Cinematography of USA/ Hollywood cinematography_ Part I

The next topic I want to speak is cinematography of USA. I think it is a deserving competitor to french cinema. Of course most of USA movies are more for profit, and for mass public, in my opinion. But some of them are really worth of praise. Especially through the several last years many movies not-for-all, as I call it, were filmed.

So, a piece of history. Cinematography of USA is sometimes separated into 4 main periods: the silent film era, Classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period (after 1980).  The history started in 1878 when the power of photography to capture motion was first demonstrated by Eadweard Muybridge. Then, in 1896 the World’s first commercial motion picture exhibition took place in New York. The next year the first commercial screening of a projected film was shown in New York, also. The USA occured on a forefront of  sound film’s development. But the first American film was produced only in 1902-1903 when Edison’s colleague Edwin Stanton Porter started filming the movie for screening projection. The developmet of cinematography in USA was in high gear. In 1905 there were about 10 constant cinematheatres, and by 1910 – more than 10 000. In 1912 many big film-production companies (such as “Paramount”) were organized.  Cinematography became a part of ndustry.

Films were mass public oriented, it bounded the possibilities of  filmmakers. System demanded high-profit films, so actors were on the forefront, not the filmmakers, system of movie stars occured.

The main achievements of Hollywood are linked with development of such genres as:

–  Comedies of  M. Linder, Ch. Chaplin, B. Keaton, etc.;

– Melodramas with R.Valentino;

– D. Ford’s westerns;

– “Black” movies with H. Bogart;

– Musicals with F. Aster and D. Kelly;

– Alfred Hitchcock’s thrilers;

etc up to fantastc movies, horror films,  action-movies and blockbusters of last years – all these gnres exist and appear “by request” of mass viewers, and make limits for self-expression of filmmakers.