Classical Hollywood Film: Hollywood's Classical Period

During Hollywood's classical period, the seamless style was particularly favored, it championed narrative economy. In other words, films were constructed so that the viewer was not aware of the construction. This practice of effacing a film's construction actually depends on a complex system of visual codes. Hollywood films, as opposed to art films or some types of foreign films, embrace a narrative that is highly efficient and that is determined by cause and effect. For example, The opening of a film typically plunges us_ _into an immediate understanding of an individual character. While natural causes, like floods and earthquakes, or societal causes, such as wars or strikes, might prod the character in a certain direction or serve as
The second act is the progression of that situation to a high point of conflict. And the third act is how the conflicts and problems are resolved.” Though modern films frequently depart from the continuity style, this style remains a baseline standard of effective visual storytelling. During the classical Hollywood era, each studio was known for a certain genre of film or a particular roster of stars. Spencer Tracy, Bing Crosby, Charlie Chaplin were some of the well-known performers that emerged during this period. Comic films began to appear in significant numbers during the era of silent films in roughly 1895 to 1930. The visual humor of these silent films relied on slapstick. A very early comedy short was Watering the Gardener (1895) by the Lumière brothers. In American film, the most prominent comic actors of the silent era were Charlie Chaplin. A popular trend during the 1920s and afterward was comedy in the form of animated cartoons with stars such as Betty Boo
The greatest successes, however, came with the films of the Monty Python team, including _And Now For Something Completely Different_ (1971), One of the major developments of the 1990s was the re-emergence of the romantic comedy film, encouraged by the success of When Harry Met Sally... in 1989 Another development was the increasing use of "gross-out humor" usually aimed at a younger audience, in films like _There's Something About_ Mary__, American Pie) and its sequels. In mid 2000s the trend of "gross-out" movies is continuing, with adult-oriented comedies picking up the box office. The screwball comedy is a subgenre of the comedy film genre. It has proven to be one of the most popular and enduring film genres. First gained prominence in 1934 with It Happened One Night and, although many film scholars would agree that its classic period ended sometime in the early 1940s, elements of the genre have persisted, or have been paid homage to, in contemporary film. Modern screwball comedies include: Burn After Reading (2008), d. Joel and Ethan Coen Pineapple Express) (2008) d. David Gordon