American Cinema

Ñòðàíèöà: 6/14

The major film genres.

The major film genres developed in the United States are the following:

Comedy. Charles Spencer Chaplin became the most widely recognized comedy figure in the world. He emphasized the develop­ment of character and plot structure, in contrast to the simple reliance on gags and gimmicks that characterized the work of other comedy producers of the day.

Westerns. The Western (a film about life in the American West in the past) was the first American genre to be developed and has remained a staple of the American motion-picture art and industry. It has been estimated that one quarter of US films have been Westerns. However, today most Amer­ican Westerns are made in Italy and are called '"spaghetti Westerns".

Musicals. The musicals of the late 1920s and the early 1930s consisted of a series of "numbers" by established stars of Broad-way, vaudeville and radio. Later manifesta­tions of the form were the biographical musicals, often highly fictionalized, about great composers, musicians, singers, pro­viding an opportunity to string together some of their most popular hits. The trans­ferring of musicals intact from the Broad-way stage became almost automatic begin­ning in the 1950s.

Gangster films. While the Western deals with a mythical American past and the musical with a fantasy land, the gangster film is closely tied to a real facet of Amer­ican life. In earlier films, the gangster had risen to the top to enjoy wealth, power, beautiful women, expensive homes and large cars, but before the end of the film he was bound to be caught by law-enforcement officers, overthrown by fellow gang mem­bers or killed. Such punishment was con­sidered obligatory. By 1971, however, "The Godfather" showed how far the genre has evolved: Marion Brando, in the title role, dies of old age. The gangster was another businessman.

War films. They have evolved into a ma­jor American genre, since wars have occu­pied so much of contemporary American history. The Second World War has been the subject of the greatest number of Amer­ican films in this genre.

Horror films (thrillers). In the 1920s the creation of a monster who gets out of con­trol or is coming to life from non-human beings who survive by killing the living pro­vided the basic story lines of countless hor­ror films. These films also have dealt with supernatural forces that manifest themselves as an unseen power rather than in individ­ual form. A third major kind of horror films deals with people who are insane or in the grip of psychological powers beyond their control.

Horror films as a genre is associated with the name of Alfred Hitchcock. Like Walt Disney with animated cartoons, Alfred Hitchcock was thought not just to have in­vented a film genre but to have patented it (hence "Hitch", another name for a horror film).

Detective and spy films. These include first of all the James Bond series. Hitchcock's films of this genre feature ordinary people who accidentally become involved with spies or other evil doers.

Science fiction. After the Second World War science-fiction films increasingly sug­gested that the dangers of the future stem­med from what human beings were doing in the present.

Film Companies

Columbia Pictures (also Columbia)-American film company, which produces films for cinema and television.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) — a film company based in Hollywood, which has made many famous films and animated cartoons.

Paramount- a film company in Hollywood.

20th Century-Fox — an American film company.

United Artists — a film company (studio) in Hollywood.

Universal — n film company (studio) in Hollywood.

Ðåôåðàò îïóáëèêîâàí: 15/02/2010