Acknowledgments xii
List of Boxes xiv
Introduction 1
Part I The Commercial Aesthetic
1 Taking Hollywood Seriously 5
“Metropolis of Make-Believe” 5
Art and Business 7
The Commercial Aesthetic of Titanic 10
A Classical Cinema? 14
Hollywood and its Audiences 19
Ratings and Franchises 22
Hollywood’s World 28
Summary 30
Further Reading 31
2 Entertainment 1 33
Escape 33
Money on the Screen 40
The Multiple Logics of Hollywood Cinema 46
Summary 52
Further Reading 53
3 Entertainment 2 54
The Play of Emotions 54
Regulated Difference 59
Singin’ in the Rain: How to Take Gene Kelly Seriously 66
Summary 71
Further Reading 72
4 Genre 74
Genre Criticism 83
Genre Recognition 86
The Empire of Genres: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid 93
Genre and Gender 101
Summary 107
Further Reading 108
Part II Histories
5 Industry 1: To 1948 113
Industry 113
Distribution and Exhibition 114
Exporting America 126
Divorcement 128
The Studio System 130
The Star System 141
How Stars are Made: A Star is Born 146
Summary 154
Further Reading 156
6 Industry 2: From 1948 to 1980 159
The Effects of Divorcement 161
Roadshows and Teenpix 165
Independents, Agents, and Television 170
Corporate Consolidation and the “New Hollywood” 173
Ratings 177
Hollywood in the Multiplex 181
Summary 186
Further Reading 187
7 Industry 3: Since 1980 189
Video and New Markets 191
The Pursuit of Synergy 205
Globalization 212
Independence 217
Summary 224
Further Reading 225
8 Technology 227
Realism and the Myth of Total Cinema 229
Sound 238
Sunny Side Up 241
Color 248
Widescreen 251
Technology and Power 255
The Triumph of the Digital 259
Summary 264
Further Reading 265
9 Politics 268
The Politics of Regulation 270
Hollywood Goes to Washington 276
Washington Goes to Hollywood 280
Representing the Political Machine 287
Controversy with Class: The Social Problem Movie 292
Ideology 300
Summary 306
Further Reading 307
Part III Conventions
10 Space 1 311
The Best View 312
Making the Picture Speak: Representation and Expression 313
The Optics of Expressive Space 319
Deep Space: Three-Dimensionality on a Flat Screen 326
Mise-en-Scene 328
Editing 332
Summary 339
Further Reading 340
11 Space 2 343
The Three “Looks” of Cinema 343
Points of View 346
Safe and Unsafe Space 353
Ordinary People 358
Summary 365
Further Reading 365
12 Performance 1 368
The Spectacle of Movement 372
The Movement of Narrative 375
Acting as Impersonation 377
The Actor’s Two Bodies 380
Star Performance 384
Summary 390
Further Reading 391
13 Performance 2 393
The Method 393
Acting as a Signifying System 398
Valentino 401
The Son of the Sheik 406
Summary 410
Further Reading 411
14 Time 413
Time Out 414
Film Time 419
Movie Time 423
Deadlines and Coincidences: Madigan 426
Mise-en-Temps 429
Tense 432
Back to the Present: History as a Production Value 436
The Politics of History: Forrest Gump 440
The Lessons of History: Juarez 443
Summary 449
Further Reading 450
15 Narrative 1 452
Narrative and Other Pleasures 452
Show and Tell 454
Theories of Narration 458
Plot, Story, Narration 462
Clarity: Transparency and Motivation 465
Summary 469
Further Reading 470
16 Narrative 2 471
Regulating Meaning: The Production Code 471
Clarity and Ambiguity in Casablanca 475
Narrative Pressure 484
Summary 488
Further Reading 489
Part IV Approaches
17 Criticism 493
From Reviewing to Criticism 494
Early Theory and Criticism in America 496
From Criticism to Theory 501
Criticism in Practice: Only Angels Have Wings 511
Summary 521
Further Reading 523
18 Theories 526
Entering the Academy 526
Structuralism and Semiology 528
Cinema, Ideology, Apparatus 531
Psychoanalysis and Cinema 535
The Spectator 537
Feminist Theory 540
Poststructuralism and Cultural Studies 542
Neoformalism and Cognitivism 546
From Reception to History 549
Summary 553
Further Reading 555
Chronology 557
Glossary 578
Appendices 593
1 The Motion Picture Production Code 593
2 The Code and Rating System, 1968 598
3 The Classification and Rating System: “What the Ratings Mean” 601
Notes 603
Bibliography 644
Index 666
