Homework questions

1. How did the Paramount decision of 1948 change the U.S. film industry? To what degree did the decision alter the way the industry did business?

2. How did changes in postwar American lifestyles affect the domestic film market? Amidst a climate of more selective moviegoers, what type of film was judged to be capable of attracting audiences? How did the Hollywood Majors exploit technological advances to produce this type of film?

3. Identify the major segments of the U.S. filmgoing audience targeted by producers in the 1950s. What kinds of films were produced for each of these segments?

4. What factors lay behind the “upscaling” of Hollywood film genres during the 1950s? Identify the significant genres of the postwar period, and explain how each was affected by enhanced production values and increased thematic complexity.

5. Pick two of the following directors: Max Ophüls, Jean Renoir, Jean Cocteau. What were the particularly important or influential qualities of these directors’ postwar French films? In what ways did each director use visual style to complement his characteristic thematic or narrative concerns?

6. Why did the United States, as represented by SCAP (Supreme Commander of the Armed Powers), take a keen interest in the postwar Japanese film industry? What steps did SCAP take to help rebuild the Japanese studio system? In what ways did SCAP both assist and hinder the efforts of the major postwar Japanese directors?

7. In what ways did film production in the Soviet bloc nations adhere to and depart from the Soviet industry structure and the Socialist Realist aesthetic? Specifically, how did “de-Stalinization” affect film practice?

8. What were the essential traits of the postwar Hindi film? Identify its conventions using the films discussed in the text as examples.