Lesson 01: Classic Hollywood Cinema

1. Lesson 01: Classic Hollywood Cinema Professor Aaron Baker

2. In This Lecture • Course Requirements • Robert Ray: • Classic Hollywood Cinema • Invisible Style • Avoidance of Choice • Outlaw and Official Heroes

3. Part I: Course Requirements

4. Requirements • 15 Lessons: • Readings • Films • Audio/PowerPoint Lectures • Discussion Board • Two Posts Per Lesson • Paper Proposal • 15 Page Essay

5. Course Description This course will present a graduate level introduction to some of the central critical methodologies for analyzing film.

6. Form and Content We will work with the assumption that attention to form-- how filmmakers communicate through systems such as genre, narrative structure, editing, and cinematography-- is inseparable from thematic content, or what films are about.

7. Casablanca (1942) • Exemplifies Classic Hollywood • 1930s-40s • Studio Era • Nine Film Companies in/around Hollywood CA

8. Stars Film Actors Who Appeared: • Glamorous • Entertaining • Larger than Life

9. Little Analysis • Why Stars Presented as Were • Choices Involved in Public Images • Effect Had on Audiences • Ray: E.g. Avoidance of Choice

10. Classic Period 1930s-1940s • Hollywood Dominant Commercial Entertainment in U.S. • 80 Million Viewers Per Week • Defined Film as Medium • Ray: Films Not from Hollywood Seen As “aberrations from some intrinsic essence of cinema rather than . . . Alternatives.”

11. Part II: Robert Rays Views: Why Hollywood Films So Popular?

12. Why Hollywood So Popular? • Well Told Stories • Showed U.S. as Modern, Wealthy • Promise of Freedom, Opportunity • Casablanca; Refugees Want to Come to U.S.

13. European Cinema • Decimated by Two World Wars 1914-45 • European Stars, Directors, Writers Emigrate to Hollywood • Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Fritz Lang, Jean Renoir

14. Cosmopolitan Hollywood In Casablanca, Only Americans • Bogart • Dooley Wilson (Sam) • Screenwriter Howard Koch

15. All Others Europeans • Director, Michael Curtiz • Ingrid Bergman • Paul Heinreid • Claude Rains • Conrad Veit • Peter Lorre

16. Besides Mix Optimism/Sophistication • Hollywood Always Commercial • Ray: “Responsive to dominant ideologies of American Life.” • Ideology = values, beliefs people have • Avoid controversial ideas to not lose audience

17. Avoid History • During Classic Period 1930s, 40s • Economic Depression • World War II • Ray: History in Hollywood Movies is a “structuring absence” • Hollywood Films Made to Avoid History’s Complexities, Controversies

18. What About Casablanca? • Historical Film • World War II • Nazis, Vichy Govt., the Underground

19. Historical Film or Love Story? • Ilsa, Victor, Rick • Love Triangle • What Learn about War? • Its Issues, Causes, Ideologies?

20. Avoidance History Shows Hollywood Cautious Ray: Hollywood • Avoids Taking Sides on Issues • Avoids Any Appearance of Choice—Thematic or Formal

21. Definitions: Form and Content • Thematic Content – What a Film Is About: Its Story, Ideas. • Form – How a Film Presents Its Story/Ideas with Editing, Sound, Cinematography—Other Systems of Representation • Style – A Consistent Formal Pattern

22. Lehman and Luhr on Form “We can easily purchase a bowl of fruit for a few dollars; a painting of one might sell for millions. The subject matter is secondary; how it is represented is primary.” (Thinking About Movies, p.56)

23. Many Formal Choices • What to put in the shot   • Where to put the camera • How to light the shot • What actors should do • How long the shot will last

24. Hollywood Style Usually Invisible • Form as Unobtrusive as Possible •  Focus Viewer Not on How Story Told • Absorbed Instead by Story Itself

25. Immerse Viewer in Story • Excitement Suspense, Emotional Engagement • Entertainment • When Viewer Notices Form, Encourages Critical Reflection Instead

26. Foregrounded Form Discontinuity Techniques: • Jumpy Editing • Odd Angles • Music Contrasts With Image. . . • Breathless (1960)

27. Discontinuity Form • Encourages Viewer to Think Why Such Form Used?  • What is Filmmaker Saying? • More Typical of Political or Art Films—not Hollywood

28. Editing • Joining Together of Shots • Essential to Invisible Style • Continuity Editing • Covers Over Breaks Between Shots Thelma Schoonmaker Editor for Martin Scorsese

29. Editing Terms • Shot: one uninterrupted filmic image. • Editing: the joining together of shots. • Cut: a direct change from one shot to the next.

30. Continuity Editing • Used in Classic Hollywood • Fits Shots to Make a Seamless Whole • Presents Story as Continuous Linear Pattern • Minimize Interruption Viewer Involvement 

31. Four Devices Used by Continuity Editing • Eyeline Match • Match on Action • 180 Degree Rule • Shot/Reverse Shot Pattern

32. Eyeline Match Eyeline Match – a character looks and in the next shot we see what s/he is looking at.

33. Match on Action • Action Starts in One Shot • Continues in Next Shot • Our Focus on Action Conceals Change in Shot

34. How 180 Degree Rule WorksShot one (cam. 1 below) sets up an imaginary line between the actors;all subsequent shots (cam. 2) stay on one side of line. Cam. 3 is a mistake.

35. As Shots Change:180 Degree Rule • Keeps Same Screen Direction • Keeps Same Background • De-emphasizes Change in Shots

36. Violating 180 Degree Rule • If camera placed other side of line • Next shot would show different background • Any movement would go in opposite direction from in previous shots •  Spectator: characters in different space?

37. Shot/Reverse Shot •  Pattern Used for Conversations • Shot 1: First Character Talking • Shot 2: Other in Conversation • Part of Character Listening Shown Indicates Proximity

38. Shot/Reverse Shot (continued) • 30-40% of the shots in the Hollywood films made during the Classic period • 50% of the shots in Casablanca •  Like other 3 continuity editing devices, appears naturally motivated by story, not result of any choice about form.

39. Clip from Casablanca • Look for the four Continuity Editing devices • Notice how function to make form invisible • What said, happens in scene made primary • Please pause the lecture and watch the clip from the Learning Tasks page.

40. Invisible Style • Makes what Ray calls “an intensely decision-based medium [film] appear natural.” • Rhetorical Power • Presents Ideas and Values As If Natural

41. Ask Hollywood Filmmaker • Are you trying to influence viewers? • Make them adopt your ideology? • Response: “No! I just want to make an entertaining film that viewers enjoy.” • Honest Answer • But, Everyone Sees, Narrates World Through Lens of Their Beliefs/Values

42. Thematic Tendency • Besides Tendency to Conceal Formal Choice With Invisible Style • Content, Themes in Hollywood Stories Also Shown as Natural, Not Chosen • 1930 Change to American Stories • “Traditional American Mythology”

43. Optimism • Ray: “American Space, Economic abundance and geographic isolation.” • Wealth and Abundance, No need choose—Have it all ways • Reconcile incompatibility American Myths • Casablanca: Rick both loner and hero

44. Individual / Community • Main Contradiction in American Culture • Freedom and Responsibility • Outlaw and Official Heroes

45. Outlaw Hero • Adventurer, Gunfighter • Self Determination • Own Sense of Violent Justice • Freedom from Involvement with Women

46. Official Hero • Teacher, Politician, Lawyer, Family Man • Belief in Collective Action • Belief in Legal System • Abraham Lincoln, Barak Obama • Jimmy Stewart, Tom Hanks

47. Opposing Attitudes • Outlaw Hero: I don’t know what the law says, but I know what’s right and wrong. • Official Hero: No man is above the law, you can’t take the law into your own hands. • Both Influential Attitudes in American Culture.

48. Discussion Question • Does knowing more about Hollywood reduce the pleasure of viewing its films? • Post a response on the course eBoard. • Remember to also respond to a colleague's post.

49. Summary • Classic Hollywood • Robert Ray: Hollywood’s Main Tendencies: • Invisible Style • Apparent Avoidance of Choice • Individualism vs. Community • Outlaw and Official Heroes

50. End of Lecture 1 Next Lecture: Narrative Structure