The ABCs of Classic Hollywood

The ABCs of Classic Hollywood
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 423
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780195322910
ISBN-13 : 0195322916
Rating : 4/5 (10 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The ABCs of Classic Hollywood by : Robert Beverley Ray

Download or read book The ABCs of Classic Hollywood written by Robert Beverley Ray and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Speaking about the kind of filmmaking now known as Classic Hollywood, the most popular and influential cinema ever invented, Vincente Minnelli once gave away its secret: "I feel that a picture that stays with you is made up of a hundred or more hidden things. They're things that the audience is not conscious of, but that accumulate." How would we go about finding those things? What method would enable us to retrieve them, and by doing so, to understand better how Hollywood films got made? The ABCs of Classic Hollywood attempts to answer those questions by looking closely at four movies from the 1930-1945 period when the American Studio System reached the peak of its economic and cultural power: Grand Hotel, The Philadelphia Story, The Maltese Falcon, and Meet Me in St. Louis. To avoid the predictable generalizations that have plagued Film Studies, Ray works with the movies' details, treated as initially mysterious, but promising, clues: e.g., Grand Hotel's coffin and room assignments; The Philadelphia Story's diving board and license plate PA55; The Maltese Falcon's clocks and missing bed; Meet Me in St. Louis's violinist and ribboned cat. By producing at least 26 entries for each of these films (one for every letter of the alphabet), Ray demonstrates that a movie's details contain the record of the work and ideas that produced them, the endless negotiation between commercial efficiency and seductive enchantment. In our unconscious memories, we recognize something in the movies, something tantalizing and just out of reach. This book unlocks those memories, making them conscious and explicit, so that they will help us understand the most powerful and important storytelling system ever designed.


The ABCs of Classic Hollywood Related Books

Classic Hollywood Stars
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Mike Oldham
Categories: Motion picture actors and actresses
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008 - Publisher: Schiffer Publishing

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Celebrities.
This Was Hollywood
Language: en
Pages: 236
Authors: Carla Valderrama
Categories: Performing Arts
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-11-17 - Publisher: Running Press Adult

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this one-of-a-kind Hollywood history, the creator of Instagram's celebrated @ThisWasHollywood reveals the forgotten past of the film world in a dazzling visu
Conversations with Classic Film Stars
Language: en
Pages: 441
Authors: James Bawden
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-04 - Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Bawden and Miller present an astonishing collection of rare interviews with the greatest celebrities of Hollywood's golden age. Conducted over the course of mor
Styling the Stars
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Angela Cartwright
Categories: Photography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-04-04 - Publisher: Insight Editions

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A stunning collection of behind-the-scenes hair, makeup, and wardrobe continuity photographs from the Twentieth Century Fox archive, Styling the Stars features
The Stars of Hollywood Remembered
Language: en
Pages: 208
Authors: J.G. Ellrod
Categories: Performing Arts
Type: BOOK - Published: 2024-10-09 - Publisher: McFarland

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Don Ameche, Eve Arden, George Burns, Bette Davis, Greer Garson, Rex Harrison, Lilli Palmer, George Raft, Ginger Rogers, Barbara Stanwyck, Orson Welles, Cornel W