A wide-ranging overview of the film industry in Hollywood today, Contemporary Hollywood Cinema brings together essays on technology, institutions and film itself to explore
the nature of Hollywood in the post-studio era.
Early contributions consider the growth of aggressive studio business strategies such as the independent marketing of stars; the made-for-tv movie and saturation release for blockbusters,
the globalisation of Hollywoods market, the rise of the major independent production/distribution companies, and the recent fortunes of independent cinema.
Subsequent articles
are concerned with technological advances such as colour, stereo and digital sound, and widescreen, and current developments in film scores in pictures such as Batman Returns, and several contributions consider structural coherence in modern blockbusters like Raiders of the Lost Ark, challenging the idea that contemporary Hollywood has rejected the fluent narratives of its classical predecessor. The final section focusses on issues of audience and ideology, dealing with questions of the representation of race, gender, sexuality and class. Michael Allen, Tino Balio, Warren Buckland, Steven Cohan, Pam Cook, Elizabeth Cowie, Kevin Donnelly, Thomas Elsaesser, Douglas Gomery, Barry Keith Grant, Peter Kramer, Tommy Lott, Richard Maltby, S
Edited by:
STEVE NEALE,
Murray Smith
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 22mm
Weight: 793g
ISBN: 9780415170109
ISBN 10: 0415170109
Pages: 360
Publication Date: 09 July 1998
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
,
A / AS level
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
List if illustrations and permissions, Notes on contributors, Acknowledgements, Introduction, PART I. Hollywood historiography, 1. Theses on the philosophy of Hollywood history, 2. 'Nobody knows everything': post-classical historiographies and consolidated entertainment, PART II. Economics, industry and institutions, 3. Hollywood corporate business practice and periodizing contemporary film history, 4. 'A major presence in all of the world's important markets': the globalization of Hollywood in the 1990s, 5. The formation of the 'major independent': Miramax, New Line and the New Hollywood, 6. To the rear of the back end: the economics of independent cinema, PART III. Aesthetics and technology, 7. From Bwana Devil to Batman Forever: technology in contemporary Hollywood cinema, 8. Widescreen composition in the age of television, 9. The classical film score forever? Batman, Batman Returns and post-classical film music, 10. A cry in the dark: the role of post-classical film sound, 11. A close encounter with Raiders oj the Lost Ark: notes on narrative aspects of the New Hollywood blockbuster, 12. Storytelling: classical Hollywood cinema and classical narrative, 13. Specularity and engulfment: Francis Ford Coppola and Bram Stoker's Dracula, PART IV. Audience, address and ideology, 14. Hollywood and independent black cinema, 15. No fixed address: the women's picture from Outrage to Blue Steel, 16. New Hollywood's new women: murder in mind - Sarah and Margie, 17. Censorship and narrative indeterminacy in Basic Instinct: 'You won't learn anything from me I don't want you to know', 18. Rich and strange: the yuppie horror film, 19. Would you take your child to see this film? The cultural and social work of the family-adventure movie, Select biblio8raphy, Index
STEVE NEALE, Murray Smith
Reviews for Contemporary Hollywood Cinema
Nineteen leading film theorists dissect the so-called New Hollywood in terms of technology, idealogy and aesthetics. Their subjects range from the yuppie nightmare movie ('After Hours', 'Something Wild', 'Fatal Attraction') to the role of music in modern Hollywood, from the riches of independent black cinema to widescreen composition in the age of television. It's heavy going at times - we are, after all, in the rarefied world of film theory - but anyone interested in the development of American film since the early 1970s should derive ample reward from this book. (Kirkus UK)
