The central goal of this thesis is to resituate the development of film noir within the context of the Hollywood studio system that created it. I argue that under the ‘factory’ conditions of the studio’s working environment, a distaste fermented from the screenwriter class that burrowed in the pulp fiction, particularly hard-boiled mystery fiction, of the era. This strain of literature was eventually coupled with the panache of Hollywood style to form a filmic style which was noteworthy for its ability to use Hollywood stylistics to screen a vision of life that was antithetical to that which the studio system wanted to offer to the mass public. I have also attempted to situate the original and most crystallized noir moment in the mid-1940s as part of the continuum of American cinema where the stylistic traces of noir were present prior to that period, and certainly after, but never more coherently than at that moment in the 1940s. I have assembled sources ranging from published interview collections, memoirs, biographies, film criticism and archival collections to develop my argument about the literary, filmic and cultural evolution of film noir in Hollywood.

No description available.

The central goal of this thesis is to resituate the development of film noir within the context of the Hollywood studio system that created it. I argue that under the ‘factory’ conditions of the studio’s working environment, a distaste fermented from the screenwriter class that burrowed in the pulp fiction, particularly hard-boiled mystery fiction, of the era. This strain of literature was eventually coupled with the panache of Hollywood style to form a filmic style which was noteworthy for its ability to use Hollywood stylistics to screen a vision of life that was antithetical to that which the studio system wanted to offer to the mass public. I have also attempted to situate the original and most crystallized noir moment in the mid-1940s as part of the continuum of American cinema where the stylistic traces of noir were present prior to that period, and certainly after, but never more coherently than at that moment in the 1940s. I have assembled sources ranging from published interview collections, memoirs, biographies, film criticism and archival collections to develop my argument about the literary, filmic and cultural evolution of film noir in Hollywood.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The auteur theory argues for the possibility that films produced within the highly regimented American studio system of the 1930's and 40's could be considered art, and their makers, auteurs (authors). This new theory, that both argued for the presence of a singular guiding intentionality behind a film, and for the critical canonization of films made in classic Hollywood changed the critical imagination of future film scholars. When Thomas Schatz took on the theory in his book, The Genius of the System, he argued that the collaborative nature of filmmaking in general and Hollywood filmmaking in particular complicated the existing theory, at least as it had been interpreted in America. Schatz's exhaustive study seeks to account for the masterworks of classical Hollywood through a systematic examination of the studio system, which he believed played a fundamental role in the films' success. While Schatz rails against some of the tenets of the auteur theory he simultaneously co-opts its critical system, and seems to make the argument for the studio as auteur. The idea that popular narrative entertainment produced within a highly regimented system can be taken as serious achievement, and that the large organization behind it can act as auteur, leads to the implied conclusion that a television network can function as an auteur as well. The television network is built on a studio-based production system much like classic Hollywood, and its directors of original programming provide the same guiding intentionality as the studio production chiefs of the past. To provide this hypothesis two case studies are performed on television networks, its products and its personnel. Section one discusses HBO as a prime example of a television auteur as its original programs are distinct and seem endemic to the networks overall style of presentation. Section two discusses FX as an example of a cable competitor who employs some of the same strategies as HBO, but with different programming executive who inflect the series with a distinct coherency and style of its own. / 2031-01-02

My central argument is that mainstream British cinema of the 1951 – 1965 period marked the end of the paternalism, as exemplified by a professional ‘officer class’, as consumerism gradually came to be perceived as the norm as opposed to a post-war enemy. The starting point is 1951, the year of the Conservative victory in the General Election and a time which most films were still locally funded. The closing point is 1965, by which point the vast majority of British films were funded by the USA and often featured a youthful and proudly affluent hero. Thus, this fourteen year describes how British cinema moved away from the People as Hero guided by middle class professionals in the face of consumerism. Over the course of this work, I will analyse the creation of the archetypes of post-war films and detail how the impact of consumerism and increased Hollywood involvement in the UK film industry affected their personae. However, parallel with this apparently linear process were those films that questioned or attacked the wartime consensus model. As memories of the war receded, and the Rank/ABPC studio model collapsed, there was an increasing sense of deracination across a variety of popular British cinematic genres. From the beginning of our period there is a number films that infer that the “Myth of the Blitz”, as developed in a cinematic sense, was just that and our period ends with films that convey a sense of a fragmenting society.

No description available.