The Classical Hollywood Cinema

'A dense, challenging and important book.' Philip French Observer'At the very least, this blockbuster is probably the best single volume history of Hollywood we're likely to get for a very long time.' Paul Kerr City Limits'Persuasively argued, the book is also packed with facts, figures and photographs.' Nigel Andrews Financial TimesAcclaimed for their breakthrough approach, Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson analyze the basic conditions of American film-making as a historical institution and consider to what extent Hollywood film production constitutes a systematic enterprise, in both its style and its business operations.Despite differences of director, genre or studio, most Hollywood films operate within a set of shared assumptions about how a film should look and sound. Such assumptions are neither natural nor inevitable, but because classical-style films have been the type most widely seen, they have come to be accepted as the 'norm' of film-making and viewing.The authors show how...