Videos

American Cinema

This Annenberg/CPB instructional series was produced by the New York Center for Visual History in association with KCET/Los Angeles and the BBC in 1995.

Series description: The AMERICAN CINEMA series uses clips from more than 300 of the greatest movies ever made. This series explores film history and American culture through the eyes of over 150 Hollywood insiders, including Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, Michael Eisner, and many others. Film is seen as a powerful economic force as well as a potent art form. This series is only available in English.

This instructional series produced for colleges and high schools has 10 one-hour and 3 half-hour video programs.

1. THE HOLLYWOOD STYLE In the classical Hollywood film, the story is primary. Filmmakers rely on style - structure, narrative and visual elements - to effectively tell their story. Martin Scorsese and Sydney Pollack are among the premier directors who discuss how classical Hollywood style, evolving and yet enduring over time, informs their work.
    
2. THE STUDIO STYSTEM A look at Hollywood's industrial past during the era of contract players and directors and colorful movie moguls. But it also looks at the filmmaking environment of today with studio heads Michael Eisner, Howard Koch and others.
    
3. THE STAR Hollywood saw that recognizable talent could minimize the financial risks of film production. Critics, film scholars, and studio publicists view the stars from many angles: as marketing tools, cultural icons, and products of the industry.
    
4. THE WESTERN The western is an American myth that has been translated by other cultures and reinterpreted time and again, but never dies. With clips and critical commentary on westerns from STAGECOACH through the works of Arthur Penn, Sam Peckinpah, and Clint Eastwood, the program traces the aesthetic evolution of the genre.
    
5. ROMANTIC COMEDY Breezy and silly to witty and intelligent, romantic comedies have been with us since the 1930's. But the surface humor has often just barely masked issues of gender and sexuality. Directors James Brooks and Nora Ephron present interpretations of the genre that reveal the underlying social and psychological messages.
    
6. THE COMBAT FILM Beginning with World War II - this program examines the role of the combat film in filling a social and political need.
    
7. FILM NOIR These cynical and pessimistic films from the 30s and 40s touched a nerve in Americans. Historians link the overriding paranoia of this genre to Cold War related angst over the nuclear threat and the Hollywood blacklist.
    
8. FILM IN THE TELEVISION AGE As the medium of television took hold, so did a new era of motion picture entertainment. Top directors, actors, and film scholars trace the influence of each medium on the other.
    
9. THE FILM SCHOOL GENERATION Maverick filmmakers of the 60s and 70s, including DePalma, Scorcese and Spielberg, capitalized on new technology and borrowed from classical Hollywood as they reinvented American film. The financial and cultural forces that contributed to their success and commercial clout are explored.
    
10. THE EDGE OF HOLLYWOOD While many of the old rules are still in force, independent filmmakers today often add their dissenting voices to the forum. This program looks at some alternative visions from Spike Lee, Joel and Ethan Coen, Jim Jarmusch, and Quentin Tarantino. With limited budgets, they challenge the stylistic status quo of the Hollywood film.
     
11. FILM LANGUAGE 30 minutes, illustrates basic terms such as tracking shots and zooms also provides a primer on editing technique.
     
12. WRITING AND THINKING ABOUT FILM 30 minutes, provides a formal and cultural analysis of a classical film sequence It serves as a critical guide for those new to film critique.
     
13. CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD TODAY 30 minutes, offers interviews with contemporary directors, European filmmakers, scholars, and critics, as well as studio era veterans who probe the Hollywood influence on both American and world culture.

Rights: We have broadcast as well as educational rights for this series for two years.