Casablanca available on archive.org
The product of the studio-system (Warner Brothers), Casablanca is proof that great cinema need not always be the work of an "auteur"
It can be the collaborative effort of workmanlike professionals!
archive.org/details/Casabl…
The product of the studio-system (Warner Brothers), Casablanca is proof that great cinema need not always be the work of an "auteur"
It can be the collaborative effort of workmanlike professionals!
archive.org/details/Casabl…
The studio system of Old Hollywood is often disparaged for its assembly-line approach to film-making, its "hired" directors and script-writers, its extreme censorship and lack of freedom afforded to the artists
Yet that confined, hyper-commercial system produced great art
Yet that confined, hyper-commercial system produced great art
The likes of Ford, HItchcock, Hawks, Wilder, Wyler, Cukor, Stevens, Curtiz were all products of the studio system
Some of the directors like Michael Curtiz (director of Casablanca) had no pretensions of being artists! But proud "studio" employees (in Curtiz's case Warner Bros)
Some of the directors like Michael Curtiz (director of Casablanca) had no pretensions of being artists! But proud "studio" employees (in Curtiz's case Warner Bros)
They worked with the scripts provided to them by the studios. And engaged on projects which weren't their "creation"
Yet this workmanlike philosophy produced masterpieces like Casablanca - a movie that I marvel for its "tautness" and brevity everytime I see it
Yet this workmanlike philosophy produced masterpieces like Casablanca - a movie that I marvel for its "tautness" and brevity everytime I see it
Today, we like to regard "commerce" as the enemy of art
How can businessmen understand art? Let alone produce it?
We also champion artistic freedom and oppose censorship
Yet it was Orson Welles who once famously said -
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art"
How can businessmen understand art? Let alone produce it?
We also champion artistic freedom and oppose censorship
Yet it was Orson Welles who once famously said -
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art"
Back in the 1930s / 40s, you could not even show a husband and wife sitting on the same bed! The F-word was not used in Hollywood right up to 1971
Yet in that highly constrained setup you had great films produced with remarkable regularity
Films that were wholesome yet profound
Yet in that highly constrained setup you had great films produced with remarkable regularity
Films that were wholesome yet profound
Today we offer filmmakers a great deal of latitude. But this freedom makes them less creative, less subtle.
They make the same points more coarsely instead of using subtle devices that they would doubtless have employed had they operated in the 1940s
They make the same points more coarsely instead of using subtle devices that they would doubtless have employed had they operated in the 1940s
