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The Hollywood Machine
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Battle of World Views
HOLLYWOOD AL QAIDA
VS
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1. Social conformity:Soviet Socialist Realism German Heimat Cinema
2. Social criticism:Italian NeorealismBritish Social Realism
What is the purpose of film?
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1. Social conformity:Soviet Socialist Realism German Heimat Cinema
2. Social criticism:Italian NeorealismBritish Social Realism
3. Art cinema:French New WaveBergmanFellini
What is the purpose of film?
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1. Social conformity:Soviet Socialist Realism German Heimat Cinema
2. Social criticism:Italian NeorealismBritish Social Realism
3. Art cinema:French New Wave, Bergman
4. “Spiritual” enhancement:Tarkovsky, Kieslowski
What is the purpose of film?
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1. Social conformity:Soviet Socialist Realism German Heimat Cinema
2. Social criticism:Italian NeorealismBritish Social Realism
3. Art cinema:French New Wave, Bergman
4. “Spiritual” enhancement:Tarkovsky, Kieslowski
5. Entertain (Movies as products)Hollywood
What is the purpose of film?
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Reality “as it is”
NaturalisticEmpirical / RationalSocial documentarySocial realism
How can/should film depict reality?
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How can/should film depict reality?
Reality as the symbolic representation of the “spiritual”
NoumenalistIdealistRomanticismSymbolism Mysticism
Reality “as it is”
NaturalisticEmpirical / RationalSocial documentarySocial realism
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Who controls cinema controls reality!
Reality “as it ought to be”
Soviet Socialist RealismNazi propaganda films German Heimat cinema
MTVHollywood
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Who controls cinema controls reality!
Reality “as it ought to be”
Soviet Socialist RealismNazi propaganda films German Heimat cinema
MTVHollywood
Your identity & aestheticsare shaped largely byHollywood and the media !
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Jean Baudrillard (1929-)
America is a spectacle
Hyper-reality
An illusionary paradise
TV is the world
Advertising gives consumers illusion of freedom
“All is well” is the party line
Illusion perpetuated by media & culture
The Myth of America
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All films and literature are propaganda!
Deconstruct any work of literature, and you will find a logocentric idealogy:
Nazi propaganda
Anti-capitalism
Feminism
New Testament Christianity
Secular humanism
American hedonism & materialism
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The role of the auteur
The great film auteurs of the 20th Century fought against two dominant forces which they believed threatened man’s humanity.
They viewed both forces as dehumanizing byproducts of modernity:
1. Government-regulated views of life
2. Hollywood (commercial materialism)
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Great traditions are reactions to status quo
Nazi & Heimat: New German Cinema
French “Tradition of Quality” French New Wave
Fascism Italian Neorealism
Myth of the British Empire British Social Realism
Soviet Socialist Realism Czech New WaveKadarForman
Lodz SchoolKieslowskiPolanski
Soviet ThawTarkovskyParadjanov
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The Power of Cinema
“Americans have turned every cinema in the
world into the equivalent of an American
consulate.”
--UK government report
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The Hollywood Machine
Production
Distribution
Megaplexes
Video sales
Video rentals
Cable and pay-per view
Merchandise
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The Hollywood Machine
Titanic Harry Potter Star Wars Forest Gump Matrix Oceans 11 Meet the Parents
$1.8 billion
$1.0 billion
900 million
700 million
500 million
400 million
300 million
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The Hollywood Machine
Titanic Harry Potter Star Wars Forest Gump Matrix Oceans 11 Meet the Parents Trainspotting Secrets & Lies Run Lola Run Red No Man’s Land
$1.8 billion
$1.0 billion
900 million
700 million
500 million
400 million
300 million
80 million
20 million
7 million
4 million
1 million
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The Hollywood Machine
AT Austria GR Greece BE Belgium IE Ireland DK Denmark IT Italy FR France LU Luxembourg FI Finland NL Netherlands DE Germany NO Norway SE
Sweden PT Portugal CH Switzerland ES Spain CEE Central Europe & Turkey UK United Kingdom
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The Hollywood Machine
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The Hollywood Machine
US = 36,000
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The Hollywood Aesthetic
The aesthetic of pretense
Studio system (manufactured films)
Star-centric
Formula approach to narrative
Hero - Problem - Overcome- Happy Ending
Shot-reverse-shot
Camera followed the order of the text
Alternate characters speaking
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Reactions to Hollywood
“The average Western film requires nothing from the viewer. Its narrative sets up a series of questions in order to preserve an air of suspense...“Will Lassie bring the insulin to the diabetic hunter with the broken leg before he dies?” Then it logically answers each question ...Thus the typical western film gives us what we want by telling us what we already know.”
--Stuart Hancock
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Reactions to Hollywood
“Many worthless films are created which imitate American models.”
--Krystrof Zanussi
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Reactions to Hollywood
“But the profound lack of spirituality of those people who see art and condemn it, the fact that they are neither willing nor ready to consider the meaning and aim of their existence in any higher sense is often masked by the vulgarly simplistic cry, ‘I don’t like it!’ ‘It’s boring!’ It is not a point that one can argue; but it is like the utterance of a man born blind who is being told about a rainbow. He simply remains deaf to the pain undergone by the artist in order to share with others the truth he has reached.”
--Andrei Tarkovsky
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Impact of Hollywood
Worldwide dominance of the Hollywood machine: Production-distribution-TV
65-80% of films shown in Europe are US. US: 37,000 screens UK: “Secrets & Lies” -- 20 screens
Transnational productions
Emigration of directors and actors
Commercial producers copy Hollywood
Few auteurs took aesthetic stance against Hollywood mis en scene
Death of national cinemas/identity?
