[文学]Chapter1英语电影讲稿.ppt

Chapter 1 History and Genre Introduction Two basic parameters used when categorizing films: history and genre. History Features: simplicity and shortness Three major historical periods: a. Early cinema b. Classical Hollywood cinema c. Post-Hollywood cinema Genre a. social drama; b. romance; c. gangster; d. war film; e. science fiction; f. fantasy; g. western; h. disaster; i. crime; j. epic; k. action; l. musical; m. blockbuster; n. film Noir\ Neo-Noir; o. comedy; p. horror; q. thriller; Defining criteria: a. technological developments; b. patterns of industrial organization; c. characteristic artistic features; Genre: Definition: the categories into which, on the basis of shared characteristics, we place artistic, musical, literary or cinematic works. Significance of the concept of genre: a. best way of organizing films into meaningful groups; b. useful guide as to the potentially significant elements of a given film. Early film Technical developments Patterns of industrial organization a. production was based on the so- called “cameraman system”; b. films were the product of the cameraman; c. cameraman took charge of planning, writing, filming, and editing; d. monopolized by two companies, Edison and Biograph with setting up Motion Pictures Patent Company; e. the anti-trust claim, filed in1912 and delivered in 1915, broke up the monopolization of MPCC and paved the way for a new stage in the history of cinema. Characteristic artistic features a. bear little in common with the cinema of today; b. sought to record and represent aspects of “real life” (actuality filming); c. consisted of a single long distance shot of a single figure; d. relied on spectacle rather than narrative (“the cinema of attractions”). Classical Hollywood cinema Time: from the early 1920s through to the late 1950s; Technological advances: a. the emergence of sound introduced by Warner Brothers in Don Juan(1926); b. the arrival of color technology i