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Ever since the Great War decimated Europe's film industries, the United States has been the world's cinematic superpower. As D.W. Griffith was defining the classical narrative technique that has changed little in the intervening century, the studio system was being instituted in Hollywood. Run largely by continental emigrés and bankrolled by Wall Street, MGM, Paramount,... [+]

Ever since the Great War decimated Europe's film industries, the United States has been the world's cinematic superpower. As D.W. Griffith was defining the classical narrative technique that has changed little in the intervening century, the studio system was being instituted in Hollywood. Run largely by continental emigrés and bankrolled by Wall Street, MGM, Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros, Columbia, 20th Century-Fox and RKO had their trademark styles and stables of stars, who were groomed to headline pictures in such commercially successful genres as comedy, crime, melodrama, the action adventure, the western and horror. As the decades passed, and sound and colour were added to the formula, new genres emerged like the musical, sci-fi and film noir. Walt Disney also ensured that animation became a firm family favourite. But the production-line approach and self-regulatory censorship restricted artistic creativity and, as the studios began to lose their mass audience to television, a new emphasis was placed on movies for younger audiences. Levels of sex and violence increased in the exploitation genres, while directors were finally able to discuss weighty topics with a stylistic, political and intellectual maturity that owed more to an individual vision than front office taste. However, New American Cinema didn't make much money and, although indie auteurs carved themselves a niche, Hollywood has been a town of blockbusters, multinational conglomerates and focus groups since the mid-1970s. But advances in computer-generated imagery and other special effects have helped Hollywood maintain its status as the planet's escapist capital. [-]