Independent Film Industries Reinforce The Global Construction Of The Hybrid Genre

Independent Film Industries Reinforce The Global Construction Of The Hybrid Genre

Almost every country has its own film industry. Films are being

produced across the world, from the low budget gangster films of

Britain's "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and Australia's

"Chopper" to the French 'art cinema' of "L'aventura" and the German

action offering of "Run Lola Run". This is of course to exclude

America. Hollywood is the center of the global film industry and it

can be considered impossible to gain international superstardom

without passing through its coiffured gates. What is it that separates

Hollywood from the rest of the world? Is Hollywood the culmination of

international filmic development? Has Hollywood incorporated the

popular conventions of independent cinema into its mainstream as it

did with the flourish of auteurs in the 60's and 70's? To answer these

questions one must first consider the definition of Hollywood and

Independent cinema. Pam Cook[1] has defined international film

industries simply as the "absence of Hollywood", this though is harsh,

as cinema existed before the globalisation of Hollywood, the 'age

d'or' of France in the 1920's for example. So to analyse the

relationship between Hollywood and the rest of the world a definition

of the differing industries must be articulated, whether it be of

industrial or generic conventions. Furthermore, the role of the

audience in this definition must be questioned and whether a film's

origin of production actually makes a difference in the way it is

consumed.

Differences in films from different countries could lie in the

differences in genre and its definition...

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...dbook", Routledge, 1996

[18] Taken from "The Media Students Handbook", Routledge, 1996

[19] Taken from "The Media Students Handbook", Routledge, 1996

[20] Examples of these characteristics being; downbeat and gritty for

Warner's and glamorous and glossy for MGM.

[21] Information taken from "The Daily Mirror"

[22] Taken from "Approaches to Popular Film", Manchester University,

1995

[23] John Woo was recognised for his successes in Hong Kong cinema

with films such as "Hard Boiled" he was then recruited to Hollywood,

directing, among others, "Face/Off" and Mission Impossible: Two".

[24] Taken from "Sociology in Action", Harra Lambosse and Holborne

[25] Taken from "Approaches to Popular Film", Manchester University,

1995

[26] Taken from "Approaches to Popular Film", Manchester University,

1995