Τα είδη ταινιών του Χόλιγουντ: Φόρμουλες, κινηματογραφία και σύστημα παραγωγής των στούντιο

by Thomas Schatz, Μάρα Τσούμαρη (Translator), Μιχάλης Κοκκώνης (Editor)

Η κεντρική ιδέα αυτού του βιβλίου είναι ότι μια προσέγγιση μέσω της θεωρίας των κινηματογραφικών ειδών παρέχει το πιο αποτελεσματικό μέσο για την κατανόηση, την ανάλυση και την εκτίμηση του χολιγουντιανού κινηματογράφου. Λαμβάνοντας υπόψη όχι μόνο τις μορφικές και αισθητικές διαστάσεις της κινηματογραφικής παραγωγής ταινιών μεγάλου μήκους, αλλά και πολλές άλλες πολιτισμικές πτυχές, η προσέγγιση μέσω της θεωρίας των ειδών εξετάζει την κινηματογραφική παραγωγή ως μια δυναμική διαδικασία αλληλεπίδρασης ανάμεσα στην κινηματογραφική βιομηχανία και το κοινό της. Η διαδικασία αυτή, όπως έχει ενσωματωθεί στο σύστημα παραγωγής των στούντιο του Χόλιγουντ, έχει διατηρηθεί κυρίως χάρη στα κινηματογραφικά είδη, εκείνες τις δημοφιλείς αφηγηματικές φόρμουλες όπως το γουέστερν, το μιούζικαλ και τις γκανγκστερικές ταινίες, που έχουν κυριαρχήσει στην κινηματογραφική τέχνη ολόκληρο τον 20ό αιώνα.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Writing, Reference, Academic

424 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1981

About the author

Tom Schatz is the Mary Gibbs Jones Centennial Chair (and interim chairman) of the Department of Radio-Television-Film at The University of Texas at Austin, where he has been on the faculty since 1976, and is the Executive Director of the University of Texas Film Institute. He has written four books about Hollywood films and filmmaking, including Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and the Studio System; The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era; and Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s. Schatz edited the four-volume collection, Hollywood: Critical Concepts, and he also serves as series editor of the Film and Media Studies Series for the University of Texas Press. Schatz's writing on film has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and academic journals, including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Premiere, The Nation, Film Comment, Film Quarterly, and Cineaste.

Schatz lectures widely on American film and television in the U.S. and abroad, and he has delivered talks and conducted seminars for the Motion Picture Academy, the Directors Guild of America, the American Film Institute and the Los Angeles Film School. Schatz also is engaged in media production, has consulted and provided on-screen commentary for a number of film and television documentaries, and is co-producer of "The Territory," a long-running regional PBS series that showcases independent film and video work.

Schatz's recent publications include an essay on "Band of Brothers" in The Essential HBO Reader (2008) and "The Studio System and Conglomerate Hollywood," the lead essay in The Contemporary Hollywood Film Industry (2008). Current publishing projects include a study of contemporary Hollywood and a revised edition of Hollywood Genres.

As Executive Director of the UT Film Institute, which he founded and launched in 2003, Schatz oversees a program devoted to training students in narrative and digital filmmaking, and the actual production of feature-length independent films.

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schatz provides a very good look at the western, the gangster film, the hard-boiled detective film, the screwball comedy, the musical, and the family melodrama. Schatz focuses on the movies of the 1930s through 1950s, when the studio system was at its peak. Schatz provides a useful overview of "genre" in general at the start of the book, along with a chapter on the studio system which he later expanded into an excellent book, "The Genius of the System".

However, Schatz tends towards the auteur approach too often, ignoring the contributions of writers, producers, and others to the finished work. For example, regarding westerns, Schatz gives no credit to Ernest Haycox, Jack Shaefer, Dorthy M. Johnson, or Glendon Swarthout. Or regarding gangster movies, W. R. Burnett gets no credit for Little Caesar; John Bright and Kubec Glasmon get no credit for The Public Enemy; and Armitage Trail (Maurice Coons) and Ben Hecht get no credit for Scarface. Also, Schatz brings Levi-Strauss and Barthes into the frame in the epilogue to no benefit.

[Nat]

Post-Cavell, it's funny to read something that laments the lack of critical attention given to 1930s screwball comedies, especially comedies of remarriage.

In the first, theoretical, chapter on the nature of genre, Schatz makes an observation about the way that genres are developed and refined through constant feedback from the film audience, and given the prodigious output of movies from the Hollywood studio system, there was plenty of room for learning from successes and failures. It struck me that the development of movie genres could get a similar treatment to that given to the evolution of elements of the detective novel in Franco Moretti's Graphs, Maps, and Trees, and would be a suitable topic of investigation for cultural anthropologists interested in the evolution of culture.

[Alicia German · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was so boring. He repeated himself over, and over, and over again in this book (see what I did there?). I wanted to know the points he tried to make, but couldn’t understand his writing. I’m either not smart enough for this book, or he sucks are writing. Who knows. I just had to read this for a class so I really don’t care.

[agenbiteofinwit · Rating 3 out of 5]

read the chinese translation. a few problems i had with the book: firstly it’s a boring historical account of hollywood films and genres, don’t mind the historical bit really, but the fact that there seems to be less elaboration and argument than the examples makes it very not engaging, my eyes skimmed through a lot of it cause there’s not much to be taken away from it. secondly, the genres are old, and because it’s outdated it kinda distances the novice to read it. also, not really a fan of the structuralist perspective. conclusion: i should have dived into andre bazin right away cause looks like his way is the best approach for me to understand the whole thing.

note: i gave up upon reaching the film noir section and went straight into the afterwords/ conclusion bit, that was interesting as it talked about the american myth/ legend.

[Jim Berkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent examination of classic Hollywood cinema by genre, with analysis of key examples in westerns, musicals, noir, etc. Schatz smartly emphasizes studio "house styles" as well, an avenue he'd further explore in his excellent "The Genius of The System"

[Luke Devenish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! What a treasure. Sending up prayers of thanks to the dusty old second hand book gods for guiding my palsied hand to it.