Screen ages: A survey of American cinema/
John Alberti
- London: Routledge, 2015.
- 300 p.
Introduction; Hollywood in the screen ages Now playing Movies in the twenty-first century The screen ages: The myth of Hollywood's "Golden Age" The same movie on different screens: The event-centered approach to movie history Case study 0.1: Schindler's List and Castlemont High School The structure of Screen Ages 1. Beginnings: Multiple cinemas, multiple audiences. 1895-1907 Now playing Vitascope debuts at Koster and Bial's Music Hall, New York City, April 23, 1896 A day at a Mutoscope peep show, St Louis, Missouri, 1900 The Great Train Robbery plays at the Nickelodeon theater, Pittsburgh, 1905 Screen ages The invention of "the movies" * Beginnings: Pre-cinema Photography and nineteenth-century screen shows Eadweard Muybridge and the first movies The beginnings of mass media in nineteenth-century Arfierica The movies begin in America Competition and diversity: Taking control of events Controlling the movies: Edison and the Motion Picture Patents Company In development The invention of "the movies" and the first narrative genres Actualities and the documentary tradition Case study 1.1: From Kinetoscopes to YouTube From actuality to melodrama: The Life of an American Fireman Turn-of-the-century genres of gender: Muscle men and dancing girls Case study 1.2: An early movie scandal: "The Kiss" The names above and below the title Thomas Edison and the cult{ure) of invention Alice Guy-Blache and women in film Edwin S. Porter and the artisanal screen age Explore further 2. Becoming "the movies": The nickelodeon age, 1908-1915 Now playing , r- • a . Joseph Medill Patterson reports on "The Nickelodeons," Saturday Evening Post, November 23, 1907 . Los Angeles nickelodeon showing of Kid Auto Races at Venice, 1914 Cahiria premieres at the Knickerbocker Theatre, New York City, June 1, 1914 Screen ages A new medium for a new America Growing demand and the rise of the independents The movies go west In focus: Early censorship and the question of who goes to the movies The National Board of Censorship and the Mutual case In development Comedies, westerns, and melodramas: The genres of the nickelodeon age The western Slapstick comedy Case study 2.1: The problem of slapstick Gender genres: The New Woman The names above and below the title Florence Lawrence and the invention of the "movie star" D. W. Griffith Lois Weber: Lost pioneer of early cinema Case study 2.2: Telling stories with pictures: Lois Weber's Suspense Explore further- Movie palaces, corner theaters, and tent shows: The silent era and the first Hollywood, 1915-192S Now playing The premiere of The Clansman, later The Birth uf a Nation, at dune's Auditorium, Los Angeles, February 8, 1915 Case study 3.1: To screen or not to screen - the problem of The Birth of a Nation A typical silent bill at a small-town movie theater, 1920 Case study 3.2: "Silent" movies? The role of sound in the silent era A screening of The ]azz Singer at the Garrick Theatre, downtown Chicago, December 1927 Screen ages In the silent era: Liberation and repression The business of the movies: The rise of the studio system and vertical integration Counter-reactions to vertical integration: Star power Liberation arid repression II: Celebrity, scandal, and censorship The .VIPPDA and self-censorship In development .. .VIelodrama ■ Movies as art/art movies Erich Von Stroheim F. W. Murnau Genres of gentler: The girl next door, the vamp, and the flapper The names above and below the title .Mary Pickford Oscar Micheaux and bLick cinema Three giants of silent comedy: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd Charlie Chaplin Buster Keaton Harold Lloyd Explore further 4. The studios era: Dominance and diversity in the Golden Age of Hollywood, 1929-1948 Now playing A pre-Code screening of The Public Enemy at the Strand Theatre, New York, 1931 A ten-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr., dressed as a plantation field hand, sings in a black Baptist choir at the Atlanta premiere of Cone with the Wind, December 14, 1939 A Saturday afternoon matinee, 1943 Screen ages The movies in Depression-era America The studio system Studio factories and house sr>'les Overview of house styles: The Big Five Metro Goldwyn Mayer: Glitz and glamor Case study 4.1: The Wizard of Oz and the Great Depression Paramount Pictures: Polish and sophistication Warner Brothers: Gritt>' realism 20th Century Fox: Ail-American populism RKO: Variety and experimentation The "Little Three": Universal, Columbia, and United Artists Universal Pictures Columbia Pictures United Artists Poverty Row and independent filmmaking Hollywood and World War II £ The trauma of war - Censorship and the Production Code The Paramount Decision and the end of the studios era In development i Genres of gender: Film noir, the hardboiled detective, and the femme fatale Case study 4,2: The Production Code in action: The case of Double Indemnity Animation in the studios era The names above and below the title Orson Welles Walt Disney Dorothy Arzner Explore further 5. Theaters, drive-ins, and living rooms: Changing screens, changing movies, 1949-1966 r Now playing The premiere of The Ten Comniandments at the Criterion Theatre, New York City, November 8, 1956 A showing of Beach Party at a drive-in theater, 1963 ^ A television episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents^ Jamjary 3, 1960 Screen ages 1949-1966: Conformity and contention Hollywood after the Paramount Decision: Divestment and diversification The rise of the agents: MCA, Universal, and diversification McCarthyism, the Cold War, and the blacklist Hollywood and the world International inlluences The end of the Production Code and the beginnings of the ratings system In development The western Science fiction Genres of gender in the 1950s and early 1960s: Marilyn Monroe and James Dean/R(Kk Hudson and Doris Day Case study 5.1: A new kind of acting: Movies and the Method The names above and below the title John Ford Nicholas Ray Case study 5.2: Constructing the teenager: Images of youth in 1950s screen experiences Alfred Hitchcock Explore further 6. Movies big and small: Art movies, blockbusters, and the new Hollvwood, 1967-19S0 Now playing Watching Naslwille at a suburban multiplex, summer 1975 A college film society screening of The Godfather, October 1976 Star Wars premieres at Mann's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, May 1977 Case study 6.1: Star Wars and its sources Screen ages The turning point Screen experiences big and small The ratings system Vietnam and the end of the American empire Getting bigger by getting smaller Case study 6.2: Youth culture and Hollywood: The case of Easy Rider Sequels and franchises In development Comedy in the 1970s: Woody Allen and .Mel Brooks Blaxploitarion movies Genres of gender: Nontraditional leading men: Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Richard Dreyfuss Dustin Hoffman Al Pacino Richard Dreyfuss The names above and below the title Jane Fonda Steven Spielberg .Vlartin Scorsese J Explore further 7. Shopping malls, video stores, and cable TV: Movies in tbe franchise era, 1981-1997 Now playing Sex. Lies, and Videotape screens at the Utah/US Film Festival, January 1989 A family watches Raiders of the Lost Ark on HBO in their home, 1984 College students "watch a VHS copy of Pidp Fiction in their college dorm room, 1997 Screen ages Opposing forces in the franchise era The movie business in the 1980s .Vlovies in the 1980s and 1990s: Bigger, louder, costlier The example of Ramho Alternatives to the blockbuster: The rise of indie movies Case study 7.1: What makes an indie movie an indie movie? In development Slasher movies Case study 7.2: Why do we like horror movies? John Hughes and new teen movies Cienres of gender: The bodybuilder hero The names above and below the title Spike Lee Susan Scidelman, Amy Heckerling, .Martha Coolidge Quentin Tarantino Explore further 8. The digital era: Back to the future, 1994-present Now playing Titanic plays on a small screen embedded in the back of an airplane seat, 1998 Two high school students watch a VHS cassette of The Phantom Edit on a hoi ■ entertainment center, 2001 A college film student watches The Rirth of a Nation on YouTube, 2010 Screen ages The digital age: A new dawn of cinema Freedom and control: The push and pull of the digital age Globalization, 9/11, and the movies The continuing importance of DIY and indie cinema From The Matrix to Her: Fear and hope for the future In development Television versus movies/television as movies The comic-book movie Bromanccs and chick flicks The names above and below the title Kathryn Bigelow Wes Anderson Lena Dunham The persistence of the indie ideal Gender and the movies i Case study 8.1: Pick a "typical" movie 'i Multiple screens/multiple "movies": Everything is cinema • Accessibility and unpredictability: Everyone's a moviemaker Case study 8.2: The future of the movies Explore further