Understanding the Classic Hollywood Style

Classic Hollywood Style is the term used in the film history. According to Wikipedia, Classical style is fundamentally built on the principle of continuity editing or "invisible" style. That is, the camera and the sound recording should never call attention to themselves (as they might in films from earlier periods, other countries or in a modernist or postmodernist work).

I think, it is a style in a cinema . It follows a set of rules on how films are supposed to be put together. These rules are unspoken; they are just basic common knowledge to the film creators and expected from the film viewers. In the video that I have watched, there are different films that was shown. There are films that no sound, but if you watch it on a movie house or something, there is someone who is playing an instrumental music and the other one is comedy which is even there is no verbal interaction, you will understand easily

The style of classical Hollywood style, as elaborated by David Bordwell, has been heavily influenced by the ideas of the Renaissance and its resurgence of mankind as the focal point.

Thus, classical narration progresses always through psychological motivation, by the will of a human character and its struggle with obstacles towards a defined goal. The aspects of space and time are subordinated to the narrative element which is usually composed of two lines of action: A romance intertwined with a more generic one such as business or, in the case of Alfred Hitchcock films, solving a crime.

Time in classical Hollywood is continuous, since non-linearity calls attention to the illusory workings of the medium. The only permissible manipulation of time in this format is the flashback. It is mostly used to introduce a memory sequence of a character.

The Classic Hollywood  Style is formulatic. It doesn't matter who the star is, who the director is, or who the writer is. Most mainstream films you see will have this lay out. Even though this may be the first time you have heard it called by name, you expect to see it in the theaters. It has been around since the birth of cinema, and it will most likely exist far into the future. 

Mood of Pessimism, Fatalism and Menace

FILM NOIR

Film noir refers to a to a series of downbeat, gritty crime and action movies made in the 1940s and 1950s. This film uses a shadowy, moody visual style that was inspired by European movies of the 1920s. According to Corin, a filmmaker and film critic, film noir are tales of survival. The film noir style also have the "femme fatale." Voluptuous, scheming, and usually smarter than the male characters of film noir,these bad girls became an icon of the genre. Many a film noir plot hinges on the actions of a double-dealing, razor-sharp female character.

            The term "film noir" was invented by a French film critic. In their time, these distinctive movies were just considered thrillers, suspense pictures, or crime melodramas. By the end of the 1940s, this eerie style was the standard for Hollywood's depictions of the world of criminals, cops, and private eyes.

            The setting of film noir is somewhat large and oppressive city , it is filmed in dark and dusky conditions to create a moody atmosphere. The common subjects of noir films include murder investigations, heists, con games, and mostly innocent men or women wrongly accused of crime.

The film noir style also enabled Hollywood filmmakers to tackle tough subjects, such as corruption, addiction, and moral decay. Hollywood movies were required, by the Production Code, to punish wrong-doers and praise lawmen. The film noir style hid, in its shadows, a world that wasn't about good and evil. Its heroes are often fallen from grace, and its villains often have a seductive appeal. Good guys can go bad, and bad guys can develop a conscience in the world of film noir. You might say film noir is in the eye of the beholder, but some things, at least from my perspective, are essential. Foremost, a noir is black and white. This goes to the heart of the genre.  That may seem obvious but there have been a number of films made in color, which have tried to emulate noir style.

The Directors who made the Blockbuster

Unique Human Drama: HARMONY

My favorite film is “Harmony”, it is an inspirational Korean movie. The film’s positive message certainly rang true with audiences. It’s actually my favorite film since 2010, it made me cry and breaks my heart. It’s very inspirational movie because it is a good film which wears its heart on its sleeve.

The story is about female characters who have justified reasons for their crimes like brutish spouses, sexually abusive stepfathers, love rivals killed in fits of passion, and even a wrestler who accidentally broke the neck of her cheating manager with a headlock.  Kim Yoon Jin stars as Jeong Hye, a woman who lands a ten year stretch in jail after killing her violent husband. With behind bars, she gives birth to a son, who gives her and her cellmates with a reason to smile and believe in the future. Knowing that the child will soon be given up for adoption, Jeong Hye persuades the warden to let the inmates start their own prison choir, mainly as a means of trying to get a day out. Despite her being quite unable to carry a tune herself, the choir is surprisingly successful, and gives the women a lift in their various personal struggles. Heartbroken after having to say goodbye to her boy, Jeong Hye perseveres with her singing, hoping to be allowed to enter in a national competition.

 The film also shows a singing contest. This works well and helps the movie more interesting. At this point, the singing itself takes centre stage with some impressive musical sequences after the choir having been humorously bad for much of the first hour or so. This really gives the film a lift, and its hard not to get caught up in the women’s’ efforts to prove their worth to the outside world as well as to themselves. Actually, the dancing prisons here in the Philippines was shown and it inspired the characters in the film.

The film’s difference from others, it’s not a happy ending but still it was engaging through to the end. It also manages to hit all of its emotional notes on its uplifting journey. The theme of the story is somewhat redemption and forgiveness, it manages to balance the soul searching among the tears and hugs. There is no particularly cheap twists or some manipulaton, the film is moving in an honest fashion. And though it offers a few surprises and does teeter on the verge of being far too nice, with its oddly pleasant jail environment, it certainly succeeds in its aim of being entertaining and moving.