Colegiul Naional Elena Cuza, clasa a XII-a A

Atestat n limba englez: Cultur i civilizaie

THE AMERICAN SILVER SCREEN

Profesor coordonator, Smadu Silvia

Elev, Barbulescu Consuela

Mai 2013
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The American Silver Screen

Table of contents
Rationale.............................................................................................................................. Introduction.......................................................................................................................... I.Once upon a time in America I.I Origins.................................................................................................................. I.II Rise of Hollywood................................................................................................ II. Roll out the red carpet! II.I Golden age........................................................................................................... II.II Style and narrative............................................................................................... III. Kings and queens of the silver screen III.I Gratest american screen legends........................................................................ III.II They made history in film.................................................................................... IV. The fairy tale lives on IV.I Post-classical Hollywood.................................................................................... IV.II Modern cinema................................................................................................... Conclusion............................................................................................................................. Map of ilustrations.................................................................................................................. Bibliography............................................................................................................................

Rationale
When people stopped having the courage to believe in the life below, when they lost the innocence to believe in the life above, they began to believe in life like the movies. For most of the world, film was really a dream production factory offering cans of preserved dreams. At first, there were sepia dreams. Then technicolore, and as the sun rose in the morning, only an hour before waking up 3Ds were born ... This is a plea for cinema art, wrote to remove the dust set on film production knowledge, the way we look at cinema today. People need to be reminded of how it all began, of what brought the cinema to life, who exploited and who valued it. There is much to learn also on the newbe actors which made history in film later on. Film production has revolutionized the whole concept of leisure activities, of forms of entertainment by offering people another view on bedtime stories or fairy tales. Film production has positively influenced destinies and so, allow me to pay homage to the notion of film industry. But what to describe? Good or evil, beauty and ugliness, truth or fantasy? There are many varieties of benefactors of mankind. Disney and his men are certainly placed among them as film memory has kept them all to us, beyond death, or, at best, beyond youth. A movie is not the work of travel agency, it is funded by a program to attract foreigners on the beach. It is a work of art and an act of culture. It has has his own universe. Also, the true actor does not settle to merely inform the audience as the typographer informs the reader. The actor makes the spectator live the story and even perform some of the scenes played on stage. The one that never fully gets the audience to mime, to imitate or recite the lines from the movie it has seen, is not a real actor. Indeed, being a "celebrity" means to be forever in sight, to be in the public eye like a continuous presence. Like an obsession. A ubiquity which first brings a religious flavor. A character reinforced by that content of worship, by its feverish, wild intensity.

Introduction

The cinema of the United States, often generally referred to as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period. While the Lumiere Brothers are generally credited with the birth of modern cinema, it is undisputably American cinema that soon became the most dominant force in an emerging industry. Since the 1920s, the American film industry has grossed more money every year than that of any other country.It has largely been based in and around Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Director D. W. Griffith was central to the development of film grammar.Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941) is frequently cited in critics' polls as the greatest film of all time.American screen actors like John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe have become iconic figures, while producer/entrepreneur Walt Disney was a leader in both animated film and movie merchandising. The major film studios of Hollywood are the primary source of the most commercially successful movies in the world, such as Gone with the Wind (1939), Star Wars (1977), Titanic (1997), and Avatar (2009). Today, American film studios collectively generate several hundred movies every year, making the United States the third most prolific producer of films in the world. The most important celebration of film takes place every year when the Oscar awards of the American Academy of Film are given. At these festivals, the message addressed to the public through film, the performing art of the actors and script writers, the techniques used in speech and the film director, are outlined. The success of "box office" is determined, as shown above, by the script, the director, distribution, subject, by the evaluation of film production, by film critics, and, last but not least, the determiner factor is the public. His majesty the public is the one who "dictates" what it wishes to watch. Nowadays, the art film is decreasing due to high production costs of entertainment, adventure, crime drama, SF films, easy to make both artisticly and in terms of material. However, the two trends of making a film, both art and entertainment, live together and each asserts itself in his own way of expression. Even in Hollywoods dream factory, directors such as Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, have nerver forgot that film is an art form and should be treated as such.

I.Once upon a time in America

I.I Origins The second recorded instance of photographs capturing and reproducing motion was a series of photographs of a running horse by Eadweard Muybridge, which he captured in Palo Alto, California, using a set of still cameras placed in a row. Muybridge's accomplishment led inventors everywhere to attempt to make similar devices that would capture such motion. In the United States, Thomas Edison was among the first to produce such a device, the kinetoscope, whose heavy-handed patent enforcement caused early filmmakers to look for alternatives.

I.II Rise of Hollywood Cinema of the United States

In early 1910, director D.W. Griffith was sent by the Biograph Company to the west coast with his acting troupe, consisting of actors Blanche Sweet, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and others. They started filming on a vacant lot near Georgia Street in downtown Los Angeles. While there, the company decided to explore new territories, traveling several miles north to Hollywood, a little village that was friendly and enjoyed the movie company filming there. Griffith then filmed the first movie ever shot in Hollywood, In Old California, a Biograph melodrama about California in the 19th century, when it belonged to Mexico. Biograph stayed there for months and made several films before returning to New York. After hearing about Biograph's success in Hollywood, in 1913 many movie-makers headed west to avoid the fees imposed by Thomas Edison, who owned patents on the movie-making process.[4] In Los Angeles, the studios and Hollywood grew. Before World War I, movies were made in several U.S. cities, but filmmakers gravitated to southern California as the industry developed. They were attracted by the mild climate and reliable sunlight, which made it possible to film movies outdoors year-round, and by the varied scenery that was available. 5

In the early 20th century, when the medium was new, many Jewish immigrants found employment in the U.S. film industry. They were able to make their mark in a brand-new business: the exhibition of short films in storefront theaters called nickelodeons, after their admission price of a nickel (five cents). Within a few years, ambitious men like Samuel Goldwyn, William Fox, Adolph Zukor, Louis B. Mayer, and theWarner Brothers (Harry, Albert, Samuel, and Jack) had switched to the production side of the business. Soon they were the heads of a new kind of enterprise: the movie studio. Other moviemakers arrived from Europe after World War I: directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, and Jean Renoir; and actors like Rudolph Valentino, Marlene Dietrich, Ronald Colman, and Charles Boyer. They joined a homegrown supply of actors lured west from the New York City stage after the introduction of sound films to form one of the 20th century's most remarkable growth industries. At motion pictures' height of popularity in the mid-1940s, the studios were cranking out a total of about 400 movies a year, seen by an audience of 90 million Americans per week. The Hollywood Sign has been a famous landmark representing southern California film industry.

Sound

also

became

widely

used

in

Hollywood in the late 1920s . After The Jazz Singer, the first film with synchronized voices, was successfully released as a Vitaphone talkie in 1927, Hollywood film companies would respond to Warner Bros. and begin to use Vitaphone sound which Warner Bros. owned until 1928 in future films. By May 1928, Electrical Research Product Incorporated (ERPI), a subsidiary of the Western Electric company, gained a monopoly over film sound distribution . A side effect of the "talkies" was that many actors who had made their careers in silent films suddenly found themselves out of work, as they often had bad voices or could not remember their lines. Meanwhile, in 1922, US politician Will H. Hays left politics and formed the movie studio boss organization known as the Motion Pictures Distributors Association of America (MPDAA) .

II. Roll out the red carpet!

II.I Golden Age During the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, which lasted from the end of the silent era in American cinema in the late 1920s to the early 1960s, thousands of movies were issued from the Hollywood studios. The start of the Golden Age was arguably when The Jazz Singer was released in 1927, ending the silent era and increasing box-office profits for films as sound was introduced to feature films. Most Hollywood pictures adhered closely to a formula Western, slapstick

comedy, musical, animated cartoon, biographical film and the same creative teams often worked on films made by the same studio. For example,Cedric Gibbons and Herbert Stothart always worked on MGM films,Alfred Newman worked at 20th Century Fox for twenty years, Cecil B. De Mille's films were almost all made at Paramount, and director Henry King's films were mostly made for 20th Century Fox. At the same time, one could usually guess which studio made which film, largely because of the actors who appeared in it; MGM, for example, claimed it had contracted "more stars than there are in heaven." Each studio had its own style and characteristic touches which made it possible to know this a trait that does not exist today. For example, To Have and Have Not (1944) is famous not only for the first pairing of actors Humphrey Bogart (18991957) and Lauren Bacall (1924) but also for being written by two future winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature: Ernest Hemingway (18991961), the author of the novel on which the script was nominally based, and William Faulkner (1897 1962), who worked on the screen adaptation. Throughout the 1930s, as well as most of the golden age, MGM dominated the film screen and had the top stars in Hollywood, and was also credited for creating the Hollywood star system altogether . Some MGM stars included "King of Hollywood" Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, Jean Harlow, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Spencer Tracy,Judy Garland, and Gene Kelly. But MGM did not stand alone. Another great achievement of US cinema during this era came through Walt Disney's animation company. In 1937, Disney created the most successful film of its time, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs . This distinction was promptly topped in 1939 when Selznick International created what is still, when adjusted for inflation, the most successful film of all time, Gone with the Wind.

Strong-willed directors like , Alfred Hitchcock(18991980) and Frank Capra (1897 1991) battled the studios in order to achieve their artistic visions. The apogee of the studio system may have been the year 1939, which saw the release of such classics as The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Wuthering Heights, Only Angels Have Wings, Ninotchka, and Midnight. Among the other films from the Golden Age period that are now considered to be classics there are also: Casablanca, It's a Wonderful Life, It Happened One Night, the original King Kong, Mutiny on the Bounty,Top Hat, City Lights, Red River, The Lady from Shanghai, Rear Window, On the Waterfront, Rebel Without a Cause, Some Like It Hot andThe Manchurian Candidate.

II.II Style and narrative The style of Classical Hollywood cinema has been heavily influenced by the ideas of the Renaissance and its resurgence of mankind as the focal point. Thus, classical narration progresses always through psychological motivation, i.e. by the will of a human character and its struggle with obstacles towards a defined goal. The aspects of space and time are subordinated to the narrative element which is usually composed of two lines of action: A romance intertwined with a more generic one such as business or, solving a crime. Time in classical Hollywood is continuous. The only permissible manipulation of time in this format is the flashback. It is mostly used to introduce a memory sequence of a character, e.g. Casablanca. Likewise, the majority of shots in a classical film focus on gestures or facial expressions . Persons or objects of significance are mostly in the center part of the picture frame and never out of focus. Balancing refers to the visual composition, i.e. characters are evenly distributed throughout the frame. The Classic Hollywood narrative is structured with an unmistakable beginning, middle and end, and generally there is a distinct resolution at the end. Utilizing actors, events, causal effects, main points and secondary points are basic characteristics of this type of narrative. The characters in Classical Hollywood Cinema have clearly definable traits, are active, and very goal oriented. They are causal agents motivated by psychological rather than social concerns.

II. Kings and queens of the silver screen

II.I Greatest american screen legends LOS ANGELES, June 16, 1999 As part of its ongoing national effort to lead the nation to discover and rediscover the classics, the American Film Institute (AFI) has announced the greatest American screen legends naming Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart the number one legends among the women and men. AFI defines an "American screen legend" as an actor with a significant screen presence in American feature-length films whose screen debut occurred in or before 1950, or whose screen debut occurred after 1950 but whose death has marked a completed body of work. The list was selected by leaders from the American film community, including artists, historians, critics and other cultural leaders. "AFI hopes this list will spark a renewed interest in the screen icons and classic movies that create America's great film heritage," said AFI's President Emerita Jean Picker Firstenberg. "AFI certainly expects this list to ignite passions, spark debate and invite criticism, all of which we welcome as a means of engaging the nation in a discussion of American movie history and bringing movie fans back to the classics. Facts about some of the greatest men and women screen legends: Lillian Gish has the longest screen career of any legend, male or female 75 years. There are three female living legends: Shirley Temple, Lauren Bacall and Sophia Loren. There are two male living legends: Kirk Douglas and Sidney Poitier. There are 13 legends that made the transition from silent pictures to the "talkies." They are: Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Barbara Stanwyck, Lillian Gish, Carole Lombard, Mary Pickford, Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, the Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton and Edward G. Robinson. Thirteen screen legends were born outside the United States: Audrey Hepburn, Belgium; Elizabeth Taylor, England; Ingrid Bergman, Sweden; Greta Garbo, Sweden; Marlene Dietrich, Germany; Claudette Colbert, France; Vivian Leigh, India; Sophia Loren, Italy; Mary Pickford, Canada; Cary Grant, England; Charlie Chaplin, England; Laurence Olivier, England; and, Edward G. Robinson, Romania. Criteria for AFI's Star Legends Selection: Star Quality: An actor's charisma and unique personal characteristics that create a strong on- and off-screen presence which is often embraced by audiences as a separate, mythic persona. Craft: An actor's ability to embody distinctly different characters through the use of strong acting techniques and other creative methods. Legacy: An actor's body of work that enriches American film heritage and continues to inspire artists and audiences today. Popularity: An actor's public following over time. Historical Context: The role of world events, politics, and changing social mores in shaping, promoting or curtailing a legend's status and career.

II.II Pioneers in film industry 1.Katharine Hepburn 1907 2003 Trademarks Playing strong independent women with minds of their own. Often wore slacks instead of dresses, decades before it became fashionable for women to do so. Distinctive way of speaking, with what many say is a "Bryn Mawr" accent. Frequently worked with Cary Grant, 'Spencer Tracy', and George Cukor. Recognizable angular features Strong outspoken personality Definitive Screen Role: The Philadelphia Story (1940)

2. Humphrey Bogart 1899-1957 Trademarks Typically played smart, playful, courageous, tough, occasionally reckless characters who lived in a corrupt world, anchored by a hidden moral code. Almost always played a hard-boiled cynic who ultimately shows his noble side. Low-key, distinctive nasal voice Often wore bow ties Roles in film noirs Definitive Screen Role: Casablanca (1942)

3. Bette Davis 1908 - 1989 Trademarks Often played assertive, uncompromising, aggressive and even ruthless women, though never less than compelling Large, distinctive eyes Definitive Screen Role: All About Eve (1950);

4. Cary Grant 1904 - 1986 Trademarks Mid-Atlantic accent Often played a handsome bachelor Roles in romantic comedies Chin dimple Definitive Screen Role: North By Northwest (1959)

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5. Audrey Hepburn 1929 1993 Trademarks Elegant beauty. Often cast opposite leading men who were considerably older than her. Often played classy High Society women. Wide, brown eyes. Charming characters who try to wear their troubles lightly Delicate, thin frame Definitive Screen Role: Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

6. Ingrid Bergman 1915 - 1982 Trademarks Tall, naturally-curvy frame Performances in dramas where her characters were put through harrowing emotional ringers Definitive Screen Role: Casablanca (1942)

7. Marlon Brando 1924 2004 Trademarks Bizarrely unique voice with an extreme nasal tonality spoken in mumbles Frequently played young, somewhat misunderstood rebels in his youth and later powerful criminals. The pioneering use of Method Acting Often improvised his own dialogue Was known for being very difficult to work with Definitive Screen Role: The Godfather (1972)

8. Greta Garbo 1905 - 1990 Quotes Being a movie star, and this applies to all of them, means being looked at from every possible direction. You are never left at peace, you're just fair game. Life would be so wonderful if we only knew what to do with it. never said, "I want to be alone".I only said, "I want to be left alone". There is a whole world of difference. Definitive Screen Role: Ninotchka (1939) 11

9. Marilyn Monroe 1926 - 1962 Trademarks Lips, breathless voice Platinum blonde hair Voluptuous figure Definitive Screen Role: Some Like It Hot (1959)

10. Henry Fonda 1905 - 1982 Trademarks Noticeable for his "cat-like" walk, especially in westerns: moving at a slow but clock- like tempo, throwing forward one foot at time, while letting the arms dangle loosely at his sides. Bright blue eyes Often played strong, defensive, heroic characters that were always seeking peace and justice. Definitive Screen Role: The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

11. Elizabeth Taylor 1932 2011 Trademarks Dark hair Light complexion Love affair with beautiful jewelry Violet eyes Definitive Screen Role: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

12. Clark Gable 1901 - 1960 Trademarks Pencil thin mustache that hugged his upper lip Often played a virile, lovable rogue whose gruff facade only thinly masked a natural charm and goodness. Distinctive, powerful voice Oversized ears Definitive Screen Role: Gone with the Wind (1939)

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13. Spencer Tracy 1900 - 1967 Trademarks Often wore a lopsided fedora hat in his films Blocky shoulders Plain, everyman looks Raspy but strong voice Relatable characters who must change their way of thinking Definitive Screen Role: Inherit the Wind (1960)

14. Charles Chaplin 1889 1977 Trademarks A tramp with toothbrush mustache, undersized bowler hat and bamboo cane who struggled to survive while keeping his dignity in a world with great social injustice. Highly descriptive facial expressions Stories often reflect his liberal political beliefs Comedy with a deep undercurrent of pathos On-screen and off-screen, favored the company of much younger women, who were often innocent if troubled Definitive Screen Role: The Gold Rush (1925)

15. Gregory Peck 1916 - 2003 Trademarks Almost always played courageous, nobly heroic good guys who saw injustice and fought it. Distinctive low-pitched voice Films often reflected his liberal political views Imposing stature Often plays leaders or authority figures Definitive Screen Role: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

16. Grace Kelly 1929 - 1982 Trademarks Poised, calm, cool and collected demeanor Blond hair often coiffed in a bun Often cast as the love interest of the leading man who is over 20 years older. Definitive Screen Role: Rear Window (1954)

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17. John Wayne 1907 - 1979 Trademarks Westerns Slow talk and distinctive, gravelly voice War movies Distinctive cat-like walk His movies frequently reflected his conservative values Often starred with Maureen O'Hara Definitive Screen Role: The Searchers (1956)

18. Laurence Olivier 1907 - 1989 Trademarks Roles in Shakespeare adaptations Often played noble and fiercely proud leaders and royalty figures Often directed himself in his films Rich smooth voice Definitive Screen Role: Wuthering Heights (1939)

19. Kirk Douglas Born in 1916 Trademarks Gravelly voice Dimpled chin Frequently played manipulative, angry and often cruel leading characters that bordered on unsympathetic but were always compelling Definitive Screen Role: Spartacus (1960)

20. Shirley Temple Born in 1928 Quotes: I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph. Any star can be devoured by human adoration, sparkle by sparkle. I class myself with Rin Tin Tin. People in the Depression wanted something to cheer them up, and they fell in love with a dog and a little girl. Definitive Screen Role: Poor Little Rich Girl (1936) 14

21. James Dean 1931 - 1955 Trademarks Frequently played angry youths Squinty, sleepy eyes Hair Impulsive emotional acting style Known for playing well-meaning but deeply troubled characters The red jacket, white T-shirt and blue jeans from Rebel Without a Cause (1955) Definitive Screen Role: Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

22. Burt Lancaster 1913 1994 Trademarks A killer smile, which he called "The Grin" A great physique, of which director John Frankenheimer said, "Nobody ever looked like Burt Lancaster in The Crimson Pirate (1952) ." His movies often reflected his very liberal political beliefs Roles in westerns.Very distinctive, clipped manner of speaking Definitive Screen Role: From Here to Eternity (1953)

23. Sophia Loren Born in 1924 Quotes Sex appeal is 50% what you've got and 50% what people think you've got. A woman's dress should be like a barbed wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view. Everything you see I owe to spaghetti. Definitive Screen Role: Two Women (La Ciociara) (1960)

24. Sidney Poitier Born in 1927 Quotes: We all suffer from the preoccupation that there exists ... in the loved one, perfection. I decided in my life that I would do nothing that did not reflect positively on my father's life. Definitive Screen Role: In the Heat of the Night (1967);

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IV.The fairy tale lives on

IV.I Post-classical Hollywood Post-classical cinema is the changing methods of storytelling in the New Hollywood. It has been argued that new approaches to drama and characterization played upon audience expectations acquired in the classical period : chronology may be scrambled, storylines may feature "twist endings", and lines between the antagonist and protagonist may be blurred. The roots of post-classical storytelling may be seen in film noir, in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and in Hitchcock's storyline-shattering Psycho. New Hollywood is the emergence of a new generation of film school-trained directors who had absorbed the techniques developed in Europe in the 1960s; The 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde marked the beginning of American cinema rebounding as well, as a new generation of films would afterwards gain success at the box offices as well . Filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Roman Polanski, and William Friedkin came to produce fare that paid homage to the history of film, and developed upon existing genres and techniques. In the early 1970s, their films were often both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. While the early New Hollywood films like Bonnie and Clyde and Easy Rider had been relatively low-budget affairs with amoral heroes and increased sexuality and violence, the enormous success enjoyed by Friedkin with The Exorcist, Spielberg with Jaws,Coppola with TheGodfather and Apocalypse Now, Scorsese with Taxi Driver and Lucas with American Graffiti, and Star Wars, respectively helped to give rise to the modern "blockbuster", and induced studios to focus ever more heavily on trying to produce enormous hits.

IV.II Modern cinema

Some of Hollywood's blockbuster action heroes from the 1980s and 1990s: Sylvester Willis, Steven Van Stallone, Arnold Seagal,Dolph Damme, Wesley Schwarzenegger, Bruce Lundgren, Jean-Claude Snipes, Jackie Chan.

The drive to produce a spectacle on the movie screen has largely shaped American cinema ever since. Spectacular epics which took advantage of new widescreen processes had been 16

increasingly popular from the 1950s onwards. Since then, American films have become increasingly divided into two categories: Blockbusters and independent films. Studios have focused on relying on a handful of extremely expensive releases every year in order to remain profitable. Such blockbusters emphasize spectacle, star power, and high production value, all of which entail an enormous budget. Blockbusters typically rely upon star power and massive advertising to attract a huge audience. A successful blockbuster will attract an audience large enough to offset production costs and reap considerable profits. Such productions carry a substantial risk of failure, and most studios release blockbusters that both over- and underperform in a year. Classic blockbusters from this period include E.T., Back to the Hills Man, Pulp Episode Cop, Top I: The Gun, Wall Phantom Fiction, Titanic, The Future,Beverly Street, Rain Matrix, The Green Mile, The Sixth Sense, Star Menace, Gangs of New York and The Bourne Identity. Studios supplement these movies with independent productions, made with small budgets and often independently of the studio corporation. Movies made in this manner typically emphasize high professional quality in terms of acting, directing, screenwriting, and other elements associated with production, and also upon creativity and innovation. These movies usually rely upon critical praise or niche marketing to garner an audience. Because of an independent film's low budgets, a successful independent film can have a high profit-tocost ratio, while a failure will incur minimal losses, allowing for studios to sponsor dozens of such productions in addition to their high-stakes releases. American independent cinema was revitalized in the late 1980s and early 1990s when another new generation of moviemakers, including Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh, Kevin Smith, and Quentin Tarantino made movies like, respectively: Do the Right Thing; Sex, Lies, and Videotape; Clerks; and Reservoir Dogs. In terms of directing, screenwriting, editing, and other elements, these movies were innovative and often irreverent, playing with and contradicting the conventions of Hollywood movies. Furthermore, their considerable financial successes and crossover into popular culture reestablished the commercial viability of independent film. Since then, the independent film industry has become more clearly defined and more influential in American cinema. Many of the major studios have capitalised on this by developing subsidiaries to produce similar films; for example Fox Searchlight Pictures. Wars

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Conclusion

The magic of movies lies in their power to always remind us that happiness can be achieved. Hollywood is still the mecca of good and evil, but it is not the beginning nor the end of film production. The Greatest Films can't be measured scientifically because greatness is extremely subjective. The artistic greatness of films can never be rated or quantified, although critics, reviewers, and fans still make hundred best lists, all-time greatest lists, favorites and awards lists. Industry analysts predicted the demise of the local nowadays cinema which will be changing in the 21st century and moving towards digital screens, a new approach which will allow for easier and quicker distribution of films (via satellite or hard disks).The cinema now faces a new challenge from home video by the likes of a new high definition format, Blu-ray. Last but not least, here are some quotes on films: I think that film is an environment that requires connections and a network of genuine relationships. No film was ever made in a vacuum.- Sharon Lawrence Future Cinema seems to me even more personal than an individual and autobiographical novel, like a confession or a diary.- Francois Truffaut A film is a petrified fountain of thought. A film revives lifeless facts. A film allows one to give the appearance of reality to what is unreal.- Jean Cocteau At this point,when the historical fact are counterfeits right under our noses, and involvement in art films is almost an adventure, I think it is our duty to commende the courage investment, the selflessness and, yes, the utopia of filmmakers.

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Map of ilustrations

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Bibliography

Robinson, David. From Peepshow to Palace: The Birth of American Film Robinson, A. The Inner Eye: The Biography of a Master Film-Maker Belton, John. American cinema/American culture. Thompson, Kristin. Film History: An Introduction. Bordwell, David; Staiger, Janet; Thompson, Kristin. The Classical Hollywood Cinema. McDonald, Wasko; Paul, Janet. The Contemporary Hollywood Film Industry Bowser, Eileen. The Transformation of Cinema 1907-1915 (History of the American Cinema, Vol. 2) King, Geoff. New Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction. Salt, Barry. Film Style and Technology: History and Analysis Thompson, Kristin; Bordwell, David. Film History: An Introduction

Webgraphy
http://www.afi.com/100years/stars.aspx http://www.filmsite.org/afilegends.html http://www.listal.com/list/100-greatesr-american-screen-legends http://www.theasc.com/blog/2010/08/30/the-cinematographer-today-evolution-or-devolution%E2%80%91-part-one/ http://www.tvhistory.tv/pre-1935.htm http://www.high-techproductions.com/historyoftelevision.htm http://www.essortment.com/history-american-tv-shows-20960.html http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/Television.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Hollywood_cinema

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