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CHAPTER 2

HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY: HOLLYWOOD AND BEYOND

KEY OBJECTIVES

• Draw the broad outlines and periods of film history.

• Explain global dimensions of film history, emphasizing the distinctive nature of different national cinemas as

well as transnational influences.

• Identify film practices and filmmakers marginalized by traditional Hollywood-centered histories.

• Describe “lost” film history and the importance of film presentation.

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

Chapter 2 is the second chapter in the first section, which identifies institutional, cultural, and historical

contexts that shape the film experience. It begins with a historical overview of Hollywood and global film history,

dividing the timeline of film history into four broad periods—early cinema, cinema between the (world) wars,

postwar cinemas, and contemporary film cultures. Each historical section introduces the thematic and stylistic

concerns, as well as a few key masters and masterpieces, of the various film cultures from that period. This chapter

then explores the lesser-known film cultures within the United States (women, African Americans, LGBT,

indigenous) that have been marginalized in film history. Finally, Chapter 2 engages the topics of orphan films and

film preservation.

TEACHING THE OPENING VIGNETTE

Perhaps the best way to present the opening vignette is by constructing a simple timeline indicating when,

where, and by whom each of the three films was made to illustrate how these similar stories emerge from different

film histories. For All That Heaven Allows (1955), you could discuss the social climate in the United States in the

1950s and the careers of Douglas Sirk, Rock Hudson, and Jane Wyman. Repeat the same exercise for Ali: Fear Eats

the Soul (1974) and Far From Heaven (2002). Or play Far from Heaven director Todd Haynes’s commentary track

TEACHINGTHE CHAPTER

This chapter emphasizes the importance of historical context when watching films made in another era or

culture. Conventional film history makes sense to students because its approaches and methodologies resemble those

they’ve encountered in history courses throughout their academic careers. Students also possess real-life, firsthand

knowledge of the power that economic forces or influential individuals have exerted in recent history, as well as the

blistering pace at which technology evolves. Additionally, they construct their own narratives and histories

according to periods centered on school or family.

When teaching this chapter, it can be useful to look at examples of how the movies have convincingly

reconstructed past events throughout their history. In addition to considering various biopic films, for instance, look

at how technological history has affected the form and content of movies. During the silent and early sound eras, a

Teaching Film History as Periodization

Below are some key points to hit for each of the historical periods and/or film cultures:

Silent Cinema

Silent Features in Hollywood

• The international dominance of Hollywood, which began in 1907–13

• The rise of the star (or celebrity) system in the movies, which began around 1910

• The beginnings of continuity editing (as an early elaboration of narrative form)

German Expressionist Cinema

• Concentrated on the dark fringes of human experience

• Represented irrational forces through lighting, set, and costume design

Soviet Silent Films

• Emphasized documentary and historical subjects

Classical Cinema in Hollywood and Beyond

European Cinema in the 1930s and 1940s

• Rising nationalism in Europe used cinema to define linguistic and cultural heritage

• Emigration of creative personnel from Germany to Hollywood

• A socially conscious film movement known as poetic realism develops in France

Golden Age Mexican Cinema

• During World War II, Mexico becomes a center of film production for national and international markets

• Thriving of genres, including melodramas, comedies, and musicals

• A resurgence of auteurism by the end of the 1940s

Postwar Cinemas (1945-1975)

Postwar Hollywood

• Reflected the dissolution of the traditional power of the studios after the 1948 Paramount decision

• Explored more controversial themes and issues as part of a new standard of realism

• Technological innovations such widescreen formats helped motion pictures compete with the rise of television

• Younger filmmakers influenced by European art cinema reach a younger audience

• Rise of streetwise African American genre known as blaxpoitation

International Art Cinema

Italian Neorealism

• Depicted postwar social crises

• Used a stark, realistic style clearly different from the glossy entertainment formulas of Hollywood and

other studio systems

French New Wave

• Broke with past filmmaking institutions and genres

• Used film to express personal vision

Japanese Cinema

Cinematic Globalization (1975-2000)

New Hollywood in the Blockbuster Era

• Young filmmakers inspired by European auteurism experience massive commercial success with films

such as Jaws and The Godfather

• The expansion of a youth audience as the dominant group of moviegoers

• The arrival of conglomerates, blockbusters, cable, and home video

• One the one hand, the elevation of image spectacles and special effects over narrative engagement

• On the other, narratively engaged films experiment with narrative form

The Commercial Auteur

• The rise of the auteur as a brand: Ridley Scott, David Lynch, and Quentin Tarantino

• Personality and prominence of the director driving movie commerce more and more

American Independent Cinema

• Auteurism as aggressive marketing technique by distributor Miramax

• Independence as synonymous with controversial subject matter, challenging roles, and award nominations

New German Cinema

• Confronted Germany’s Nazi and postwar past, and emphasized the distinctive, often maverick, visions of

individual directors

• Today’s pan-European cinemas broaden the traditional view of “the national”

African Cinema

Iranian Cinema

• Presents spare pictorial beauty, often of landscapes or scenes of everyday life on the margins

• Developed an elliptical storytelling mode in part as a response to state regulation

Cinema in the Digital Era (2000-present)

Global Hollywood

Diversifying Screens

Global Film Culture in the Age of Streaming

Film Preservation and Archives

Teaching Technical Vocabulary and Key Concepts

When teaching technical vocabulary for this chapter, encourage students to explore how our sense of history

becomes richer and more insightful through an awareness of film historiography by assigning essays and journal

entries that cite important dates, names, and events and use terminology learned in class.

Another approach to evaluating comprehension could be to administer short quizzes after screenings. Ask

students to identify the movie’s approach to history and its place within film history. Have them describe how

assumptions about film history help shape our understanding and enjoyment of individual movies and film

movements. Or, consider giving vocabulary quizzes at the beginning of class. Select only a few of the boldface

terms from each section, perhaps emphasizing those that most closely relate to the film you’ll be watching. Giving a

definition and an example allows students to begin to parse and refine their understanding of the reading.

TEACHING HISTORY CLOSE UP, p. 63

Film historians often assert that it was D.W. Griffith’s controversial film, The Birth of a Nation (1915), which

roused black Americans to make their own films. Indeed, Oscar Micheaux’s brilliant 1920 film Within Our Gates is

a direct response to Griffith’s epic. You might consider pointing out the existence of production companies

specializing in race movies that predate Griffith’s film (see p. 59). Also note that prior to Griffith’s film, Micheaux

TEACHING THE VIEWING CUES

Postwar Hollywood, p. 71

View the online clips of Gilda (1946) and Rome, Open City (1945), which were produced at roughly the same time.

What makes them identifiable by period? Can you identify contrasts between classical Hollywood and Italian

neorealist style?

This Viewing Cue can be used as a journal entry prompt or test question. You could also use this Viewing Cue

to generate a lively discussion about the formal characteristics of how Rita Hayworth and Anna Magnani are lit,

framed, clothed, and shot in their respective films/styles. Of course, this Viewing Cue can also be adapted for any of

the historical periods covered in this chapter.

Indian Cinema, p. 73

Scan local film and television listings, noting how many different countries are represented. If the range is limited,

why do you think this is so? If you have located foreign films, what kinds of venues or channels show them?

Flip the script. Redefine local by searching the film listings in online editions of foreign newspapers.

What’s playing in Trastaverde or Lahore or Dublin or Kigali? How many American films are showing on

international screens?

Chinese Cinema, p. 82

Compare at least two films from the same movement (such as New German Cinema or Hong Kong New Wave). Do

the characteristics discussed in this chapter apply?

This Viewing Cue would make an excellent prompt for a take-home exam or longer paper.

Diversifying Screens, p. 86

View the clip from Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Beyond the Lights (2014). How do dialogue and form position the

black woman protagonist? How do you think this relates to the unique perspective of a black woman director behind

the camera?

Orphan Films, p. 92

View an “ephemeral film” on the Internet Archive at www.archive.org/details/ ephemera. What does it tell us

about history?

Duck and Cover (1952) and various hygiene films might make for interesting class discussion. Have the

students research the annual Orphan Film Festival or Home Movie Day. Or discuss how ephemeral film has been

co-opted for comedic purposes by Mystery Science Theater 3000. If a TV show has rediscovered an orphan film and

remarketed it for commercial purposes, even mockingly so, is it still an orphan film? Alternatively, what does it

mean for ephemeral films as a whole to be spoofed in films like Dodgeball (2004) and TV shows like Futurama?

TEACHING THE FILMS IN FOCUS

Taxi Driver and New Hollywood (1976), pp. 76–77

Most films made during the same period share not only historically recognizable themes, plot devices,

characterizations, genres, and visual styles but also use similar costuming, casting, editing, and sound practices. At

the same time, an individual film works to differentiate itself within these period standards. For example, Martin

Scorsese’s Taxi Driver manifests the “spirit of the age” in New York City during the U.S. Bicentennial and

describes its cultural atmosphere using formal and narrative innovations influenced by European art cinemas.

Discussion Question 1: What roles do cinematography, voiceover narration, and score play in situating this movie

within a certain period?

Discussion Question 2: How does the fragmentation of Taxi Driver’s narrative work to give the audience a greater

sense of Travis Bickle’s fragmented psyche and create greater psychological realism?

Discussion Question 3: Consider the careers of Martin Scorsese, writer Paul Schrader, and composer Bernard

Hermann. How does their direct or academic knowledge of film history allow them to create a movie that can reflect

its historic present?

Rediscovering Within Our Gates (1920), pp. 90–91

To create a local context for the impact that a movie like Micheaux’s might have had, ask students to research the

exhibition history of race movies in your region. Or have them do a shot-by-shot analysis of a sequence to detail

how the editing style of Within Our Gates diverges from the practices of Hollywood continuity editing.

Discussion Question 1: What is the effect on film history when a movie thought lost is rediscovered?

Discussion Question 2: What are the roles that archives and preservationists play in our evolving understanding of

film histories?

Discussion Question 3: How does Micheaux’s movie work as a counter-narrative to The Birth of a Nation (1915)

and U.S. historical amnesia about race relations and lynchings?

Additional Suggestions: Orphaned hygiene films, sponsored films, instructional films, and home movies offer

another fascinating glimpse into a history that might otherwise be lost or considered insignificant. Consult the

Prelinger Archive online to assemble a series of these short films: http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger. Ask

students what they can tell an audience today about daily life at the time of filming. What is presumed or taken for

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS

Alternative Activity

Ask students to watch a movie with an older friend, parent, or grandparent. It should be a film the older person

remembers enjoying when they were the age the student is now. Does the movie “hold up” years later? Are there

certain references or jokes that might be lost on a younger viewer? Have students compile short oral histories that

describe how personal history intersects with film history.

Alternative Activity

Watch the Academy Award–winning documentary The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S.

McNamara (2003) with an older friend, parent, or grandparent. How does Robert S. McNamara’s account of various

world events jibe with personal memories of those moments or the accounts in history textbooks?

FILMS CITED

Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972)

Alexandria . . . Why? (1978)

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)

Alice in the Cities (1974)

All That Heaven Allows (1955)

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

American Psycho (2000)

Amreeka (2009)

Anders als der Anderin (Different from the Others) (1919)

Antichrist (2009)

The Apple (1998)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Arugbá (2010)

Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)

Avatar (2009)

Bamako (2006)

The Battle of Algiers (1966)

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Beyond the Lights (2014)

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

The Big Parade (1925)

The Big Sleep (1946)

The Birth of a Nation (1915)

The Birth of a Nation (2016)

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Boys Don’t Cry (1999)

Breathless (1960)

Bride & Prejudice (2004)

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

Cabiria (1914)

Café Lumière (2003)

Cape No. 7 (2008)

Carol (2015)

Chan Is Missing (1982)

The Children’s Hour (1961)

Chinatown (1974)

Christopher Strong (1933)

The Circle (2000)

Citizen Kane (1941)

A City of Sadness (1989)

Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)

A Clockwork Orange (1978)

Daisies (1966)

Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)

Daughters of the Dust (1991)

The Deer Hunter (1978)

The Defiant Ones (1958)

The Derby (1896)

Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005)

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995)

Final Fantasy: Spirits Within (2001)

Finye (1982)

Fitzcarraldo (1982)

The 400 Blows (1959)

4 Little Girls (1997)

Fred Ott’s Sneeze (1896)

Gas Food Lodging (1992)

Gilda (1946)

The Gleaners and I (2000)

Happy Together (1997)

Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951)

Heimat (1984)

The Hidden Half (2001)

Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959)

Holocaust (1978)

The Host (2006)

The Hour of the Furnaces (1968)

I Accuse (1919)

In a Better World (2010)

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

In the Mood for Love (2000)

In the Realm of the Senses (1976)

The Intern (2015)

Intolerance (1916)

The Invitation (2016)

It Happened One Night (1934)

It’s Complicated (2009)

Jaws (1975)

The Jazz Singer (1927)

Jennifer’s Body (2009)

The Joyless Street (1925)

Ju dou (1990)

Julie & Julia (2009)

Kandahar (2000)

The Kids Are All Right (2010)

The Killer (1998)

M (1931)

Mädchen in Uniform (1931)

Magnolia (1999)

Malcolm X (1992)

Man with a Movie Camera (1929)

Maria Candelaria (1944)

The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)

Melancholia (2011)

Memento (2000)

Memories of Underdevelopment (1968)

Metropolis (1927)

The Milk of Sorrow (2009)

Mi Vida Loca (1993)

Monsoon Wedding (2001)

Mother India (1957)

Nosferatu (1922)

Old Boy (2003)

Om Shanti Om (2007)

Ossessione (1943)

Pancho Villa! (Let’s Go with Pancho Villa) (1936)

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

Pather Panchali (1955)

Persepolis (2007)

PK (2014)

Polar Express (2004)

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009)

Psycho (1960)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Quo Vadis? (1913)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made (2016)

Raise the Red Lantern (1991)

Rashomon (1950)

Rebel without a Cause (1955)

Reds (1981)

She’s Gotta Have It (1986)

Shin Godzilla (2016)

Sholay (1975)

The Silences of the Palace (1994)

Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Smoke Signals (1998)

Snowpiercer (2014)

The Sound of Music (1965)

Stagecoach (1939)

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)

Tangerine (2015)

Taste of Cherry (1997)

Taxi (2015)

Taxi Driver (1976)

12 Years a Slave (2013)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1903)

Ugetsu (1950)

Les Vampires (1915)

The Vanishing Lady (1896)

Vent d’Est (Wind from the East) (1969)

Vertigo (1958)

Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)

What You Should Know about Biological Warfare (1952)

The Wheel (1923)

Where Are My Children? (1916)