Cinema Art

Also known as movies, film or motion picture, the cinema is one of the most popular forms of art and entertainment throughout the world. It is also a major source of information.

Every week, millions of people go to the cinema. Many mil lions more watch movies that are broadcast on television or are played back on a videotape recorder.

But cinema is much more than just entertainment. The cinema is a major art form, as are, for example, painting and drama. Artists express themselves by using paint and dramatists by using words. Filmmakers express their ideas through a camera.

The cinema has a brief history, compared to such art forms as music and painting. Cinema dates back only to the late 1800's. It was then that developments in science helped to stimulate a series of inventions that led to projected motion pictures. These inventions laid the foundation for a new art and for a new industry. The Lumiere brothers held a public screening of projected motion pictures on December 28,1895 , in a Paris cafe. Film screening soon became a popular entertainment. Films were made without recorded synchronized sound. However, exhibitors sometimes accompanied the images with music or lectures, or even used off-screen live actors to provide dialogue. Later, printed titles were inserted within the films. This permitted the international evaluation of films, because translated titles could easily replace the originals.

The first sound film to create a sensation was «The Jazz Singen » (1927), the USA . Although silent for much of its length,

in a few scenes the popular American entertainer Al Jolson sang and spoke. The coming of sound marked a turning point in cinema history. Some historians claim that sound was actually a setback for the artistic development of cinema.

By 1931, one of Germany's major silent film directors, Fritz Lang, had made «M», a sound film that remains a masterpiece of cinema. In 1928, Walt Disney issued «Steamboat Willie», the first animated short film to use synchronized sound. The first Russian sound film was «A Start in Life» (1931).

In 1930's an important new genre came to the cinema, the musical film. Such musicald as «Cheerful Lads», the USSR, portrayed a spirit of cooperation and optimism intended to combat the economic difficulties.

By the mid - 1930 's many film companies began to prosper. They launched what many consider one of the greatest periods of popular entertainment filmmaking. During the middle and late 1930's, both Hollywood and Mosfilm produced major hits in nearly all the familiar genres. The sound comedy emerged as a leading film style. The horror films in the US gained new prominence. Among the comedy films of the 1930's «It Happened One Night», the US, and «Volga-Volga», the SU, seem to be the most noted. « Volga-Volga» was directed by Grigory Alexandrov and starred Lyubov Orlova.

The leading film-producing nations of Europe during the silent era, Germany and the Soviet Union, were displaced during the first decade of sound films by Great Britain and France. Alfred Hitchcock led the emergence of British cinema. Hitchcock directed a number of internationally successful thrillers, including «The Thirty-Nine Steps» and «The Lady Vanishes».

In France, Jean Renoir made a series of films during the 1930's that shrewdly observed social attitudes of the time, notably «Grand Illusion» and «Rules of the Game».

The rise of dictatorships in Germany and the Soviet Union hampered filmmaking in those countries during the late 1930's. After Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany, a number of German filmmakers went into exile. America's prewar period closed triumphantly with the celebrated «Gone with the Wind» (1939), a Civil War drama directed by Victor Fleming and starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. The film's brilliant photog­raphy helped to make it one of the most honored films in cinema history.

The role of cinema in education and propaganda was far more appreciated during World War II. Fiction films like «At 6 p. m. after the War» showed the war struggle using the traditional screen narrative devices of a love story and individual heroism.

Some film directors such as Mikhail Romm, produced important documentary films about the war. Romm's "The Simple Fascism" explained the causes of the war and Soviet war aims.

The impact of the war led many European directors to make films that focused on society and its problems. This impulse resulted in the emergence of the first important postwar Euro­pean film movement, neorealism.

Neorealist directions were concerned primarily with portraying the daily life of ordinary people. They mainly filmed on location rather than on a studio set, and they used mostly non-professional actors and actresses. These qualities gave neorealist films a gritty, almost documentary look. Probably the most famous of the neorealist films was «The Bicycle Thieves», directed by Vittorio de Sica. It follows a working man and his young son as they search for a stolen bicycle. The Italian government regarded the treatment of social problems in this film as harmful to the country's image internationally and even passed a law hampering its export.

During the 1960's, the Eastern European films made their mark on the world screen. Polish director Roman Polanski's «Knife in the Water» was the major international success from Eastern Europe. Czechoslavak cinema soon captured worldwide attention with a series of comic films that criticized social and political conditions. Forman, who directed those series, won the 1975 Academy Award as best director for «One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest». Many other American films are also worth mentioning. «The Godfather», directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is based on a best-selling novel about organized crime. «The Godfather» earned more than $86 million in base-office rentals, making it the most commercially successful film yet produced. «Star Wars» is significant for another reason. It was the first of many highly popular new films to come from Holly­wood's own adventure, military, and science-fiction genres instead of a bestselling book.

During the 1980's, cinema continued to be pulled between the two poles that have influenced their development throughout the century; the small-budget art film and the big-budget, mass-audience movie. New means of distribution -particularly cable TV and videocassettes - have helped to foster film­making throughout the world.

The first film festival was held in Venice , Italy , in 1932. Today, there are more than 100 festivals every year. The largest and probably best-known festival is held in Cannes , France . Other important festivals take place in Venice, Berlin, London, Moscow, New York City, and San Sebastian, Spain.

The best-known movie awards are made each spring by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. These awards, called the Academy Awards, or Oscars, are presented for outstanding achievements in filmmaking during the preceding year.

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