Cinema Catala Hollywood Movie Review

Posts Tagged ‘comedy’

The early part of the 1930’s provided less in the way of Hollywood Movie Memories, and more in the way of memories of the Great Depression. In spite of the decades slow start, Hollywood would go on to have one of the most creatively and financially successful eras in motion picture history.

It was during the 1930’s that Hollywood film making really started to spread its wings. The use of sound in film production, both as background and dialogue, continued to advance. New sound techniques were created and mastered with several competing sound options now available. These sound advancements along with the ability to film in color immediately caused a revolution in motion picture production.

The color film process known as Technicolor became the most widely used in Hollywood right up through the early 1950’s. The Technicolor process produced super-realistic, dazzling color that was used with spectacular success in films such as The Adventures of Robin Hood, Singin’ In The Rain, The Wizard of Oz, and the animated Walt Disney classics Fantasia, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

The evolution of film genres began to expand and now included gangster films (including the first prison drama), musicals, westerns, screwball comedies, and monster movies.  In addition, socially conscious reality films, historical biography’s, and newspaper reporting style movies were now being made. Many of the classic silent films of the 1920’s were being remade with sound, and 1930’s film production now included something called ’sequels,’ and ’spin-offs’. There even existed a psychological approach to movie making that produced a large number of adventure and fantasy films to help take the viewers minds off the Great Depression.

The 1930’s also produced probably the largest number of movie firsts than any other decade.  A few of these would include little known prop man and B-actor John Wayne’s first starring role in a major motion picture (The Big Trail), the creation of the Motion Picture Production Code (setting film guidelines for violence, sex, crime and religion), The Hollywood Reporter (the first daily newspaper for the film industry), legendary child star Shirley Temple, Three Stooges comedy films, and the first drive-in theatre in Camden, New Jersey.

What started out as a luke-warm film decade suffering from declining attendance as a result of the Depression, finished on a sizzling note with what many consider to be the most Golden Film Year of all 1939.

The 1930’s truly were The Golden Age Of Hollywood. 

There is a famous saying that goes like this – “Movies are the reflection of a society”.This saying completely reflects the current situation of the Indian Film Industry, also known as ‘Bollywood’. Approximately 800 movies are produced by the Indian Film Industry, making it the largest film producing nation, leaving behind the likes of Hollywood. Talking about the Indian Film Industry, the fusion of numerous cultures and religion is clearly reflected in the movies produced over here. The industry that over the time span of 50 years has delivered masterpieces like Mehboob’s khan ‘Mother India’, Kaifi Azmi’s ‘Mughal-e-Azam, Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s ‘Parinda’ and more recently the likes of ‘Taare Zameen Par’ by Aamir khan and ‘MunnaBhai MBBS’ & ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’ by Rajkumar Hirani clearly proves that today Indian film industry is a reckoning force on the international film circuit. With new blood pouring in and the old stalwarts living up to their names, Bollywood over the past few years has undergone a radical transformation. That’s not all, directors like Sanjay Leela Bhansali (maker of critically acclaimed ‘Black’) and Sanjay Gupta (maker of ‘Kaante’ and ‘Zinda’) who is also known as the desi ‘Quentin Tarantino’, are making sure that they experiment with newer subjects and explore new genres. Even the likes of Imtiaz Ali (Jab We Met, Socha Naa tha), Abhishek Kapoor (Rock On!) and not to forget Farhan Akhtar who has the likes ‘Dil Chahta Hai’, ‘Lakshya’ and ‘Don’, has simply proved to be awesome when it comes to film making. As far as comedy movies are concerned, Rohit Shetty, the brain behind the ‘Golmaal’ and ‘Sunday’ has redefined the genre of comedy films. When comedy films are being considered, who can afford to overlook the contribution of Priyadarshan to Bollywood, who is rated as one of the finest comedy filmmaker. ‘Hera Pheri’, ‘Garam Masala’, ‘Bhagam Bhag’ and more recently ‘Dhol’ are some of the incredible examples of his ability to churn out hit comedy blockbusters every time he goes behind the camera. This was just a glimpse of the rich past of the Indian film industry. The bright future is yet to hit the screens in the late 2008. With Aamir Khan’s ‘Ghajini’ and Shahrukh Khan’s ‘Rab ne bana di jodi (which also marks the return of Aditya Chopra into the main stream commercial cinema after the hiatus of nine years), clash of titans is guaranteed on the silver screen. If that was about the Bollywood movies, then even Hollywood is not far behind. The latest Hollywood movies being ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘Wanted’ doing reasonably well on the International film circuit, Hollywood has retained its position of producing the sizzling blockbusters every time. Not only that things are looking exceedingly promising for Hollywood, with ‘Quantum of Solace’ (James Bond’s 22nd film) set to hit the screens in first week of November, 2008, Hollywood film makers have every reason to smile.