Running Time:
145 minutes (5 programs 29 minutes each)
Captions:
Closed Captions
AVP Release Date:
October 2013
Producer:
Centre Communications /Ambrose Video Publishing, Inc.
21st Century Hollywood is still the Mecca for filmmaking. The studios are still here. The glitz and the glamour are still here. But it is the genius of the American cinema, which has evolved with the times, that has made Hollywood great today. This five part series The Great Directors: The Making of 21st Century Hollywood features the directors that are making the mega-franchise blockbusters bankrolling the whole system; the directors of the small indie films winning Oscars; the directors behind the second Golden age of animation; the directors who have brought feature-length documentaries to the big screen; and the plethora of foreign directors that Hollywood has welcomed with open arms from all over the world. Host and veteran actor Erick Avari showcases the great directors that have led the way to the supercharged Hollywood of the 21st Century.
On camera experts/Professors of Film: Professor Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz, PhD,Professor and Chair of Film Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder; Saul Austerlitz, Film Critic; Professor Maria Elena de las Carreras, PhD; Professor of Cinema, California State University, Northridge; Professor Dawn Fratini, Film Historian; Lawrence and Kristina Dodge, College of Film and Media Arts, Chapman University; Professor Annette Insdorf, PhD, Professor in the Graduate Film Program of Columbia University's School of the Arts and Director of Undergraduate Film Studies; Professor Jonathan Kuntz, PhD, Professor of American Film History, Univ. of California, Los Angeles; Professor Jon Lewis, PhD, Professor of Film and Cultural Studies in Oregon State University's School of Writing, Literature and Film; Professor Howie Movshovitz, Teacher of Film Studies, University of Colorado, Denver; Professor Richard Peña, Professor of Film Studies, Columbia University; Professor Jennifer Lynn Peterson, PhD, Professor of Film Studies, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder; Professor Dana Polan, PhD, Professor of Cinema Studies, NY University.
UPC: 739815 00537 4
Extras:
Closed Captioned
Shot in High-Definition
Educator's Guide
Timeline
List of Best Director Oscars
List of Best Picture Oscars, Filmography
- Program 1: The Summer Blockbuster
Running Time: 29 minutes
In the 1970s Hollywood escaped slow financial ruin with the emergence of the summer Blockbuster from the genius of such directors as Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Program one shows how this idea not only redefined the business of Hollywood, but led to one of Hollywood's greatest financial marvels - the franchise.
Chapters:
The Tent Pole
1972 - Francis Ford Coppola Redefines Hollywood
1975 - Steven Spielberg Launches the Summer Blockbuster
1977 - George Lucas Establishes 'The Franchise'
2012 - The Franchise Event Film
- Program 2: The Independent Auteur
Running Time: 29 minutes
While one half of Hollywood is the big budget action film, the other half is the socially and psychologically conscious Indie. From John Cassavetes to the Coen brothers, program two focuses on the independent auteur, the director as author of the "literature" of modern times.
Chapters:
The Auteur Theory
1959 - John Cassavetes, Father of Independent American Cinema
1968 - Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey
1970 - Robert Altman's MASH Satirizes War
1977 - Woody Allen Makes Annie Hall
1994 - Quentin Tarantino Romanticizes Violence with Pulp Fiction
2007 - The Coen Brothers, Masters of Genre Bending
- Program 3: Immigrant Filmakers
Running Time: 29 minutes
Hollywood has always attracted foreign directors with unique outsider perspective and filmmaking traditions, including film masters such as Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock and Ang Lee. Program three presents the impact of immigrant directors not only on American cinema, but their judgment and portrayal of the American story.
Chapters:
The Outsider's Perspective
1942 - Ernst Lubitsch, Master of Innuendo
1944 - Otto Preminger Brings the Dark Shadows of Europe to Hollywood
1954 - Elia Kazan Redefines Acting
1958 - Alfred Hitchcock, Master of Suspense
2013 - Ang Lee Wins Oscar for Best Director
- Program 4: Documentary and Experimental Film
Running Time: 29 minutes
Program four centers on how, beginning in the 30s, directors made documentaries capturing exotic places, animals and people that blossomed into the megahit documentary features of the 21st Century, grossing hundreds of millions of dollars.
Chapters:
The Documentary
1922 - Robert J. Flaherty, Father of Documentary Film
1943 - Maya Deren and Stan Brakhage Set the Standard for Experimental Film
1967 - D.A. Pennebaker Develops Direct Cinema
1988 - Errol Morris, The Thin Blue Line
1990 - The Ken Burns Style
- Program 5: Animation
Running Time: 29 minutes
Animation is as old as Hollywood itself. Program five traces the evolution of animation from the director of the first animation short, Winsor McCay, to the first animated feature, Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, to the second Golden age of animation led by CGI megahits from studios such as Pixar with its lead director, John Lasseter.
Chapters:
A New Golden Age of Animation
1914 - Winsor McCay's Gertie the Dinosaur
1937 - Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1953 - Chuck Jones' Surreal Duck Amuck
2013 - Pixar Animation Studios' Brave Wins an Oscar
Clip Length: 1 minutes 58 seconds
Reviews:
"Also newly available at the same price is the five-volume companion set The Great Directors: The Making of 21st Century Hollywood. Recommended. "
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