K’Jawn Colin Section 3 Dir. William Wyler / Greer Garson Dir. William Wyler was born July 1, 1902, in Muhlhausen, Alsace-Lorraine. In 1920, the creator of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, Carl Laemmle, offered Wyler a job in New York City. After starting as an assistant working in the office, Wyler decided to provide apprenticeship at Laemmle’s California studio known as Universal City. During the years 1925-1928, he gained enough knowledge and experience that he came up from assistant directing low-budget western films. At the beginning of the thirties, Wyler was promoted out of the westerns. One of his works known as The Love Trap (1929), provides indications of Wyler’s strengths (Anderegg). The first sound film that Wyler created, A House Divided (1931), used to be acknowledged as a melodramatic theatrical piece. During the film, Wyler’s mental state was underplayed by giving too much attention towards …show more content…
Miniver (1942), was Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson. Greer Garson was born in London, England on Sept. 29, 1904. During her early years, Greer Garson focused on becoming a teacher by getting her education at the University of London. Later, she realized she was more interested in advertising which gave her appearances in film productions. She later gained recognition as a skillful and gifted actress (Jackson, Thuresson). Louis B. Mayer, a booking agent at MGM, discovered Greer and opened more opportunities for her. Louis helped Greer obtain an appearance in an American film in 1939. The film was known to be called Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), which received non-stop talked about criticism and blessed her to be first nominated out of six to win the best actress. Greer was greatly recognized and awarded for her roles in the films Pride and Prejudice (1940) and Blossoms in the Dust (1941). The film, Mrs. Miniver (1942), one Greer’s greatest performances as an actress, won her an Academy Award (Jackson,
Lewis, J. (2008). American Film: A History. New York, NY. W.W. Norton and Co. Inc. (p. 405,406,502).
Reed, Elanine Walls. "'A very unusual Practise [sic]': miscegnation and the film industy in the Hays era." West Virginia Univesity Philological papers 50, 2003: 42-53.
Hattie McDaniel was one of thirteen children born to Henry and Susan McDaniel. Her father was a former slave who joined the military after liberation. Then he became a minister and took his family down to Tennessee. Hattie was a talented child who could sing and act. She dropped out of high school her sophomore year to pursue acting. Like most actors, she took a side job as a cook, a clerk and a washwoman to make money until her career took off. She moved to LA with one of her brothers and sisters and really started to pursue acting. Soon she landed roles as a servant in multiple movies in Hollywood. It was until 1940 that she was recognized for one of these roles. She was nominated for an Oscar for her role as Mammy in Gone With The Wind.
Keathley, Christian. "Trapped in the Affection Image" The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s. Ed. Thomas Elsaesser, Alexander Horwath, Noel King. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2004. 293-308. Print.
Classic film noir originated after World War II. This is the time where post World War II pessimism, anxiety, and suspicion was taking the world by storm. Many films that were released in the U.S. Between 1939s and 1940s were considered propaganda films that were designed for entertainment during the Depression and World War II. During the 1930s many German and Europeans immigrated to the U.S. and helped the American film industry with powerf...
The Classical Hollywood style, according to David Bordwell remains “bound by rules that set stringent limits on individual innovation; that telling a story is the basic formal concern.” Every element of the film works in the service of the narrative, which should be ideally comprehensible and unambiguous to the audience. The typical Hollywood film revolves around a protagonist, whose struggle to achieve a specific goal or resolve a conflict becomes the foundation for the story. André Bazin, in his “On the politique des auteurs,” argues that this particular system of filmmaking, despite all its limitations and constrictions, represented a productive force creating commercial art. From the Hollywood film derived transnational and transcultural works of art that evoked spectatorial identification with its characters and emotional investment into its narrative. The Philadelphia Story, directed by George Cukor in 1940, is one of the many works of mass-produced art evolving out of the studio system. The film revolves around Tracy Lord who, on the eve of her second wedding, must confront the return of her ex-husband, two newspaper reporters entering into her home, and her own hubris. The opening sequence of The Philadelphia Story represents a microcosm of the dynamic between the two protagonists Tracy Lord and C.K. Dexter Haven, played by Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Through the use of costume and music, the opening sequence operates as a means to aesthetically reveal narrative themes and character traits, while simultaneously setting up the disturbance that must be resolved.
Singin’ in the Rain is story about a film company making the transition to sound in the late 1920’s United States and an actor trying to prove himself in the midst of the transition. Cohan’s article on ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ discusses how the films and its meanings have undergone changes throughout the years. It could be considered a film about Hollywood as its narrative aspects conform to classic Hollywood narrative conventions such as it having a love story (Don and Kathy) and a story about the public/work sphere (the transition from silent films to talkies). It could be considered the first ‘camp film’, a film which contradicts itself by dubbing the actress Debbie Reynolds in a movie about audio dubbing, or a movie in which the male leads define the women, their position and their representation.
Making the children weak after their punishment. The first full-length feature was Carolina a Fox release of that made her a star. She appeared in eight other full-length films that year. In 1934 the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences awarded her with a special miniature Oscar in grateful recognition of her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment during that year. She was a spectacularly talented child, able to sing and dance with style and genuine feeling.
When his sister Adele retired in 1932, his career suffered. After that he was determined to try one more time with the movie business in Hollywood. In 1933 he booked a small role in the movie Dancing Lady. This led to him getting signed to RKO Radio Pictures. There he was partnered up with Ginger Rogers in the movie Flying Down to Rio.
From the lavish mansions of Hollywood stars to the cigarette smoke filled offices of broke screenwriters, the 1950 noir movie Sunset Boulevard remains a timeless classic with a stunning story of an actress gone mad, and a screenwriter just trying to squeak by. This film is the first pre-1960’s flick that has left me with a feeling of awe. The first word that comes to mind after the credits begin to roll is just“wow!”. I was struck by the intriguing plotline and brilliant execution of the story. Not only is the film a classic for its gripping story, and twisted power dynamics, it also shows amazing camera work and brilliant acting.
Gunning, Tom 2000, “The Cinema of Attraction: Early film, its spectator, and the avant-garde.” Film and theory: An anthology, Robert Stam & Toby Miller, Blackwell, pp 229-235.
In this essay the following will be discussed; the change from the age of classical Hollywood film making to the new Hollywood era, the influence of European film making in American films from Martin Scorsese and how the film Taxi Driver shows the innovative and fresh techniques of this ‘New Hollywood Cinema’.
In light of the slump in the film industry, studios at that time were desperate and more open experimentation, allowing young filmmakers to explore and create their films with less restrictions. In his writing, Gomery raises the example of Woody Allen, whom he considers as ‘probably the most famous auteur film-maker in the 1980s' (480). His distinctive style draws from his own experiences as ‘a television gag writer and a stand-up comedian’ as well as ‘his interest in the psychological problems of the urban professional’ (Thompson; Bordwell 481). In Annie Hall (1977) for example, we see traces of Allen in the protagonist Alvy with his Jewish identity, personal love for New York and experience going for psychotherapy sessions. Furthermore, Allen enjoyed ‘total creative control over his productions’ - his authorial role is thus undeniably significant (Gomery 481).
The absolutely stunning film, Citizen Kane (1941), is one of the world’s most famous and highly renowned films. The film contains many remarkable scenes and cinematic techniques as well as innovations. Within this well-known film, Orson Welles (director) portrays many stylistic features and fundamentals of cinematography. The scene of Charles Foster Kane and his wife, Susan, at Xanadu shows the dominance that Kane bears over people in general as well as Susan specifically. Throughout the film, Orson Welles continues to convey the message of Susan’s inferiority to Mr. Kane. Also, Welles furthers the image of how demanding Kane is of Susan and many others. Mr. Welles conveys the message that Kane has suffered a hard life, and will continue to until death. Welles conveys many stylistic features as well as fundamentals of cinematography through use of light and darkness, staging and proxemics, personal theme development and materialism within the film, Citizen Kane.
I was both fascinated by his films, but even more, the place where he came from, which had a great influence in his life that led to many great works on the film industry. Woody Allen was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 1st, 1935. Some of his early influences in writing came from the place where he grew up in. He came from a Jewish family, and as he describes them, he came from a very loud family. When Woody Allen was growing up, his father worked different jobs, including bartending, while his mother worked as a bookkeeper.