This chapter discusses where film came from, how it has evolved, and seeks to predict where it is going. Film history can be traced through movements which typically consist of films that are produced within a particular period and/or nation, and filmmakers who operate within a common production structure. The movements discussed within the chapter are the early cinema, classical Hollywood cinema, German expressionism, French impressionism and surrealism, Soviet montage, Italian neorealism, French new wave, and new Hollywood and independent filmmaking.

After reading this chapter, you should be able to understand:

1. The factors that affect the film industry include the state of the film industry, artistic theories held by the filmmakers themselves, pertinent technological features, and elements of the socioeconomic context of the period.
   
   
2. Early cinema consisted of individuals creating the means for still pictures to move in rapid succession. This was achieved through the combination of a flexible, transparent film base, a fast exposure time, a mechanism to pull the film through the camera, an intermittent device to stop the film, and a shutter to block off light. Most of the first films depicted important events or scenic areas. By 1904 film was primarily narrative.
   
   
3. The period of the classical Hollywood cinema is categorized by the creation of film studios (MGM, Fox, Warner Brothers, Universal, and Paramount being the largest). Cinema became oriented toward a narrative form. The continuity system became the standard. By the end of the 1920s, the Hollywood product had come to be known as the industry standard.
   
   
4. German expressionism, which began as an art movement, is characterized in film by extreme stylization and depends heavily on mise-en-scene. Shapes are distorted and exaggerated unrealistically for expressive purposes. The expressionist movement died out by the late 1920s because the filmmakers began to imitate Hollywood products to compete.
   
   
5. French impressionism has an interest in giving narration considerable psychological depth. The interest thus falls not on external physical behavior but on the inner action of the characters. Surrealist cinema of the same period is overtly anti-narrative, attacking causality itself. Surrealist film sought to register the hidden currents of the unconscious. Impressionist films generally had rhythmic editing patterns that accelerated according to the tension of the scene.
   
   
6. The Soviet montage style approaches narrative film in unique ways. Character psychology is downplayed. Instead, social forces are the focus of the films. Characters in the films existed to show how social causes affected their lives. Early Soviet filmmakers believed that film only existed in constructed montages, not in individual shots.
   
   
7. Sound in film came about in the 1920s using a system that played records in synchronization with film images. Although it took several years to figure out the most effective way to use both image and sound together, the invention of sound led to the creation of the musical, which provided financial success for the film studio. Color film stocks became popular in the 1930s and provided many more possibilities for the medium.
   
   
8. Italian neorealist film came about in response to the economic, political, and cultural climates in Italy under the leadership of Mussolini. Neorealist films have loose plot structures and are shot on location. The quality of the photography resembles documentary style. Neorealism refuses to yield an omniscient knowledge of events, since reality is unknowable. Neorealist films often starred amateur actors and the movement went on to influence many third-world cinemas.
   
   
9. French new wave films rejected most existing film conventions. Characterized by their casual look, new wave films make use of a moving camera that follows the characters to trace out relations within a locale. The films also created loose causal connections, often lacked goal-oriented protagonists, and typically end ambiguously.
   
   
10. New Hollywood film is categorized by the lack of the studio systems which were obsolete by 1969. Stylistically, new Hollywood retains continuity editing, with clear signals for time shift and plot developments, although many directors prefer to experiment with more flamboyant styles. By the 1980s and 1990s, an independent film tradition sprung up in popularity.
    
    
11. Hong Kong cinema is best known for its production of kung-fu films, where Jackie Chan got his start. Although strictly kung-fu films faded in popularity, Chan and his colleagues realized that by incorporating kung-fu into Hollywood action-adventure films, a genre could be created that appealed to both Asian and American audiences.