Classic Hollywood films & Italian Art Cinema
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Classical Hollywood films, from the 1930s to the early 1960s, were products of a studio system devoted to making films that would be popular successes. Entertainment and profits were the guiding principles. Although each big studio had its own style, basically the same movies were made over and over again. Studio heads discovered early on that the familiar faces of popular stars would bring in audiences and profits, and the star system reigned in Hollywood in contrast to Italian art films in which the auteurÆs voice reigned. Although both Hollywood movies and Italian art cinema are forms of narrative cinema, there are vast differences between the two. In Hollywood films individual expression was sacrificed to the box office whereas Italian art cinema was motivated by authorial expressivity and realism. The films of Michael Curtiz, director of ôCasablanca,ö for example, offer no evident signature compared with the films of Vittorio De Sica. This research paper will compare and contrast Italian art cinema with classic Hollywood films, focusing on the elements that make up the style and content of each type of cinema. Examples will be given from the Italian films ôThe Bicycle Thiefö (1948), ôFistful of Dollarsö (1964), ôLast Tango in Parisö (1972) and the popular American 1942 classic ôCasablanca.ö Davis Bordwell notes that the motivations of classic Hollywood and Italian art films were vastly different. The Italian films were shot in real locations, and had psychologically
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1910. Thomas and Vivian Sobchack contend that the Hollywood star system uses charismatic screen personalities in familiar roles, and that one of the reasons audiences go to movies is to see their favorite stars ôre-enact familiar personaeö (327). Ellis gives an example of how the Hollywood studios exploited the star system by marketing films not on content but on star quality such as ôJudy and Mickey together again in the kind of story that made 'Babes in ArmsÆ a smashö (152). He also contends that Dooley Wilson playing and singing ôAs Time Goes Byö in ôCasablanca,ö makes audiences ôbelieve in and care what happens to Rick, Humphrey Bogart, and Ilsa, Ingrid Bergman, as much as weÆve cared for any screen lovers, and maybe to confuse them with ourselvesö (197).
Identifying the character with the actor could not happen in the films of Italian Neo-Realism. Cesare Zavattini, who co-wrote ôThe Bicycle Thiefö with De Sica, is noted as the theoretical founder of Neo-Realism. As early as 1942 he called for a new kind of Italian film that would abolish contrived plots, take to the streets for its material, and do away with professional actors. According to Zavattini, since plot was inauthentic because it imposed an artificial structure on
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Vivian Sobchack, Classical Hollywood, Fistful Dollarsö, Art Cinema, De Sica, Ladd Hollywood, Hollywood Westerns, Neo-Realism Italian, Tango Parisö, Bicycle Thiefö, italian art, hollywood films, art cinema, ôthe bicycle, bicycle thiefö, ôthe bicycle thiefö, italian art cinema, classic hollywood, ôlast tango parisö, ôlast tango, de sica, tango parisö, ôa fistful, classic hollywood films, ôa fistful dollarsö,
Approximate Word count = 1962
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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