History of Cinema in america

History of Cinema in america

Origins• 1873 - Muybridge creates a series of clips of horse running to settle

bet with Leland Stanford. First multi-shot series of frames.

• 1888 - Eastman invents Kodak portable camera with film on paper. Also Edison (yes the inventor) attempts to put series of photos into a moving pict. but fails

• 1891 - Edison steals idea from French inventor Marey to make a Kinetograph camera and Kinetoscope viewing box and Dickson and Edison create Black Maria Motion picture studio in 1893

• 1894 - The Lumiere brothers in France. Louis and Auguste design a camera which serves as both a recording device and a projecting device. They call it the Cinématographe

• The Cinématographe uses flexible film cut into 35mm wide strips and used an intermittent mechanism modeled on the sewing machine.

• The camera shot films at sixteen frames per second (rather than the forty six which Edison used), this became the standard film rate for nearly 25 years.

American Origins• 1899 The American Mutoscope Company changes its name to the

American Mutoscope and Biograph Company to include its projection and peepshow devices. In 1908 they hire the most important American Silent film director D.W. Griffith

• 1903 - Edison’s company creates “The Great Train Robbery.” One of first westerns and very powerful and popular.

• 1903- Hollywood officially became a city

• 1906 The world’s first feature-length film at 70 minutes in length, The Story of the Kelly Gang premiered in Melbourne, Australia. (not American but Important)

• 1908 - “Adverntures of Dollie” Griffith’s first of over 450 short films that established DW Griffith as the premiere director of serious film

• The first real horror film, William Selig's 16-minute Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, was premiered in Chicago.

D.W. GriffithD.W. Griffith

Silent Film Giants• Star System invented by Carl Laemmle touted performers as

stars

• Ben Turpin becomes first “star” mentioned in NY times and first actor to be called that followed by “Vitagraph Girl” Florence Lawrence.

• 1907-14 -Tom Mix and Bronco Billy became the most popular format in westerns and the most recognizable “star”.

• 1912 -Canadian Mack Sennett formed Keystone Film studios to make comedies with the Keystone cops and introduced; Fattie Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin, and later Laurel and Hardy

• 1914 - Chaplin starred in his first feature for Sennett called Tillie’s Punctured Romance, establishing his “Little Tramp” character as the most popular star in the world for the next 20 years.

• 1915-1916 - Griffiths’ Intollerance and Birth of a Nation set standards for film-making which are still emulated today.

• 1918 -Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, DW Griffith form United Artists to try to control their own works.

• Big stars of the silent era were: Fairbanks, Pickford, Theada Bera, Paulette Goddard, Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, Clara Bow. Lon Chaney, William S Hart, Tom Mix, John Gilbert, Lillian Gish, Jean Harlow, WC Fields, Fattie Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Harry Landon, Harold Lloyd, Mabel Norman, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, John, Ethel, and Lionel Barrymore, just to name a few.

• 1919 - Walt Disney and UB Iworks begin their animation studios.

• 1922 - MPAA set up to counter government censoring by trying to censor themselves in the industry in response to Hays Act.

• 1922 - Nosferatu - German expressionistic vampire film is first Dracula telling. A very influential cinematic breakthrough.

• 1923 -Cecil B Demille makes the first of his two “Ten Commandment” movies ( the other in 56) both were the most expensive of their eras.

Buster Keaton

Chaplin in Gold RushChaplin in Gold Rush

Doglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford

Doglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford

• 1924 - First MGM feature

• 1925 - Universal begins with what it became most famous for - Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney, the first of many horror films like the Frankenstein Dracula and

Wolfman films that follow.

• 1927 - End of silent era with the production of The Jazz Singer with vaudeville star Al Jolson

• 1926-27- three foreign influencial film makers and their silent films

• Abel Ganz - Napoleon

• Fritz Lang - Metropolis

• Eisenstein’s - Potemkin

Lon Chaney “Phantom Of the opera”Lon Chaney “Phantom Of the opera”

Al Jolson in Jazz SingerAl Jolson in Jazz Singer

Steamboat WillieSteamboat Willie

The Golden Age 1929-1956

• First Academy Awards in 1929 and honored films from 1927 and 28

• The major studios ran Hollywood under the star contract system. Actors belonged to their studios

• Major studios were RKO, MGM, Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros., Fox, United Artists.

• 1929 - MGM- First musical A Broadway Melody

• 1929 - Cocoanuts - First Marx Brother’s Film with music

• 1929 - Hitchcock’s first sound film Blackmail

• 1930’s - Warner Bros. moved into gangster genre with Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart

1932Universal - Frankenstein, Dracula etc.

1933 -45- Shirley Temple was huge child star during depression

1933- Warners' producer Leon Schlesinger assembled the 'gods of animation', including Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and Bob Clampett to create Looney Tunes.

1932- Tarzan the Ape Man series MGM

1933 - King Kong, Gold Diggers of 1933, Howard Hughes’ Public Enemy, Red Dust, and Hell’s Angels, Mae West and WC Field’s She Done Him Wrong

1934 - Capra’s It Happened One Night, John Ford’s The World Moves On.

Landmark Films of the 30’s

It Happened One Night- Capra

Shirley Temple- Biggest star of the Depression

Shirley Temple- Biggest star of the Depression

Johnny Weismuller and MaureenO’Sullivan in Tarzan Films

1930’s cont.Hitchcock establishes fame with The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes

Modern Times (Chaplin), Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney films, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films, Clark Gable and Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy won two academy awards and began long relationship on film with Katherine Hepburn,

1939 is often called the greatest year in film history!!!

Gone With the Wind, Wizard of Oz, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights, You Can’t Take it With You, French classic by Renoir; Rules of the Game, Dark Victory, Beau Geste, Angels Have Wings, Gunga Din, Of Mice and Men, The Women, Young Abe Lincoln just to name the most important films of that year...all of them classics

1939- film’s greatest year1939- film’s greatest year

1940’s41- Pinochio and Fantasia from Disney, Bing Crosbie and Bob Hope Road films, Hitchcock’s Rebecca and Foreign Corresponodent, John Ford’s Grapes of Wrath, Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, Howard Hawk’s,; His Girl Friday, Citizen Kane, Betty Davis and Barbara Stanwyk were leading ladies in women oriented features,

42 - Casa Blanca, Black Actor Paul Robeson fights for better roles for Blacks, The Magnificent Ambersons, Errol Flynn hero films like Robin Hood and The Sea Hawk

43- 47 - House UnAmerican Activites Commission formed and aimed at Hollywood left wingers, Disney’s Song of the South Never released on DVD because of stereotyping of Blacks, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Actor’s Studio in New York was founded by Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg. Lawrence Olivier of England was first non-American to win Oscar for directing himself in Hamlet, On the Town

WWII has big effect on film industry. John Wayne Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy raise $$ for war bonds

The Great DictatorThe Great Dictator

1950’s

The sales of Televisions has effect on film industry.

Hollywood ten convicted by HUAC. Many in Hollywood opposed to McCarthy.

Kurosawa begins his incredible career as premiere Japanese film maker. Much copied by later film makers.

Jimmy Stewart obtains personal contract to make Winchester 73 and Harvey which breaks studio monopoly on actors.

Films like Sunset Blvd. and All About Eve exposed curruption of the studio system.

The Day the Earth Stood Still addressed the new fear of nuclear disaster.

A Streetcar Named Desire wins 3 Academy Awards and introduces a new acting style to film with Marlon Brando’s performance who lost the Oscar to Bogart in John Huston’s African Queen.

Streetcar Named Desire ByTennessee Williams

Directed by Elia Kazanwith Marlon Brando and

Vivien Lee

Streetcar Named Desire ByTennessee Williams

Directed by Elia Kazanwith Marlon Brando and

Vivien Lee

Bogart and Hepburn In African Queen Directed by John HustonBogart and Hepburn In African Queen Directed by John Huston

Still More 50’s• Singin’ in the Rain and An American in Paris in 1952,

Other important films; Shane, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, From Here to Eternity, White Christmas, On the Waterfront, (Brando gets his Oscar) Roger Corman begins his B movie factory which will create many directors and actors of the 50’s and 60’s., Herbert Ross films with Doris Day, Rock Hudson, James Garner. Marty, Vertigo, Touch of Evil, Ben Hur, Gigi, The Ten Commandments, Abbot and Costello and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedies, Disney’s Old Yeller, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Cleopatra

• James Dean makes East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant then dies in a car crash.

• Ingmar Bergman, great Swedish film maker begins his career with The Seventh Seal.

James Dean

The 60’s• 1960- 65 Hitchcock Psycho, Stanley Kubric, Dalton Trumbo: Spartacus,

Billy Wilder’s The Apartment was last B/W film to win oscar until Schindler’s List in 93, (61) West Side Story, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Marilyn Monroe emerges in a number of films like “Some like it Hot” as an iconic sex goddess as does Sophia Loren and Bridgit Bardot, James Bond Films begin, Cinerama was developed for films like How the West was Won and The Brother’s Grimm. Beach movies of Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, The Beatle’s A Hard Days Night in 64, Elvis Movies, John Wayne movies, The Sound of Music, The Pawnbroker (first bared breast) Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe,

• 1965 - Woody Allen begins his film making career with What’s up Tiger Lily

• Sidney Poitier wins Oscar for Lillies of the Field (First African American best actor)

• Stanley Kubrik begins his Career as independant auteur of film with Dr Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 2001 A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange

• Hays code is challenged as more and more films seek an adult audience with adult written material.

• Sergio Leoni begins his Speghetti Western series with Fistful of Dollars

60’s continued

• Anti - establishment films emerge in late 60’s: Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, The Trip, Pink Flamingo’s, In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood, 2001 a Space Odyssey, Night of the Living Dead ( George Romero), Planet of the Apes (series), Midnight Cowboy,

• Motion picture rating codes developed.

• John Cassavetes makes films on his own to become father of independant film makers.

• Sam Peckinpah defines the concept of death and gore as an art form in The Wild Bunch and other films of the 70’s (influenced Tarantino, Scorcese and John Woo)

• Blaxploitation films like Shaft went after the African American audience.

• Woodstock the festival and the film changed documentary making.

Bonnie and Clyde

The 1970’s - new Blood• Patton, Disaster Films, Love Story, ,Five Easy Pieces, Easy Rider,

The Last Picture Show, Dirty Harry Films, A Clockwork Orange, Jaws, Star Wars, American Graffitti, Last Tango in Paris, The Exorcist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Network, Saturday Night Fever, Annie Hall, Grease, Deer Hunter, Halloween series begins, Animal House, The China Syndrome, Alien, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, Cool Hand Luke

• Francis Ford Coppola’s - The Godfather and The Godfather Pt. II, Apocolypse Now

• Robert Altman - Begins a long and independant film career with McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Nashville,

• Stephen Spielberg - Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET, Shindeler’s List etc.

• Stanley Kubric - 2001, Clockwork Orange, The Shining,

• Roman Polanski’s - Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby

Francis Ford Coppola

Modern Cinema Trends• Independent films are the most adventurous from Tarantino,

Kaufman, the Coen Brothers and others but old timers still rule like Eastwood, Scorcese, and Barry Levinson,

• Titanic is biggest box office of all time till Avatar

• Sequels are box office necessities for action films and blockbusters, comic book hero movies sell big

• Teen exploitation films are popular fare for young audiences from Will Farrell,Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson etc......

• Film keeps looking for more and more action and gimmicks like Imax and 3D to draw audiences into the theaters.

• Technology makes fantasy films like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean possible.

AFI 100 greatest quotes pt.1AFI 100 greatest quotes pt.1

100 famous movie quotes pt.2100 famous movie quotes pt.2