The origin and development of movies?

1893, T.A. Edison invented the film mirror and founded the "prison car" studio, which was regarded as the beginning of American film history. 1896, the launch of the Vita projector began the large-scale screening of American movies.

19 At the end of the 20th century, American urban industry developed and the middle and lower class residents increased rapidly. Movies became a kind of mass entertainment to meet the needs of urban civilians. First in the song and dance playground, and then in a small theater, after the performance.

1905 appeared in Nickelodeon Cinema in Pittsburgh (admission fee is 5 cents) and soon spread to all towns in the United States. By 19 10, there are as many as 36 million movie audiences every week. At that time, all films were single, with a monthly output of 400. The main production bases are in new york, such as Edison Company, Bevograf Company and Vitagraf Company. 1903 The Life of an American Firefighter and great train robbery by E.S. Porter developed the film from a novel to an art, and editing technology was applied in the film, and Porter became the first director to create dramatic effects through cross-editing.

Movies have high profits and fierce competition. From 1897, Edison applied for a patent. On 1908, the film patent company controlled by Edison was established with the patent 16. By 19 10, film patent companies monopolized the production, distribution and screening of American films. In order to get rid of the monopoly of patent companies, independent filmmakers went to Hollywood, a small town on the outskirts of Los Angeles, far from new york and Chicago, with unique natural conditions and close to the Mexican border. Once the patent company files a lawsuit, they can escape. David Griffith joined Bevograf Company on 1907, and directed the first film "Adventures of Peach and Plum" the following year. By 19 12, nearly 400 films had been shot for the company, and the focus of shooting gradually shifted to Hollywood, and many famous actors later were discovered and trained, such as M. Seinert, M. Bikefu, Gish sisters and so on.

On the eve of World War I, Nickel Cinema was gradually replaced by some film academies with better conditions. The monopoly power of film patent companies gradually disappeared, and finally officially disintegrated in 19 15. At this time, a group of new film artists represented by Griffith have appeared. The production center has also moved from the East Coast to Hollywood. World War I destroyed and damaged the film industry in European countries to varying degrees, but it promoted the prosperity of American films. American movies keep pouring into the European market. By the end of World War I, it had established its hegemonic position in Europe.

Directors Griffith, T.H. Inges and Seinert contributed to the development of early American films. C. Chaplin made his first film "Making a living" in 19 14, which immediately attracted audiences all over the world. 19 19, three famous actors, Chaplin, D. Van Punk and Foucault, together with Griffith, set up a joint American company to release their independent films. In the 1920s, the structure of American film production gradually changed from director center to producer center. The "producer center" model formed the "star system" in the 1920s, and all major companies had several stars. In addition to Chaplin, Van Punk and Bickford, R. "Fat" Jacob, T. Barra, J. and L. Barrymore brothers, L. Qiu Chen, Sisters Kish, M. Marsh, T. Meeks, G. swanson, J. Kilbert, G. Garbo and B. Keaton became famous one after another.

"Hollywood" has now become synonymous with "American movies". Because the improper behavior of some stars in the heyday of the star system attracted public criticism, the American film industry established the American Producers and Publishers Association. Under the auspices of W.H. Hayes, this organization formulated a "code of ethics" in order to eliminate plots, dialogues and scenes that did not conform to American public morality and lifestyle when censoring films. This is the famous Hayes Code, which restricts American movies until 1966.

Strict censorship makes the main achievements of American silent films manifested in comedies, westerns and historical films. The best comedies are Chaplin's Looking for the Fairy (192 1), The Gold Rush (1925) and Circus (1928), and Keaton's Navigator (1). The western films mainly include caravans (1923), fighters (1924) and galloping horses (1925). Historical films include The Ten Commandments (1923) and The King of Kings (1927) by C.B. Demir, Orphan in the Storm by Griffith (1922) and Four Horsemen of Revelation by R. Ingram.

After World War I, many European directors came to Hollywood one after another, and their talents were suppressed and stifled by production companies to varying degrees. Together with American directors, they produced the last batch of important silent films, such as seventh heaven by F Bosage (1927), Meat and Demon by C Brown (1927), Stella's Hate History by H King (1925) and. R.J. Flaherty's Nanook in the North (1922) laid the foundation for the documentary.

In the mid-1920s, luxury cinemas have basically replaced nickel cinemas. In the late 1920s, in order to beat competitors such as commercial radio broadcasting, Hollywood films made an acoustic revolution, resulting in sound films.

Early American talking movies

1926, Warner Bros. filmed the musical Don Juan (directed by A. crossland) starring J. Barrymore, with a record. 192710.6, The Jazz Singer with Singing, Dialogue and Voice, directed by A. crossland and starring A. Sheng Qiao, premiered, which is the first feature film with sound in the world. On July 6th, 0928, Warner Company released "100% sound film" Light of New York100000000606. Since then, sound film has been fully promoted. By 1930, all the feature films except Chaplin's silent films were audio films. Among the directors, the first ones who adapted to the production of sound films and made creative films were Applause by R. Mamarian (1929), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with subjective lenses (1932). L. Myerston's All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and Front Page News (193 1), Love Review (1929) and Liu Bieqian's Smiling Captain (/kloc-0) Chaplin also made his first sound film, Lights of the City (193 1). Hollywood studios have been established since 19 12. With the establishment of 1928 Lei Dianhua Film Co., Ltd., eight major companies in the American film industry have been formed. These include five major film companies, namely Paramount (founded in 19 14), 20th Century Flowserve (founded in 19 15 and merged in 1935) and MGM (merged in/kloc-0).

The golden age of American movies

Genre film is a special phenomenon in American films, which was fully developed in the 1930s. The original genre films were comedies, burlesque and westerns in the silent film era. In the early 1930s, musical films, gangster films, detective films and horror films appeared one after another and flourished. Genre movies are the direct product of American economic, social and cultural needs. Among them are the musical 42nd Street (1933), Nugget Girl (1933), Top Hat (1935) and the boundless moon (1938), the bandit film Little Caesar (1 93/kloc-). 932) and stunned forest (1932), the horror film Vampire (193 1), Frankenstein (193 1) and so on.

In addition to the above-mentioned types of films, the 1930s also produced a large number of films that became masterpieces in American film history, such as One-Night Stand by F. capra (1934), Mr. Dietz Entering the City (1936) and Mr. Smith Going to Washington (1939). Modern Times by Chaplin (1936); J Cromwell's Human Chains (1934); G. Dinner at 8 o'clock in George Cukor (1933) and Little Women (1933); M Curtis's 20,000 Years in Sinsin Prison (1933), Black Wrath (1935) and Robin Hood (1938); V The Brave Captain of Fleming (1937), The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone with the Wind (1939); J Ford's informant (1935), Young Lincoln (1939), Flying over the Mountain (1939), Flower of Anger (1940) and how green my valley is (65439). E. Golding Hotel (1932); A first film "Butterfly Dream" directed by Hitchcock in America (1940); F. Wrath of Langer (1936); M. Leroy's I am a fugitive (1932); Merry widow by Liu Bieqian (1934); J.von Sternberg's Morocco (1930) and Shanghai Express (1932 >); W. Wheeler's Tears in the Red Shirt (1938), Wuthering Heights (1939), etc. In addition, H Hawkes, H King, R Ma Morian, R Walsh and others have also made many excellent films.

At that time, there were also many performing artists who contributed to the development of American movies, including F. Yastan, H. Bogart, C. Baoyu, G. Cooper, J. Klozao, B. Davis, O. Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, H. Fonda, C. Gable, C. Grant, K. Hepburn, and excellent filmmakers such as photographer G. Toland. In addition, films starring child star Deng Boer played a special role in inspiring the American people in 1930s.

Since the late 1920s, W Disney has created a series of well-known animated images, such as Mickey Mouse and the duck in the Tang Dynasty. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by 1938, he created Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Bambi (1942) and so on.

Hollywood developed into the cultural center of the United States in 1930s, and many writers, musicians and others came to this movie capital one after another. They interacted with each other and produced a number of films with strong social consciousness, such as the above-mentioned Mr. Smith to Washington, 20,000 Years in Xinxin Prison, Black Anger, Informer, Flower of Anger, How Green My Valley is, Anger, I am a Fugitive, and The Biography of Pasteur (1. The biography of Wallace (1939), they never forget (1937), the black legion (1936) and the winter in mean streets (1936). 194 1 The novel Citizen Kane by young O. Wells absorbed the essence of American classic movies, directed this film with great innovation in narrative structure and lens structure, and pushed American movies to a new high point. Wells' Citizen Kane and the Abesen Family (1942) has a profound influence on the film structure, photography and film theory in the future.

In the mid-1930s, under the influence of J. Grierson in Britain and J. Evans in the Netherlands, American documentaries were once again taken seriously. They filmed plows (1936), rivers (1937) and cities (1939) that cultivated plains. After the outbreak of World War II, in addition to a large number of military training films and war documentaries for the army, a considerable number of classic documentaries have been produced, such as The Battle of Midway by J Ford (1942), The Report from the Aleutian Islands by J Hughes (1943) and The Battle of San Pedro. Starting from 1942, capra led his team to make a series of films called "What Are We Fighting for?". True Glory (1945) is jointly directed by G Kanin and C Reid in Britain and is regarded as the pinnacle of a feature-length documentary.

Many excellent feature films appeared during World War II, including Curtis's Song of Victory (1942), Casablanca (1943) and Mission in Moscow (1943). The story of Philadelphia by George Cukor (1940); Sergeant York of Hawkes (1941); Hitchcock's destroyers (1942), ghosts (1943) and lifeboats (1944); Maltese falcon by W. Hughes (1941); H. King is a Yankee in the Royal Air Force (1941); Langer's The Hangman is Dead (1943); Li Luoai's Blue Bridge of the Mind (1940) and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944); Liu Bieqian's Life and Death Field (1942) and Heaven Can Wait (1943); L. mcquarrie's Walk with Me (1944); Of mice and men by Milton (1940) and Polaris (1943); L. Picard's Frosty Night (1943); O Laura by otto Preminger (1944); G. Latov's Russian Song (1944); H. Shumlin's Looking at the Rhine (1943); Walsh's destination, Myanmar! 》( 1945); W.A. willman's scalper massacre (1943) and the story of Private Joe (1945); B. Wilder's Five Graves to Cairo (1943) and Lost Weekend (1945); S. Wood's Battlefield Bells (1943) and golden league (1942); Wheeler's Fox (194 1) and Mrs. Miniver (1942), etc. Actors such as L. Bergman, B. crosby, J. Galen, R. hayworth, B. Hope, G. Peck, L. Turner and J. Wayne joined the ranks of American movie stars during this period.

The postwar period to the early 1950s was the last prosperous period of Hollywood's "golden age". The most prominent films in this period are: Mr. Verdun by Chaplin (1947); Singing in the Rain by S Donan and G Kelly (1952); Dear Clementine by Ford (1946); Red River in Hawkes (1948); Baoshiling (1948), Tar Jungle (1950) and Queen of Africa (1951) in Houston; H. King at 12 noon (1949) and gunner (1950); E. Karshan's Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Beautiful Half-Blood Girl (1949) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951); All about eve of J.L. Mankiewicz (1950); V Minar Li is an American in Paris (195 1) and evil and beautiful (1952); R. Rosen's contemporary adultery (1949); Steven's Sunny Land (195 1) and Wonders of the Wasteland (1953); Vito's Sun Bath (1947); White fever by Walsh (1949); Wilder Sunset Avenue (1950) and Camp 17 (1953); Wheeler's Golden Age (1946), Heiress (1949) and Roman Holiday (1953); F. Zeniman's Noon (1952) and Towards Eternity (1953), etc.

From the late 1940s to the mid-1950s, American films also experienced a series of blows and challenges. First of all,1May, 948, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on the Paramount case, which had been delayed for many years, ruled that the monopoly of large companies was illegal, and asked the production company to give up the distribution and operation of cinemas. This cut off the main financial resources of large companies and forced them to drastically reduce film production. Secondly, American television has developed rapidly. By 1953, the number of movie audiences was reduced by half compared with 1946. In order to compete for the audience, the wide-screen movie, which was invented as early as 20 years ago, began to become a means to compete with TV.

What's more, starting from 1947, the "Investigation Committee on Non-American Activities" began to persecute Hollywood progressives politically. 1948, the federal court in Washington, D.C. sentenced Case of Ten Hollywood People, but in 195 1 year, the persecution of people in the film industry continued to deepen and expand. Many people were accused of * * *, and more than 800 people were blacklisted. This persecution has greatly damaged the creative vitality of American films. However, the persecuted film industry overcame many difficulties and produced the film "Social Backbone" (directed by H. Bieberman, 1954), which is still valued by film researchers. Mainly occurred in the American film noir from the mid-1940s to the early 1950s, such as Double Indemnity (1944), Sunset Avenue (1950), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and T.

Present situation of contemporary American movies

After the golden age of American movies ended, major companies began to disintegrate or change production in the middle of India, and Hayes Code was officially abolished. Then came the mini cinema, the art cinema and the drive-in cinema. Both independent films and experimental films have developed.

In the post-Hollywood era, some classic themes and types of films have changed. N, Ray, V, Minari, D, and silk made the American melodrama take a step forward, and silk's Written in the Wind (1957), The defiled Angel (1958) and Imitation of Life (1958) appeared. Starting from The Gunner and Noon, the traditional westerns have also changed. In this kind of adult westerns, some lone heroes have become group heroes, and Ford's The Searcher (1956) and G.R. Hill's butch cassidy and the sundance kid (1966) have appeared. My Fair Lady by George Cukor (1964), west side story by R. Wise (19 1) and The Sound of Music (1965), and Funny Girl by Wheeler.

This period is the most turbulent period of American youth's thoughts, and the corresponding so-called "anti-hero" movies that show young people's doubts and rebellions are: Rey's Rebellion for No Reason (1955), Kazan's East of Eden (1955) and J. Logan's Picnic (/kloc-0). Bonnie and Clyde by A. Pan (1967), Happy Rider by D. Huo Po (1969), Midnight Cowboy by J. Schlesinger (1969), The Waste Land by T. Maric (650

Other outstanding films in this period include: Army Field Hospital by R. altman (1970) and Nashville (1975); P The Last Movie by bogdanovich (1971); Demir's Ten Commandments (1956); M. Foreman's flying over the madhouse (1975); A. Schiller's love story (1970); Hughes Deng's untimely man (1961); S Kubrick's The Road to Glory (1957), Spartacus (1960), Dr. Eccentricity (1964), A Space Roaming in 5438+0 in 2006 (1968) and Nichols'. F. General Patton by schaffner (1970); G. Sidon Airport (1970); Steven's Giant (1956); Wilder's passion (1959) and apartment (1960); Wheeler's Biography of Xu Ben (1959). Hitchcock made some of the most influential films at this stage, such as Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959) and Psychopaths (1960).

In the past, African-American actors only played a secondary or even negative role in movies, starting with S. poitier, in Breaking Free from Chains (1958), Blue Dot (1965), Love My Teacher (1967) and Hot Night. M. Brando, M. clift, P. Newman and J. Fonda, who were trained from the new york Actors Workshop in Strasbourg, L., all joined the ranks of film actors. Young directors who graduated from the film department of the university also began to emerge, such as F.F. Coppola's Godfather (1972), Godfather (sequel, 1974), Dialogue (1974) and G. Lucas's American Style Painting.

The revival of American movies began with Jaws by Spielberg (1975) and Star Wars by Lucas (1977). Both directors are graduates of the Film Academy of the University of Southern California. Their traditional genre films (disaster films and science fiction films) produced by using contemporary craftsmanship have aroused strong repercussions, which has greatly increased the film production and box office income in the United States. Science fiction movies, which are popular among American teenagers, have developed into a new type of spectacular movies that combine disaster movies and adventure movies. These films include the third kind of intimate contact (1977), foreign objects (1979), aliens (1982) and intruders who lost their ark (1982).

In American films since the late 1970s, films about family, women and ordinary people's lives have been re-emphasized, such as annie hall (1977) and Hannah Sisters (1986) by W. Allen. Three women in Altman (1977); The Miner's Daughter by Upted (1980); Kramer vs Kramer by R. Benton (1979); J.L. Brooks's mother and daughter are deeply in love (1983); P unmarried women in Mazor (1978); M. The Golden Pond by Lei Deer (1981); R Redford's Ordinary People (1980); The turning point by H. Ross (1977); Julia by Zineman (1977) and so on. Simino's deer hunter (1978) and Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) are the best films about the Vietnam War. Other excellent films include Norma Ray (1979), Loki (1976) and Blue Collar (1978). Youth is manifested in weekend fever (1g77), grease (1978), hair (1979) and flash dancing (1983).