star listed.
- Chico Marx (1887–1961)
- Harpo Marx (1888–1964)
- Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977)
- Groucho Marx (1890–1977)
- Mary Pickford (1892–1979)
- Edward G. Robinson (1893–1973)
- Mae West (1893–1980)
- Lillian Gish (1893–1993)
- Buster Keaton (1895–1966)
- Fred Astaire (1899–1987)
- James Cagney (1899–1986)
- Humphrey Bogart (1899–1957)
- Spencer Tracy (1900–1967)
- Clark Gable (1901–1960)
- Gary Cooper (1901–1961)
- Marlene Dietrich (1901–1992)
- Zeppo Marx (1901–1979)
- Claudette Colbert (1903–1996)
- Cary Grant (1904–1986)
- Greta Garbo (1905–1990)
- Henry Fonda (1905–1982)
- Joan Crawford (190?–1977)
- Laurence Olivier (1907–1989)
- Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003)
- John Wayne (1907–1979)
- Barbara Stanwyck (1907–1990)
- Bette Davis (1908–1989)
- Carole Lombard (1908–1942)
- James Stewart (1908–1997)
- Jean Harlow (1911–1937)
- Ginger Rogers (1911–1995)
- Gene Kelly (1912–1996)
- Vivien Leigh (1913–1967)
- Burt Lancaster (1913–1994)
- Orson Welles (1915–1985)
- Ingrid Bergman (1915–1982)
- Gregory Peck (1916–2003)
- Kirk Douglas (1916–2020)
- Robert Mitchum (1917–1997)
- William Holden (1918–1981)
- Rita Hayworth (1918–1987)
- Judy Garland (1922–1969)
- Ava Gardner (1922–1990)
- Lauren Bacall (1924–2014)
- Marlon Brando (1924–2004)
- Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962)
- Sidney Poitier (1927–2022)
- Shirley Temple (1928–2014)
- Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993)
- Grace Kelly (1929–1982)
- James Dean (1931–1955)
- Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011)
- Sophia Loren (born 1934)
See also
- Animation in the United States during the silent era
- Golden age of American animation
- Golden Age of Radio
- Golden Age of Television
- Maximalist and minimalist cinema
- Modernist film
- New Hollywood
- Poverty Row – B-movies during this era
References
- ^ a b "Music and Cinema, Classical Hollywood". Oxford Bibliographies Online. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on April 11, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
- ^ a b Goldburg, Michael. "Classical Hollywood Cinema (Internet Archive)". Archived from the original on May 31, 2007. Retrieved May 31, 2007.
- ^ The Classic Hollywood Narrative Style at the Department of History, University of San Diego.
- ^ "The Marx Brothers – Vaudeville Shows". Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
- ^ Georges Sadoul. Всеобщая история кино. Moscow, Iskustvo, 1958. Т. 3. p. 178
- ^ Evgenii Bauer (1865-1917) by William M. Drew Archived August 29, 2017, at the Wayback Machine Evgenii Bauer (1865–1917)
- HistoryNet. Retrieved February 4, 2023.
- ISBN 0-520-03068-0.
- ^ "1917: The Year That Changed The Movies — The San Francisco Silent Film Festival". Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
- ^ "The Star – Annenberg Learner". Annenberg Learner. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
- ^ "Golden Age of Hollywood: Movies, Actors and Actresses ***". www.american-historama.org. Archived from the original on July 26, 2018. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
- . Retrieved March 14, 2023.
- ^ "The Studio System – Annenberg Learner". Annenberg Learner. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
- ^ "The Top 25 Films Of 1939: A Look Back At "The Greatest Year In Movies"|Film Inquiry". June 3, 2019. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
- ^ Bordwell, David; Staiger, Janet; Thompson, Kristin (1985): The Classical Hollywood Cinema. Film Style & Mode of Production to 1960. New York: Columbia University Press. 1–59
- ^ "Continuity Editing in Hitchcock's Rear Window". slideshare.net. Archived from the original on June 11, 2010. Retrieved April 7, 2010.
- ^ "The Hollywood Style – Annenberg Learner". Annenberg Learner. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
- ^ Bordwell: 24
- ^ "New Hollywood - JT Esterkamp – Medium". Archived from the original on July 17, 2018. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
- ^ "French New Wave: The Influencing of the Influencers – The Film Stage". May 28, 2010. Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars: The 50 Greatest American Screen Legends". American Film Institute. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-231-06055-6.
- Davis, Blair (2012). The Battle for the Bs: 1950s Hollywood and the Rebirth of Low-Budget Cinema. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0813552538.
- ISBN 978-0-85728-186-9.
- Fawell, John (2008). The Hidden Art of Hollywood. Westport Conn.: Praeger Press.
- ISBN 978-0520056893.
- Salt, Barry. Film Style and Technology: History and Analysis.
External links
- David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, "Happy Birthday, classical cinema!", December 28, 2007. Analysis of classical continuity in narrative film from 1917 to this day.
- The Movies - Hollywood's Golden Age.com