THE CINEMA HAS been called a bastard art or a super art, and in many ways, it is both. Hollywood movies-and other English-language films-surround us so ubiquitously, we often forget the great collaborative art form hidden inside the show biz.
But these days, with the advent of home video and cable TV, it’s easier to study that form -and all its components. Just as movies make use of almost all the other arts -literature, theater, music, the visual arts -they’re made by communities of artists, like the ones below.
Here are the peaks of English-language cinema -and the moviemakers who made a difference.
THE GREATEST AMERICAN FILMMAKER
ORSON WELLES
He was prodigy and monster, genius and victim; the vastest talent and the biggest riddle of the American cinema. Director-producer-cowriter and star, at 25, of the century’s greatest film, “Citizen Kane,” Welles spent most of the rest of his directorial career as an outsider, working with small budgets and shaky schedules. What could he have given us had the studios been less blind? We’ll never know.
“Citizen Kane” (1941), “The Magnificent Ambersons” (1942), “Macbeth” (1948), “Othello” (1952), “Touch of Evil” (1958), “Chimes at Midnight” (1966).
DIRECTORS
D. W. GRIFFITH
Crippled by his own racism, Griffith was still a staggering storyteller and technical innovator, maker of unmatched historical epics.”The Birth of a Nation” (1915), “Intolerance” (1916), “Broken Blossoms” (1919).
JOHN FORD
Welles’ description of him was just: “a poet and a comedian.” He was also master of the Western and the director most admired by his colleagues.”Stagecoach” (1939), “How Green Was My Valley” (1941), “The Searchers” (1956), “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962).
HOWARD HAWKS
The great Hollywood professional. Expert at all the major genres, his specialty was the male bonding movie.
“Bringing Up Baby” (1938), “Only Angels Have Wings” (1939), “To Have and Have Not” (1944), “Rio Bravo” (1959).
ALFRED HITCHCOCK
The Master of Suspense in both his native England and later in America, he was the most technically ingenious of all film-makers. “The Lady Vanishes” (1938), “Shadow of a Doubt” (1943), “Rear Window” (1954), “Vertigo” (1958), “North by Northwest” (1959), “Psycho” (1960).
DAVID LEAN
Britain’s best film editor, he became one of its greatest directors: an expert at star-crossed romance and failed adventure.”Brief Encounter” (1945), “Great Expectations” (1946), “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (1957), “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962).
STANLEY KUBRICK
His pictures -terrible, beautiful, precise and sometimes darkly comic -are about modern nightmares of technology and obsession. “Dr. Strangelove” (1964), “2001: a Space Odyssey” (1968), “A Clockwork Orange” (1971).
ROBERT ALTMAN
His vast, eccentric comic ensemble movies show us the unidealized, funny, dysfunctional America other films try to disguise.
“MASH” (1970), “Nashville” (1975), “Short Cuts” (1993).
FRANCIS COPPOLA
A classic over-reacher, his view is epic and intimate, worldly and naive. “The Godfather Trilogy” (1972-’74-’90), “The Conversation” (1974), “Apocalypse Now” (1979).
MARTIN SCORSESE
For Scorsese, film is a religion. He looks at violence, bloodshed and passion with an artist’s entranced and redemptive eye. “Mean Streets” (1973), “Raging Bull” (1980), “Goodfellas” (1990).
STEVEN SPIELBERG
A high-tech whiz kid, he became history’s most popular moviemaker by giving us an awesome world through a child’s eyes. “Jaws” (1975), “E.T.” (1982), “Schindler’s List” (1993).
SPIKE LEE
Knowing his movie forebears, he could take us somewhere new: deep into the reality and dream of the modern African-American experience. “Do the Right Thing” (1989), “Malcolm X” (1992).
ACTORS
CHARLES CHAPLIN
The most loved and famous of movie comedians, this giddy, whirling, gentleman tramp conquered society and the world. “The Gold Rush” (1925), “City Lights” (1931), “Modern Times” (1936).
BUSTER KEATON
An unsmiling acrobat in a pork pie hat, his prowess with ingeniously complex mechanical gags made him Chaplin’s only peer. “Sherlock, Jr.” (1924), “The Navigator” (1924), “The General” (1927).
KATHARINE HEPBURN
Eyes shining, New England voice aflame, she incarnated privilege, bravery, idealism -and sometimes sadness or silliness. For five decades, often working with her great partner Spencer Tracy, she was our finest player. “Little Women” (1933), “The Philadelphia Story” (1940), “Adam’s Rib” (1949), “Summertime” (1955), “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” (1962).
HUMPHREY BOGART
The world-weary cynic, a crook or shamus in a raincoat, hip to the city, the night and the dark alleys of the soul. “The Maltese Falcon” (1941), “Casablanca” (1942), “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948), “The African Queen” (1951).
SCREENWRITERS
BEN HECHT
Murderously facile, this ex-Chicago newsman was Hollywood’s strongest scenarist. “Scarface” (1932), “His Girl Friday” (1940), “Notorious” (1946).
BILLY WILDER
Both a cynic and a romantic, he had a wisecrack for everything, but a soft spot for lovers and fools. “Sunset Boulevard” (1950), “Some Like It Hot” (1959), “The Apartment” (1960).
WOODY ALLEN
The comic chronicler of New York attitude and romantic angst, he played the schlemiel not wisely but well. “Annie Hall” (1977), “Manhattan” (1979), “Broadway Danny Rose” (1984).
PRODUCERS
DAVID O. SELZNICK
His tastes were literary, his methods dictatorial, his memos maddening -but he was one producer with an unmistakable signature.”King Kong” (1933), “David Copperfield” (1935), “Gone With the Wind” (1939), “Rebecca” (1940).
GENRES
The best studio movies often ignore the rules of reality and follow the rules of movie genres -which is why they’re underrated. Here are the prime examples.
MUSICALS
“Swing Time” (1936), “Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944), “Singing in the Rain” (1952), “West Side Story” (1961), “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964), “Cabaret” (1972).
COMEDIES
“Trouble in Paradise” (1932), “Duck Soup” (1933), “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek” (1944), “The Nutty Professor” (1963), “The Pink Panther” (1964).
WESTERNS
“Red River” (1948), “Shane” (1953), “The Wild Bunch” (1969), “Unforgiven” (1992).
CRIME AND NOIR
“Fury” (1936), “The Third Man” (1949), “White Heat” (1949), “Bonnie & Clyde” (1967), “Chinatown” (1974), “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984).
SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY
“The Wizard of Oz” (1939), “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946), “The Star Wars Trilogy” (1977-’80-’83), “Blade Runner” (1982), “Brazil” (1985).
WAR MOVIES
“All Quiet on the Western Front” (1931), “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” (1943), “Paths of Glory” (1957), “Born on the Fourth of July” (1989).
ROMANCES
“Sunrise” (1927),”Morocco” (1930), “Letter from an Unknown Woman” (1948), “The Go-Between” (1971), “Days of Heaven” (1978), “The Piano” (1993).
DRAMAS
“Greed” (1925), “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940), “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946), “On the Waterfront” (1954), “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955), “Faces” (1968), “Secrets & Lies” (1996).
PUBLICATIONS
“The American Cinema”
by Andrew Sarris; “For Keeps” and “5001 Nights at the Movies” by Pauline Kael. Since the ’60s, most American movie critics were partisans of either Sarris or Kael -or both.
“Leonard Maltin’s Movie and Video Guide”
An indispensable reference.
CABLE TV
American Movie Classics
Turner Movie Classics
Cinemax
The first two channels give you classic Hollywood; the third a more modern mix.
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MORE ON THE INTERNET
For a multimedia presentation on this installment and a look at the previous essentials, go to: chicago.tribune.com
