Denzel Washington in Malcolm X (1992).David Lee/Warner Brothers, Inc.
Another significant development in late 20th-century American cinema was the emergence of a self-designated independent film movement. Its origins perhaps lay in the perceived diminution of opportunities for personal filmmaking in the post-1970s commercial industry. To take up the slack, organizations such as the Independent Feature Project and the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, were founded to encourage and promote independent work. A major breakthrough was achieved when an American independent film, sex, lies and videotape (1989), the first feature by Steven Soderbergh, won the top prize at the Cannes festival in France. (Soderbergh went on, like Spike Lee and others, to work on both independent and mainstream projects; he won an Academy Award as best director for Traffic [2000].) In the 1990s independent directors began to develop projects that were closer in style to popular Hollywood genres such as the gangster film and post-World War II film noir. These proved exceedingly popular with Cannes festival juries, who awarded their top prize to David Lynch’s Wild at Heart in 1990, Barton Fink by the Coen brothers in 1991, and Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in 1994. Tarantino’s other films include Reservoir Dogs (1992), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bilclass="underline" Vol. 1 (2003), and Kill Bilclass="underline" Vol. 2 (2004). Among the Coen brothers’ works were Miller’s Crossing (1990), Fargo (1995), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), and No Country for Old Men (2007; Academy Award for best picture).
Beyond this genre orientation, which cemented the popularity of independent films for many in the mainstream audience, the independent movement fostered what came to be called niche filmmaking, which generated works growing out of ethnic and identity movements in contemporary American culture. Among these were films by African American, Native American, and Chicano and Chicana filmmakers, as well as works representing feminist and gay and lesbian cultural viewpoints and experience. Documentary filmmaking from these and other perspectives also thrived in the independent world. Independent nonfiction films of significance included Errol Morris’s The Thin Blue Line (1988), an exploration of a miscarriage of justice in a Dallas murder case; Hoop Dreams (1994), by Steve James, Frederick Marx, and Peter Gilbert, concerning the struggles of two young African American basketball hopefuls in Chicago; Crumb (1994), Terry Zwigoff’s portrait of the underground comic book artist Robert Crumb; and Buena Vista Social Club (1999), Wim Wenders and Ry Cooder’s rediscovery of old-time popular Cuban musicians. Robert Sklar
Citation Information
Article Title: History of the motion picture
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 08 January 2019
URL: https://www.britannica.com/art/history-of-the-motion-picture
Access Date: August 23, 2019
Additional Reading General histories
The history of motion pictures is discussed generally in Arthur Knight, The Liveliest Art: A Panoramic History of the Movies, rev. ed. (1979), an influential history; Louis Giannetti and Scott Eyman, Flashback: A Brief History of Film, 4th ed. (2001), a concise overview with an emphasis on American film; Robert Sklar, A World History of Film (2002), a comprehensive survey that examines principal films, directors, and national cinemas; Paul Rotha, with Richard Griffith, The Film till Now, new ed. (1967), a substantial history, though now dimmed by age and a lack of critical perspective; Pierre Leprohon, Histoire du cinéma, 2 vol. (1961–63), a useful reference work of names, dates, titles, and events; Gerald Mast, A Short History of the Movies, 4th ed. (1986); David A. Cook, A History of Narrative Film (1981), a wide-ranging historical survey of international film; Eric Rhode, A History of the Cinema from Its Origins to 1970 (1976, reprinted 1985), an international critical history providing detailed though opinionated coverage; Kenneth Macgowan, Behind the Screen: The History and Techniques of the Motion Picture (1965), a dated but still valuable history by an industry insider; and Ephraim Katz, The Film Encyclopedia, 4th ed. (2001), an informative reference source. Perhaps the most exhaustive study of American film history is Charles Harpole (ed.), History of the American Cinema (1990– ). Historical studies of specific periods
Early developments are studied in Terry Ramsaye, A Million and One Nights: A History of the Motion Picture, 2 vol. (1926, reissued in 1 vol., 1986), a romantic account covering the period to 1925, with emphasis on American film between 1890 and 1915; Michael Chanan, The Dream That Kicks: The Prehistory and Early Years of Cinema in Britain (1980), an extraordinary study of the cultural and ideological “site” of cinema at the moment of its birth; Kevin Brownlow, Hollywood, the Pioneers (1979), a systematic treatment of the subject through the 1920s, copiously illustrated by John Kobal; John Fell (ed.), Film Before Griffith (1983); and Lary May, Screening Out the Past: The Birth of Mass Culture and the Motion Picture Industry (1980, reprinted 1983).
Further developments are presented in Georges Sadoul, Histoire générale du cinéma, 6 vol. in varied editions (1973–75), a detailed study of the epoch of silent film; Kevin Brownlow, The Parade’s Gone By (1968), a well-illustrated study of American silent films and stars, based on interviews with survivors; John Kobal, Hollywood: The Years of Innocence (1985), a pictorial work on the period; William K. Everson, American Silent Film (1978, reissued 1998); Graham Petrie, Hollywood Destinies: European Directors in America, 1922–1931 (1985); and Benjamin B. Hampton, A History of the Movies (1931, reissued as History of the American Film Industry from Its Beginnings to 1931, 1970). An excellent, well-researched account of the coming of sound is found in Alexander Walker, The Shattered Silents: How the Talkies Came to Stay (1978, reissued 1986). See also Evan William Cameron (ed.), Sound and the Cinema: The Coming of Sound to American Film (1980), an anthology of scholarly essays and reminiscences; Leonard Quart and Albert Auster, American Films and Society Since 1945 (1984), a brief, penetrating study; and William Luhr (ed.), World Cinema Since 1945 (1987). Historical and critical studies of national film movements
British filmmaking is the subject of Roy Armes, A Critical History of the British Cinema (1978); Rachael Low, The History of the British Film, 7 vol. (1948–79), a detailed study of the silent film; Ernest Betts, The Film Business: A History of British Cinema, 1896–1972 (1973), a standard, compact history; Alexander Walker, Hollywood UK: The British Film Industry in the Sixties (1974; also published as Hollywood, England, 1974, reprinted 1986); George Perry, The Great British Picture Show, rev. ed. (1985), a popular concise history; and Sarah Street, British National Cinema (1997).