Hello everyone and welcome to our video series, "A Timeline of World Cinema"
I'm Bradley Weatherholt and I will be your host on this journey through the history of film.
In this episode we will discuss the rise of the studio system. But, in order to understand
the studio system we must first understand what the studio system was a response to.
In 1908 French mega studio, Pathe, had completely controlled the international market.
With a discontented ego, Thomas Edison sought to combat this competition by establishing
the Motion Pictures Patent Company, or simply referred to as "The Trust."
"The Trust" aimed for complete control over the industry. Emphasizing patent rights,
"The Trust" standarized the price per foot and also scheduled the release of films.
As a way around "The Trust", foreign studios began to "roadshow" features across the nation.
Noticing the attraction of these "roadshow" foreign films, a new different type of producer
began to arise. These producers where referred to as the "Independents."
These independent producers, such as William Fox, began to exhibit their films to much
success. Of these independent producers none rose more highly than Adolf Zukor.
Adolf Zukor is likely the most influential film producer of all time. With his studio,
Paramount, he managed to do what Thomas Edison and "The Trust" could not. He gained complete
control over production, distribution, and exhibition of films.
Zukor's success can be attributed to a few factors. First, he fully took advantage of
an industrialized factory system of production. Also, Zukor was the first to appeal to Wall
Street for financial backing.
Attracting investors, the mogul had enough capital to vertically integrate the business.
Purchasing theaters and exhibition venues across the nation.
Zukor looked overseas for profits and with political support of Will Hays and others
he lobbied for open international markets.
However, Zukor not only possessed a business savvy he had a deep understanding of the public.
Centering his promotion on his studio's stars, Zukor influenced the public to idolize the
stars that were contractually obligated to participate in his films.
Zukors mastery of the business of film, his political support, and his perfection of the
Hollywood "Star System" ultimately explains why he became one of the most defining figures
in early cinema.
Now it's really difficult to overstate the importance of theater ownership at this time.
Massive, elaborate theaters found ways to attract new cinema goers.
Going to the movies very much became it's own social movement and the quality of the
experience not only depended on the quality of film, but the quality of the cinema.
Looking to expand overseas, the independent studios employed government official
Will Hays to lobby and convince Washington to pressure foreign markets
into opening up for the American cinema.
Hays liked to explain America's victory over international markets by bringing up America's
multiculturalism and democratic message.
This reasoning is at best questionable. The real reason for American success could be
explained by political and global factors around the time.
In the summer of 1914, three major events happened. The Panama canal opens, Arch Duke
Ferdinand was assassinated, and production began on "The Birth of a Nation."
All three of these events explain America's rise to power. The opening of the Panama canal
illustrates a reality of the time, America was in perfect economic condition.
With control over the world largest domestic market and trade way, Hollywood employed all
the modern methods of business to rule out competition.
Not having to spend money of tariffs or oversea taxes, American production companies could
focus all of their money on increasing production value and making more competitive films.
"The Birth of a Nation" is a perfect example of this.
And finally with the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand, Europe entered World War I. A conflict
that completely severed a unified European film movement.
Seizing this opportunity, Americans began to establish production hubs in these European
countries.
Americans studios knew that the same "Star System" that worked for American audiences
would also work for European audiences. However, some of these stars began to rebel.
In 1919, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D.W. Griffith established
United Artists. A studio with declared independence from "The Independents." The irony here is
hard to miss.
But despite the success of now classics like "The Gold Rush" and "The Thief of Bagdad",
United Artists had to eventually comply with the studio system since it could not keep
up with the rate of production of the capital rich studios.
However, United Artists wasn't the only opposition. Overseas the opposition was even stronger.
Like America, Germany saw the economic and political potential of this new entertainment.
However, German opposition was cut short when major German studio, UFA, went bankrupt.
Ironically it was the Americans who bailed them out.
Most countries defended against what they saw as a rise in American imperialism.
Perhaps the most vocal of this opposition came from the USSR.
The Soviets would release a knock-off, cheap version of an American movie, perhaps with
the same title or similar title, a day or a week before the American movie came out
to detract audiences from going to the American film.
More than just economic competitors, the Soviets sought to define their own style of cinema
against the American way.
The Russian acting theorist, Constantin Stanislavski, formulated the influential method, where actors
internalize their performances. Focusing on motivations and objectives.
On the editing front, the Soviets developed the theory of montage. In a series of famous
experiments, Lev Kuleshov, illustrated that the meaning of a montage sequence is not determined
by the content of the montage elements, but by their juxtaposition.
Here to put this in simpler terms is Alfred Hitchcock.
"We have a close up, then we show what he sees. Let's assume he saw a woman, holding
a baby in her arms.
Now we cut back to his reaction of what he sees, and he smiles. Now what is he as a character?
He's a kindly man, he's sympathetic.
Now let's take the middle piece of film away, the woman with the child, but leave his two
pieces of film as they were.
Now we'll put in a piece of film of a girl in a bikini.
He looks, a girl in a bikini, he smiles. What is he now? A dirty old man!"
To get a firm understanding of Russian filmmaking at this time, it's best to look at the quintessential
Russian film, Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin."
Directed by Sergei Eisenstein, "Battleship Potemkin" is regarded as one of the best films
of all time. The film dramatizes the crew from the "Battleship Potemkin" and its rebellion
against the Czarist officers.
The film demonizes the Czarist regime and glorifies the plight of pre-Soviet Bolsheviks.
In the famous Odessa steps sequence, Eisenstein employes every experiment of montage theory
to render an emotional response from the viewer.
Violent by even today's standard, the sequence highlights the massacre of the Bolsheviks
under the hands of the oppressive Czarist soldiers.
The film's powerful effect caused the Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, to endorse
the film. Stating it was, and I quote, "A marvelous film without equal. Anyone with
no firm political convention could become a Bolshevik after seeing the film."
The film not only influenced political leaders and propagandists, it influenced the work
of famous filmmakers, such as Terry Gilliam in "Brazil", Coppola in "The Godfather", and
De Palma in "The Untouchables."
Because of its influence on the history of film and the entire 20th century,
"Battleship Potemkin" is easily one of the best films ever made.
Although highly regarded, the Russian theory of montage was more admired than it was imitated.
The only true system that was emulated around the world was the Hollywood "Classical System."
Through Hollywood's easy to mimic and comprehensive editing style, as well as its exploitation
of the "Star System," the American studio system rose to complete power. Ushering into
what we now call, The Golden Age of Hollywood,
but more on this in the next episode.