Film Studies 351 - Classical Hollywood Cinema

This is a history of film course focusing on what is sometimes referred to as the Golden Age of Hollywood. An in-depth examination of Classical Hollywood cinema as a distinct mode of film practice, with its own cinematic style and industrial conditions, this course will concentrate on the period from 1917 to the early 1960s. We will look at aspects of the modes of production, the stylistic practices, and the technological developments that defined this period of the Hollywood studio system (as well as during its period of decline), paying special attention to the way this preeminent form of cinema established many of the norms of the immersive film experience. Among other subjects, we will consider the development of classical continuity during the silent era, the ascent of the "talkie," the establishment of the vertically integrated studio system and the idea of "house style," the formation of various narrative genres, such as film noir, as well as the effects of such historical phenomena as the Great Depression, World War II, and McCarthyism. We will watch one or two films each week and discuss them (19 films total).