Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Classic Hollywood cinema'

This exegesis explains my film Goddess of Fate (Mingyun nüshen). I completed this film, in May 2007, as the studio project for the degree of Doctor of Visual Art at Griffith University. A Chinese experimental film, Goddess of Fate explores the mysteries of fate through the lives of two Taiwanese teenagers, a male and a female with very different life courses. The pair develops a surreal connection through a statue of the Goddess of Fate that with dream, prayer and imagery draws them together and ultimately leads to redemption. My film seeks to create a narrative that integrates three narrative strands from different traditions: classical Hollywood, Taoism or Chinese narrative more broadly, and Christian. As director of the film, I bring these three strands from my personal and filmmaking experiences and from my reflections on filmmaking theory and practice, which I explain in this exegesis. Here I address the research question: How are the multiple narrative traditions merged in my Chinese film Goddess of Fate? The theoretical field is cinema studies, with a focus on narrative. After discussing my personal background as a filmmaker and my interest in film narrative, I discuss narrative theory in Hollywood and Chinese experimental film, and then introduce the film’s two non-Hollywood narrative traditions, Taoist (as an element of Chinese narrative) and Christian. Within this context I follow with a detailed discussion of the merger of the three narrative strands in Goddess of Fate. Essentially, I conceptualise the narrative as two separate threads attached to the story line of the two main characters, Lin Hsi and Ching Ching. Lin’s storyline begins in the Hollywood mode, which is disrupted midway through the film. Ching Ching’s storyline is primarily Christian, told through Chinese, especially Taoist, narrative techniques. In the end, the two storylines merge. This bipolar and complementary method is well established in Chinese literary theory and practice. I aimed to create a special and original work of art in Goddess of Fate that blends my interest in Hollywood narrative and Chinese experimental film, my background in experimental filmmaking, and my personal Christian beliefs. The experimental focus in Goddess is on issues of narrative, a major aspect of film studies. Therefore, this exegesis explains how the multiple narrative traditions are merged in my Chinese film Goddess of Fate in the context of narrative theory in cinema studies. This exegesis is meant to be read in tandem with, or after, viewing Goddess of Fate. The film is highly visual, whereas this exegesis is verbal. To introduce a visual element into this exegesis, I make extensive use of stills that illustrate the non-verbal ways in which the various strands merge through symbolism and non-linear narrative. The merger of narrative strands from different times, cultures, traditions and media is perhaps ambitious. However, my film has already been selected for screenings at Asian and American film festivals. My film (attached as a DVD) and its interpretation in this exegesis contribute to our understanding of the integration of multiple narrative traditions in film studies and the experimental lineage of transnational Chinese cinema. Goddess of Fate has also contributed to my own personal growth as a filmmaker.
Thesis (Professional Doctorate)
Doctor of Visual Arts (DVA)
Griffith Film School
Queensland College of Art
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The focus of this thesis is to explore the ideas behind Hollywood Cinema and techniques used to craft camera shots of today’s cinema. The movie industry is one of the United States’ biggest export profits; because of this, American movies standout above the rest. I will be exploring and demonstrating the researched techniques of American cinema.

This essay studies stylistic differences as well as homage’s between four films produced in two different contexts, New Hollywood and alternative aesthetics today in America. This is done in order to answer the question how alternative Hollywood works against or with Classical Hollywood Cinema in cases like style and narrative. The Work is done by a theory of neoformalism and the definition made by them of Classical Hollywood Cinema. The essay finds small changes, although kind of important witch are mainly shown in editing and causal motivation. It’s found that, in these films Classical Hollywood Cinema still contributes with a huge part.

Questa tesi è un’esplorazione dei rapporti tra il segno teatrale e il segno cinematografico attraverso la prospettiva degli sceneggiatori e della sceneggiatura nel cinema hollywoodiano classico. Presenta problematiche che riguardano la sceneggiatura come pratica, forma d’arte, oggetto di discussione, mezzo di espressione e risultato di una messa in campo di propositi, valori e significati.
This doctoral thesis is an analysis of the relationships between the "theatrical sign" and the "cinematographic sign" from the perspective of screenwriters and of Classic Hollywood screenwriting. It introduces issues related to screenwriting as practical activity, form of art, subject of discussion, system of communication, and as the result of a negotiation of aims, values and meanings.

Le classicisme hollywoodien permet d’explorer la variété des sens que revêt au cinéma le concept de réalité à partir de fragments de réalité matérielle enregistrés, du réalisme ontologique qui s’y attache, de la réalité diégétique qui constitue l’univers des films, et de la réalité philosophique, qui renvoie le spectateur à son être propre par le partage de l’expérience de personnages auxquels il s’identifie. Par l’instrumentalisation de ces réalités relatives, Hollywood crée une nouvelle forme de récit qu’alimenteront la littérature, les mythes et la psychanalyse, participant à la diffusion d’un fonds culturel commun à tous les Américains. Parce que la réalité cinématographique n’est pas ce que croit le spectateur, elle a naturellement partie liée avec le rêve et le fantasme, justifiant une réflexion sur leurs interrelations et sur la dynamique de transformation de l’art cinématographique qui se joue dans ces interrelations.Les mondes hollywoodiens, soumis à l’ imaginaire et au désir des cinéastes, n’ont que l’apparence du nôtre, jusqu’aux mondes intérieurs dont les portes nous seront ouvertes par Hollywood à travers la représentation des rêves, créant une hybridité entre réalité, rêve et fantasme. Mais un doute se créera chez le spectateur à qui on aura fait croire au rêve et au fantasme autant qu’à la réalité, et ce doute mettra en péril la « suspension d’incrédulité » qui avait fait le succès d’Hollywood et contribuera à la fin du classicisme, le rêve ayant contaminé la fiction
Through classical Hollywood cinema, one can explore the broad variety of meanings that the concept of reality has in cinema: fragments of recorded reality material, the ontological realism that is attached to it, the narrative reality that constitutes the universe of films, and the philosophical reality that transports the viewer back to his own self by sharing the experience of characters with whom he identifies. Through the instrumentalisation of these relative realities, Hollywood creates a new form of narrative that nourishes literature, myths and psychoanalysis, and help spread a common cultural background to all Americans. Because cinematographic reality is not what the audience believes it is, it is naturally linked with dream and fantasy, justifying thoughts on their inter-relationships and on the dynamics of the transformation of cinematographic art that is played out in these inter-relationships.Subjects of the imagination and desire of filmmakers, the worlds created by Hollywood merely have the appearance of our world. This even encompasses inner worlds, whose doors will be opened to us through the representation of dreams, creating a hybridity between reality, dream and fantasy. But a doubt will be created in the spectator, who has been made to believe equally in dreams, fantasy and reality, and this doubt will jeopardize the "suspension of disbelief" that has made Hollywood successful, ultimately contributing to the end of classicism; the dream having contaminated fiction

Uppsatsens syfte ligger i att undersöka huruvida filmteoretikern David Bordwells två inflytelserika berättarmodeller från 1980-talet fortfarande återfinns inom samtida filmproduktion. Jag fördjupar mig i det klassiska- respektive konstfilmsberättandet och jämför vidare de typiska elementen från de två berättarmodellerna med formatet slow cinema. I definitionen av slow cinema utgår jag ifrån filmvetaren Matthew Flanagans utredning av vad formatet innebär samt de tre byggstenarna han anser vara mest väsentliga. Dessa är långa tagningar, en ickeberättande struktur och skildringar av realistiska, vardagliga skeenden. Med en utgångspunkt i detta utför jag en närläsning av Alfonso Cuaróns film Gravity (2013). Analysen fokuserar på hur element från slow cinema kan adapteras till en mer kommersiellt accepterad film med ett klassiskt berättande. Gravity visar sig exemplifiera dels Cuaróns personliga stil men även ett samspel av element från de två berättarmodellerna, och slow cinema. Avslutningsvis förs en diskussion där jag jämför analysens resultat dels med tidigare forskning samt ett antal andra filmexempel. Slutsatsen blir således att konstnärlig auktoritet och filmisk kvalitet likväl kan uppstå inom kommersiella modeller som konstnärliga sådana. Dagens filmklimat och dess vidare utveckling kan gynnas av en uppluckring av de föråldrade konventioner som Bordwells berättarmodeller innebär. Istället skall filmskapare fritt kunna röra sig mellan olika stilar, tillvägagångsätt och berättande, likt Cuaróns förkroppsligade kamera.

Ce travail se propose d'interroger le problème des limites de la représentation du cinéma de l'âge classique (1920-1960) à partir de l'esthétique organique-pathétique conçue par Sergueï Eisenstein dans la Non-Indifférente Nature, qu'il nomme « formule de l'extase ». Après avoir montré l'existence d'une double nature de l'extase chez Eisenstein (en même temps eidétique et régressive), ce travail montre les analogies de cette formule avec la mise en forme de l'excès de pathos (thématique et formel) dans l’œuvre de trois cinéastes hollywoodiens, King Vidor, Josef von Sternberg et Orson Welles
This piece of work aims to inquire the topic of the limits of representation in the cinema of classical era (1920-1960) on the basis of the organic-pathetic esthetics conceived by Sergei Eisenstein in The Nonindifferent nature, which he names “formula of ecstasy”. After having shown the existence of a double (that is, eidetic and regressive at the same time) nature of ecstasy in Eisenstein, this piece of work will focus on the analogies between this formula and the shaping of the excess of (thematic and formal) pathos in the works by three Hollywood filmmakers: King Vidor, Josef von Sternberg and Orson Welles

碩士
東吳大學
中國文學系
105
This research is about the novels written by Mu Shiying (1912-1940) and further reveal the relationship among those novels, creative backgrounds and classical Hollywood's. The thesis can be divided into several parts: the introduction, 3 discussed sections and the conclusion. In the chapter “1930 age classical Hollywood and the Shanghai literary arena”, mainly described the creative background of novels written by Mu Shiying. At that time, western effects from 1930 age classical Hollywood spread to Shanghai as well as the narrative way change. This chapter revealed how the changing milieu environment impact and influent the novel of Mu Shiying. The following chapter: “staring at: Mu Shiying in novel feminine body” looked into the nature of the novels by investigating the feminine image. Furthermore, providing the explanation how Mu Shiying created her novels by the vision of movie. Staring brings the desire and the pleasant sensation. This research discussed those issues from “the transformation” and “the disassimilation”. And discussed how Mu Shiying integrated the female image of classical Hollywood into novel writing. In the chapter “splice: Mu Shiying in novel montage” describes the relationship between Mu Shiying and montage. The montage is further categorized into “narrative montage” and “performance montage” to inspect Mu Shiying in novel montage. The novels of Mu Shiying were re-annotated due to the rise of artistic skills from movies. This thesis attempts to explain the behind meaning of artistic characteristic again. Hope by this research can provided a different view to Mu Shiying and give a new vision for novels of Chinese Neo Sensationalism.

This study examines the role of social media in maintaining interest in classic cinema in today’s media culture. Ethnographic analyses and case studies were performed within a robust classic cinema fan network on the social media blogging site Tumblr. The practices of these bloggers and their online platform are framed against the traditional structure of the curator and museum, indicating that they serve many of the cultural functions attributed to these institutions. This study further demonstrates that these Tumblr networks serve as a resource for young people to discover, share, and create communities relating to classic cinema. Due to the networking capabilities of Tumblr’s youth-oriented platform, these fan activities reach a broad range of individuals, exposing them to scenes and actors from classic cinema, stimulating interest in and acceptance of the cinematic framework of classic films. This content visibility and distribution potentially draws those outside the community into the extant fan network. These communities and practices represent previously unexplored methods by which classic cinema appreciation may develop and thrive within the fast-paced media culture of the 21st century.
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The subject of the doctoral dissertation is the cinema of Preston Sturges, an influential and innovative creator who has still not received enough attention from film historians. In the centre of the research reflection, the author places directing and screenwriting achievements of this American artist. His work can be divided chronologically into three stages: the thirties, in which he built his position in the American studio system as an outstanding screenwriter; the golden period of 1940-1944, in which he provided Paramount Pictures with eight, fully independent successful productions; and the later period, which can be described as a progressive erosion of creative ideas and increasing difficulties in acquiring funds for further masterpieces. The indicated research area is indirectly embodied in the topic and focuses on the category of an "author" and a "narrative". Its important complement is a hypothesis that the structure of the presented world, the "ideological variables" conditioning it and the narrative strategies used in Sturges' works are an anticipation of philosophical and cultural as well as aesthetic postmodernism. In this dissertation, the author interprets the works of Preston Sturges through the prism of transgressing performance conventions, narrative strategies and preferred ideology, which are characteristic of the classical Hollywood cinema. Sturges' ambiguous position, as both the author and participant of the studio system, justifies going beyond the purely textual dimension in the analyses and interpretations of his works, in consequence locating them in historical, social and political contexts, which significantly determine their semantic structures. In turn, the American director's ways of deconstructing the norms and conventions of the classical cinema are a clear prefiguration of postmodernism in film. The two-coding character included in Sturges' pieces is a decisive factor that allows to interpret his works as a phenomenon that simultaneously falls into his contemporary cinema models, as well as a completely separate work with his independent style. The works of this American director, extremely stylistically consistent and marked with a recognizable writing technique, meet all the conditions to feel tempted to read them through the prism of the authorial policy defined in the 1950s. Referring to the dispute on terminology related to the understanding of film authorship present in a historical and film reflection, the author in this dissertation does not abstract from the biographical legend of the American artist. Trying to go beyond the purely textual dimension, the author looks at the contexts (historical, social, political) that determine the meaning structures of Sturges' films. That cinema, though hybrid in genre (screwball comedy, slapstick, cartoons, westerns, political pamphlet), was supposed to perform well in its popular dimension, therefore it is reasonable to analyze it through the light of the times in which it was created. Of course, such a research strategy cannot ignore issues related to reflection over the genre of Preston Sturges’ films, as the above-mentioned hybridism and genre eclecticism favor the emergence of such relationships within Sturges’ individual pictures that have a decisive impact on the perception of his work in terms of innovation and originality. Preston Sturges was a creator who significantly redefined understanding of traditional roles in the way films were made in Hollywood. Consistent combination of the tasks for a screenwriter/director constituted a novelty in the existing Hollywood production models. Thus, the American authorial "originality" cannot be considered in isolation from the implementation context and production models dominating in the contemporary large-scale film studios. Another research problem that is developed in this dissertation concerns a deconstruction of classical narrative formulas. Sturges makes it in numerous ways. The most emblematic strategy in this respect is violating the chronological order (especially through a frequent use of flashbacks), disturbing orientation during the story and applying a hypothetical narrative. In turn, autothematicity, intertextuality and the ubiquitous pastiche are factors that allow to interpret Sturges' works as "meta-images", which act as a discursive reflection on formal and stylistic solutions constituting the paradigm of the classical cinema, as well as on the non-textual representation in which Sturges' work relativizes the most important components of the American cinema of the 1930s and 1940s (ideology of success, heroic war mythologies, moral patterns, institution of marriage, values of the American West, etc.) and shows the structures and mechanisms that Hollywood conceals behind its film texts.

Cette recherche porte sur le langage cinématographique (ou mode de représentation) adopté par Mizoguchi en contraste avec le style classique hollywoodien. Notre hypothèse est que le refus de Mizoguchi de recourir au découpage classique et au gros-plan procurerait au spectateur une expérience de perception qui tendrait à se rapprocher de celle vécue par un spectateur de théâtre ou le témoin d’une action se déroulant dans notre monde physique. Mizoguchi a débuté son métier au début des années 1920. Le cinéma japonais venait tout juste de prendre la voie d’un art nouveau en quittant son statut de simple captation de spectacles théâtraux. L’industrie cinématographique japonaise était alors en incubation marquée par diverses influences occidentales. Nous nous pencherons plus particulièrement sur les questions stylistiques à partir du moment où le cinéma japonais s’engageait dans le parlant en imitant le style classique hollywoodien. Ce cinéma dominant devenait une norme que Mizoguchi décida de ne pas suivre pour préférer un style caractérisé par des plans-séquences. Ce style plus « neutre » et «objectif » allait être encensé par Bazin après la guerre au moment où ce dernier découvrit notamment Welles et Wyler. À partir de plusieurs extraits filmiques, nous analysons le plan-séquence mizoguchien comme substitution à une série de plans rapprochés qui se serait imposé normalement avec le style classique hollywoodien. Et ce, afin de discuter des enjeux de réalisme et de théâtralité soulevés par Bazin.
This research focuses on the film language (or mode of representation) chosen by Mizoguchi in contrast to the Hollywood classical style. Our hypothesis is that Mizoguchi’s refusal to resort to traditional cutting and close-up would give the viewer an experience of perception that would tend to be get closer to the one experienced by a stage audience or viewers witnessing an action taking place in our physical world. Mizoguchi made his entry into the profession in the early 20s. At that time, Japanese cinema just recently became a new art by leaving its status of a mere capture of theatrical performances. The Japanese film industry was being incubated with various Western influences. We will focus specifically on stylistic issues from the moment the Japanese cinema engages in talkies by imitating the Hollywood classical style. This dominant style became a standard practice which Mizoguchi decided not to follow to prefer sequence-shots. The long takes style was to be later praised by Bazin for its neutrality and objectivity when he discovered Welles and Wyler after the Second World War. Through analysis of film excerpts, we compare Mizoguchi’s sequence-shots with cutting that would usually take place with the Hollywood classical style. This is to discuss the issues of realism and theatrics raised by Bazin.

This thesis examines representations of youth in the American “teen film”. As a critical category, the teen film is still developing, but it has been defined by a number of critics as being—ostensibly—about and for youth.¹ This thesis engages with teen film literature to test the meaning of these terms. As a genre that is precariously positioned between parent culture and youth audiences, teen film’s narratives are always negotiated and the degree to which it is about and for youth is debatable. I argue that rather than being about and for youth in simple terms, the teen film deploys narratives about a certain idea of youth that is distinctly American and historically contingent; in other words, while certainly consumed by youth and depicting narratives that feature youthful characters and themes, the teen film genre contributes to discourses that are about and for the idea of America. My argument contributes to the critical literature on teen film by exploring the ways the teen film functions as a representation of American ideology. It outlines how, in America, the category of “youth” has historically functioned as an important site of ideological inscription in which to construct an idealised future. In the early 20th century (via the discourse of adolescence), youth was specifically idealised as a frontier space, a site in which to symbolically reconcile troubling anxieties and contradictions left unresolved at the closure of the American frontier. Up to the end of World War II, Hollywood cinema functioned similarly, as a site in which the troubling contradiction between the national ideals of individualism and community might be mobilised and contained, via the “reconciliatory” narrative.² The teen film emerged in the period immediately after World War II, when Hollywood’s efforts to resolve the tensions inherent in frontier mythology were foundering. The teen film might have represented a convergence of the potential reconciliatory powers of cinema and youth, but rather than assisting in the resolution of American ideological crises, the teen film problematised them. Screening youth as an inherently rebellious space, a “frontier” space, facilitated the breakdown of the reconciliatory pattern. In the teen films of the 1950s, the conflict between the ideals of individualism and community proved irreconcilable. Subsequent teen film cycles stage and re-stage the conflict between individual and community, offering repeated takes on what those fundamentally “American” ideals mean in each generation. This thesis traces developments in the representation of the conflict between individual and community through four of the teen film’s dominant cycles—delinquency films from the 1950s, slasher films and animal comedies from the 1970s-to-mid-1980s, and makeover films from the late-1990s-to-early-2000s. Proceeding from the initial deliberation over the terms about and for youth, I include discussions of films like Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Porky’s (1982) while excluding films like River’s Edge (1986) and Kids (1995), which certainly represent youth, but are typically not viewed by them. ¹ This definition is supported by the work of Catherine Driscoll and Stephen Tropiano. ² This thesis works from Robert B. Ray’s discussion of the “reconciliatory” narrative.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2009