Chapter 1: The development of global film

• The story begins

• The first studios

• Before ‘language cinema’

• European war and the rise of Hollywood

• Changes with sound

• Dubbing and subtitling in global film

Case study 1.1: Subtitling and La haine

• The context for Hollywood’s hegemony

• The international film market today

• International art cinema

• It’s not all feature films . . .

This chapter attempts to trace an outline history of global film from the very first films made and shown internationally by the Lumière Brothers to the strategic approach of the Hollywood studios in the 2000s. Partly this is to demonstrate that ‘Hollywood hegemony’ in the international market didn’t begin until the 1920s and that it has not faced the same local factors over the 80+ years of that hegemony. The relationships between the major producers have changed, no more so than after the introduction of sound. It’s important therefore that the chapter includes a discussion of the history of subtitling and dubbing, featuring a short case study of La haine (France 1995).

Links for the chapter

Ivarsson, Jan (2004) ‘A Short Technical History of Subtitling in Europe’ on http://www.transedit.se/history.htm

O’Brien, Charles (2005) ‘Multiple Language Versions and National Films, 1930–1933; Statistical Analysis, Part I’, in Cinema & Cie: International Film Studies Journal, no. 6 (winter). Available at: http://www.cinemetrics.lv/obrien.php

Roberts, Graham (2003) ‘Subtitling, Dubbing and the Future of the International Film’ on http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/vp01.cfm?outfit=ifilm&folder=17&paper=23 (no longer available)

UNESCO (2012) ‘From International Blockbusters to National Hits 2010’, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, on: http://www.uis.unesco.org/culture/Documents/ib8-analysis-cinema-production-2012-en2.pdf