American cinema/American culture

An insight into the interplay between the film industry and mass culture in America, which examines the industry, its narrative conventions and cinematographic style. The work also presents a sweep of film history, using five genres - silent film melodrama, American comedy, the war film, film noir and the making of the West - as the basis for discussion. The treatment of each genre focuses on that period in time when each had its greatest effect on the industry, film aesthetics and American culture. The work concludes with a look at Hollywood post World War II, giving separate chapter coverage to the effects of the Cold War, television, the counterculture of the 60s, directors from the film school generation, such as Scorcese, Ford Coppola and Spielberg, and the recent trends of the 80s and 90s. This text can be used for film appreciation and film and culture courses.

Part 1 Classical Hollywood cinema - the mode of production: the emergence of the cinema as an institution; classical Hollywood cinema - narration; classical Hollywood cinema - style; the studio system; the star system. Part 2 Classical Hollywood cinema - the genre system: silent film melodrama; American comedy; the war film; film noir - somewhere in the night; the making of the West. Part 3 Classical Hollywood cinema - a post-war history: Hollywood and the Cold War; Hollywood in the age of television; the 1960s - the counterculture strikes back; the film school generation; into the 1990s - bringing it all back home.

Includes bibliographical references, filmographies, and index.