Some History of Hollywood Film Industry

Since its birth, Hollywood films have occupied an important position in the world, becoming the overlord of the world film industry today and active in every corner of the world. Throughout the history of Hollywood development, the aesthetic style of Hollywood films has changed greatly in the 1960s and 1970s. Before this, it can be called the classic Hollywood period, and then it can be called the new Hollywood period.

The mid-decade after the end of World War I was a prosperous time for American films to conquer the world. Foreign films have been completely eliminated in the programs of 20 thousand cinemas in the United States. In the world, American movies account for 60 ~ 90% of the released programs, and about $200 million is used to make more than 800 movies every year. The investment in film exceeds/kloc-0.5 billion US dollars, which makes the film industry a large-scale industry in the United States, which can be comparable to the largest industry in the United States in terms of capital, such as manufacturing cars, cans, steel, oil and cigarettes. Paramount, Los Angeles, Fox, MGM and Universal, these big studios dominate the production of movies and the distribution and distribution of movies all over the world. They are closely integrated with Wall Street financial giants such as Cohen Robert Bank, General Motors, Dupont de Nemore, Morgan and Rockefeller.

Since Griffith fell from power, financial capitalists have paid attention not to directors, but to movie stars. The latter became a tool or trademark of the production company. Since then, the real owner of the film is the producer, that is, the entrepreneur appreciated and selected by Wall Street bankers. Film directors, like lighting engineers, photographers and set designers, are just employees who get a certain salary every week. By surreptitiously threatening to cancel the contract, the producer seized most of the real power that the director once had, such as the choice of themes, stars and technicians, the careful scrutiny of scripts and montages, the supervision of sets and costumes, and so on.

In this way, the producer has become the master of all the factors that determine the success or failure of art. He is most concerned about how to make more money, and his board of directors only measures his value according to the profit rate of the film. Therefore, film production is completely box office revenue-oriented. Their comments on independent film critics were completely ignored, but in fact, such film critics hardly existed in the United States at that time.

But the producer himself just directs everything behind the scenes. There are movie stars in Hollywood, and the "star system" has become the basis for Hollywood to conquer the world. The audience's worship of movie stars is maintained by millions of signed photos, and advertisements and publicity create a legendary atmosphere around these idols. The love and divorce of celebrities, the cosmetics they use, their houses and their favorite animals have become a topic of general concern and relish in some countries. The "star system" even made rudolph valentino, mary pickford, douglas fairbanks, Gloria Stevenson, Wallace Reid, John Kilbert, May Moore, norma Talmadge and others truly idolized.

Some famous religious groups are deeply disturbed by this game. The Puritans attacked Hollywood, and this attack was aggravated by the spread of some celebrity scandals (for example, Wallace Reid died of drug abuse and alcoholism, a dancer was murdered at a party attended by a fat star Jacob, and some celebrities had committed murder or committed crimes in love, etc.). ).

At this time, the capitalists set up an organization called "American Producers and Publishers Association", which was organized by a devout Puritan, * * * and political party leader william hays. According to Hayes, this film has become a traveling businessman. "Commodities follow the movie. Wherever American movies go, we will be able to sell more American goods. " .

When Hollywood learned about this international mission, the roles played by some American stars also changed. Douglas fairbanks once humorously played an American hero who was strong, naive, optimistic and loved by women in the Triangle Film Company, but later he became an invincible Hercules, a fearless knight and a defender of justice in Zorro's Mexican Seal, The Three Musketeers of France, Robin Hood of England, The Thief of Baghdad and The Black Pirate of the East. With the growth of age, fan punk likes huge scenery, extreme luxury and mysterious power more and more.

Few directors refuse to attach themselves to stars. With the establishment of Hollywood, film pioneers either declined or disappeared. Thomas Inge has passed away; Although Mike Cenit continued to create some excellent works, his reputation did not increase. As for Griffith, it also gradually declined. Mark Griffiths's masterpiece is his Birth of America, his European Canflowers, and in the film art, it is Conflict with Different Parties. However, the failure of business ultimately doomed Griffith's tragic fate. This great artist blacklisted by the studio will never have a chance to direct a film in the remaining 20 years of his life. Money worship in Hollywood destroyed all its founders.

The decline of Griffith is in sharp contrast with the prosperity of Xi Dish Mill. The latter's vulgar businessman flavor and grandiose style have become the characteristics of Hollywood movies for forty years. He has made all kinds of films, from the flashy comedy "Men and Women" and other films starring Gloria Schwarzenegger, to the luxurious anti-Soviet propaganda film "The Boatman on the Volga River" and the anti-atheistic farce "The Girl who doesn't believe in God" (the description of children's prison in the film is very prominent), and he has made movies that can make money. Demir's most successful works are some large-scale movies with a strong amusement park atmosphere. In these large-scale movies, Demir not only borrowed stories from the Bible, but also added some pornographic descriptions. Hollywood gave him a sum of money that Griffith couldn't get, and used it to make blockbusters "Ten Commandments" and "King of Kings". Inheriting the old tradition of Italian films, Demir became one of the most popular directors of commercial films. Fred Niebuhler imitated his example and made a sensational film called Biography of Xu Ben for Gao Dewen and Mei Yu. The film cost $6 million. Although it was popular for a while, it only earned $4 million.

Hollywood, a city that suddenly became lucky, has the vulgar taste of nouveau riche. The luxury villas they built combined the Colosseum with Rococo forts, Catholic cathedrals and skyscrapers. This exaggerated interest in architecture, coupled with that kind of didactic symbolic interest, is most prominent in the film "Four Horsemen of Revelation" adapted from the original work by Blasgo Ibana. This super movie, directed by Rex Ingram and made valentino a star, broke the record of release income. Other films in England, such as the film shot in Nice at the end of his silent film career, also show this form-oriented approach.

After Hollywood became a powerful force in the world, its films became international. Among its most popular silent films, few are set in the United States. Among these films, only the very famous Caravan directed by James Cruze is directly based on American history, which is an epic praising the pioneers in the west. Thanks to Thomas Inge and W.S. Hart, westerns have been promoted to the artistic level, but at this time, with the exception of john ford's "The Fighter", westerns have become synonymous with cheap films, produced by some directors and unknown actors who cater to ordinary audiences. The tendency of American movies to "lose their own characteristics" has become an extremely common trend. Although henry king can still follow the tradition of Thomas Inge and Griffith, he directed a perfect film "The dutiful son David" describing local life in the United States, but people not only did not encourage him to move in this direction, but instead led him to shoot some popular love novels (such as "The Hate History of Stella"), or, like those films he later shot in Rome, to develop in the direction of Italian films with huge scenes (such as "Romola").

Due to the international combination of financial capital, strict censorship, popular novels being systematically put on the screen, star system, the intention of selling tickets exclusively and the money worship of producers, American film art is increasingly poor, which is more prominent than material richness. However, there is at least one comedy genre in American movies with rich works, with a few exceptions, almost all of which are produced by foreign directors. Lyons Pillay cultivated Americans' love for flashy comedy, and Gasnier was one of the creators of this series. In addition to these two men, you can also name Schotad, Albert Caplani, and Abadi Dallas who assisted Chaplin in directing A Woman in Paris.

After 1920, Hollywood absorbed a large number of excellent directors and actors from abroad to the United States in order to defeat its competitors. Moritz Stiller came to the United States with greta garbo. But he directed films for German actors Paula negri and Jonnings. The two films he directed, Empire Hotel and Sin Street, were not very successful in art or business. Contrary to Stiehler, Garbo is very popular in the United States. This famous tragic actress is really a cash cow in Hollywood and brings art to Hollywood studios. Advertising makes Garbo a legend. The titles of the films she starred in are all of a propaganda nature, such as: seducing women, meat and demons, fairies coming down to earth, mysterious ladies, wild orchids, kissing and so on. In the legend, she represents the most famous amorous woman in history.

Apart from Garbo, immigrants from Scandinavia have made little contribution to Hollywood. But immigrants from Germany, especially Strauhen, Liu Bieqian and von Sternberg, have made great contributions to American movies. The exemplary role of European films makes several American directors tend to make films that are more artistic than commercial. Some have really reached the artistic level. On the eve of the rise of talking movies, a group of talented new film directors appeared in the United States, and these directors began to take over the vanguard position to some extent.

In the most prosperous period in its history, Hollywood film pioneers and the greatest film artists in Europe rejected it rather than used it. With the establishment of Hollywood's hegemony in the world, most of its productions have fallen into a stagnant situation of meaningless pursuit of luxury scenes.

1927 10 10 On 23rd October, Alan Crosland's "The King of Jazz with Voice, Dialogue and Singing" was released for the first time, which marked that the film entered a new era in history. The use of sound technology makes it possible for complex narration and smooth dialogue in movies, which contributes to the strong dramatic style of classic Hollywood movies. At the same time, this style also conforms to the studio system at that time. By the crocodile Mike of Hollywood? The studio system created by Sainat objectively requires that the film must aim at catering to the aesthetic needs of the widest audience, and the traditional drama aesthetics that the public is familiar with is obviously the best choice. Genre movies are produced under this background. These films, which kracauer called "deep collective psychology" to cater to the audience, quickly occupied the audience's field of vision through stylized plots and typed characters, and sci-fi, song and dance, crime and other types of films swept the world cinemas.

As the most "Americanized" genre, westerns played an important role in the classic Hollywood period. Western films praise and admire rough individualism and the spirit of survival of the fittest, which embodies the moral ideal that a good end will overcome evil, so they are enduring in the American film industry. Fred. Kinneman's Noon, shot at 1952, embodies the characteristics of westerns or classic Hollywood movies in many ways. However, although Noon has the shadow of classic Hollywood in many aspects, it is by no means an authentic classic Hollywood movie. In fact, this film, shot in 1952, played a turning point in the history of Hollywood development. The most obvious difference between Noon and traditional Hollywood movies is the portrayal of Kane. The hero image in traditional western movies often represents absolute justice and axiom, but Kane is in an awkward position in the film. Because the townspeople refused to help the sheriff who had defended them, Kane's opponent was not only the villain, but even the townspeople. The film gave Kane a lot of psychological descriptions, and he began to think about his position and behavior, and what to do. The characterization of Noon is not excessive, which subverts the image of the former sheriff to some extent. The film also abandoned the happy ending of westerns and chose Kane to throw away his badge and leave town as the ending, which enhanced the objectivity of the story.

"Noon" was shot in 1952, which happened to be the end of Hollywood's golden age and Hollywood entered a difficult low tide. Until the sixties and seventies of last century, with the intensification of post-industrialization and post-socialization in western society, new social and artistic thoughts flooded. These new ideas have stirred people's thoughts, changed people's appreciation orientation and acceptance of art, and the audience of movies has also changed. The style of classic Hollywood movies can no longer meet their viewing needs. The Italian neo-realism movement in the 1940s and the new wave of French films in the 1950s impacted and influenced the American film industry at that time, and accelerated the reform of Hollywood films. What about Arthur? A number of "new style" movies, represented by Payne's Bonnie and Clyde, came into being, which also opened the curtain of the new Hollywood period.

The typical way to describe characters in the new Hollywood period is that the hero in the film is no longer a typed character with a clear distinction between good and evil, but has a more complicated inner world. New Hollywood pays attention to the three-dimensional sense and psychology of the characters, which increases the level and depth of the film. The narrative feature of Hollywood's new films is that, on the basis of inheriting Hollywood's tradition of being good at telling stories, the stories of the films are integrated into the broad social background, making the films more social significance and depth than before.

New Hollywood films are also deeply influenced by European films. The artistry and commercialization of commercial films became a trend of film development in this period, and many European art films were applied to Hollywood films.

From the classic period to the new period, movies in Hollywood have experienced half a century of evolution, and the story structure, characters and ideas have undergone tremendous changes. A set of techniques in the classic Hollywood period can no longer meet the needs of contemporary audiences, while new Hollywood movies that are more suitable for the needs of the social era have quietly occupied the audience's sight.

In the transitional period from 1970s to 1980s, New Hollywood completed its mission. In the past 10 years, the United States produced about 200 films every year, and the competition for audiences reached a balance. The film has always maintained an audience of 10 to1200 million, and has its own increasingly broad overseas market. According to the statistics of 1993, the domestic box office income of American movies reached 5.2 billion, and the distribution income was 2.6 billion. The trade surplus of audio-visual products is the second largest industry in the United States after aircraft manufacturing and export. Among the 10O movies with the highest screen attendance in the world in the whole year, American movies accounted for 88.

Hollywood films have completed the transition to the post-industrial era through their own adjustment, and are still at the top of the pyramid of the world film industry, showing strong vitality. Through a comprehensive investigation of Hollywood, it is helpful for us to think about movies in our daily life and to judge our own national movies. For the ordinary audience, Hollywood movies can be regarded as entertainment; For film creators, we can learn the rules of Hollywood-style commercial films, a unique art form; For producers, we can learn the concept and operation mode of Hollywood movies from Hollywood-style business rules; For theorists, we can reflect on history and problems through understanding the characteristics of Hollywood. Investigating the film history of Hollywood is beneficial to the development of China's film industry.