Hollywood Golden Age

Hollywood Golden Age

Classical Hollywood cinema is the term used to name a specific epoch characterized by marked styles of making motion pictures, and a production methodology implemented by the American Film Industry. This age is considered to be, roughly, from the 1920s to the early 1960s.

The Golden Age was represented by the classical style, which is characterized by the principal use of continuity editing (meaning the continuity of shots is intended to feel natural and smooth), also called invisible style. Contrary to modernist or insurgent film currents, the camera in Classical Cinema, together with the sound, should never call the attention for themselves.

Between the general genres which predominated the era were included: Western, slapstick comedy, musical, animated cartoon, biopic (biographical picture). Also, the rising power of the cinematographic studios made a sectioning in the market: most of the films made were produced by it, and also genres were usually divided by studios.