Hollywood Cinema Book

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

List of Figures.

List of Box Sections.

Introduction: Taking Hollywood Seriously.

1. ’Metropolis of Make-Believe’:.

Art and Business.

The Commercial Aesthetics of Titanic.

A Classical Cinema?.

Hollywood and Its Audiences.

Ratings and Franchises.

Hollywood’s World.

Summary.

Notes for Further Reading.

2. Entertainment 1:.

Escape.

Money on the Screen.

The Multiple Logics of Hollywood Cinema.

Summary.

Notes for Further Reading.

3. Entertainment 2:.

The Play of Emotions.

Regulated Difference.

Singin’ in the Rain: How to Take Gene Kelly Seriously.

Summary.

Notes for Further Reading.

4. Genre:.

Introduction.

Genre Criticism.

Genre Recognition.

The Empires of Genres: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

Genre and Gender.

Summary.

Further Reading.

5. Industry:.

Introduction.

Distribution and Exhibition.

Exporting America.

Divorcement.

The Studio System.

The Star System.

How Stars are Made: A Star Is Born (1937).

Summary.

Further Reading.

6. Industry 1948-1980:.

Introduction.

The Effects of Divorcement.

Roadshows and Teenpix.

Independents, Agents, and Television.

Corporate Consolidation and the ‘New Hollywood’.

Ratings.

Hollywood in the Multiplex.

Summary.

Further Reading.

7. Industry Since 1980:.

Introduction.

Video and New Markets.

The Pursuit of Synergy.

Globalization.

Independence.

Summary.

Further Reading.

8. Technology:.

Introduction.

Realism and the Myth of Total Cinema.

Sound.

Sunny Side Up.

Color.

Widescreen.

Technology and Power.

The Triumph of the Digital.

Summary.

Further Reading.

9. Politics:.

Introduction.

The Politics of Regulation.

Hollywood Goes to Washington.

Washington Goes to Hollywood.

Representing the Political Machine.

Controversy with Class: The Social Problem Movie.

Ideology.

Summary.

Further Reading.

10. Space 1:.

Introduction.

The Best View.

Making the Picture Speak: Representation and Expression.

The Optics of Expressive Space.

Deep Space: Three-Dimensionality on a Flat Screen.

Mise-en-scéne.

Editing.

Summary.

Further Reading.

11. Space 2:.

The Three ‘Looks’ of Cinema.

Points of View.

Safe and Unsafe Space.

Ordinary People.

Summary.

Further Reading.

12. Performance 1:.

Introduction.

The Spectacle of Movement.

The Movement of Narrative.

Acting as Impersonation.

The Actor’s Two Bodies.

Star Performance.

Summary.

Further Reading.

13. Performance 2:.

The Method.

Acting as a Signifying System.

Valentino.

The Son of the Sheik (1926).

Summary.

Further Reading.

14. Time:.

Introduction.

Time Out.

Film Time.

Movie Time.

Deadlines and Coincidences: Madigan (1968).

Mise-en-temps.

Tense.

Back to the Present: History as a Production Value.

The Politics of History: Forrest Gump (1994).

The Lessons of History: Juárez (1939).

Summary.

Further Reading.

15. Narrative:.

Narrative and Other Pleasures.

Show and Tell.

Theories of Narration.

Plot, Story, Narration.

Clarity: Transparency and Motivation.

Summary.

Further Reading.

16. Narrative 2:.

Regulating Meaning: The Production Code.

Clarity and Ambiguity in Casablanca.

Narrative Pressure.

Summary.

Further Reading.

17. Criticism:.

Introduction.

From Reviewing to Criticism.

Early Theory and Criticism in America.

From Criticism to Theory.

Criticism in Practice: Only Angels Have Wings.

Summary.

Further Reading.

18. Theories:.

Entering the Academy.

Structuralism and Semiology.

Cinema, Ideology, Apparatus.

Psychoanalysis and Cinema.

The Spectator.

Feminist Theory.

Neoformalism and Cognitivism.

From Reception to History.

Summary.

Further Reading.

19. Chronology:.

Glossary.

Appendices.

The Motion Picture Production Code.

The Code and Rating System, 1968.

The Classification and Ratings System: “What the Ratings Mean”.

Consolidated Notes.

Select Bibliography.

Index.