The dominance of Hollywood films over the film
industries in Europe has been evident since the 1920s. This dominance has been
largely maintained even in the face of intermittent resurgence of various
domestic film industries. The European film industry was first defined by
France by around 1915 with the main inspiration being Gaumont and Pathé which
inspired filmmakers and informed Europe’s film going tastes (Marcus, 1993).
This kept the American film industry at bay. An attempt by Germany through
Erich Pommer to shape the European film industry in the 1920s was soon
overtaken by Hollywood which played a pivotal role in disintegrating the
European film industry into uncoordinated national factions whose influence
were no match for Hollywood (Marcus, 1993). The Russian brief influence over
the continent followed in the late 1920s (Sitney, 1995). However, it was the
Nazi cinema that proved formidable in Europe for the period between 1935 and
1945 (Sitney, 1995). The subsequent period that ended in the 1980s saw
attention being diverted to the various national cinema industries that was
characterized by numerous attempts to define what the European cinema was all
about (Sitney, 1995).
The view taken by the European film industry payers
was radically different from that taken by Hollywood. The Americans viewed
Europe as an entity that could be exploited to provide the desired market for
their products and not as a conglomerate of domestic film industries attempting
to draw on their cultural backgrounds to revitalize their industries (Waterman
and Jayakar, 2000). Americans, being a melting point of numerous cultures that
include a significant concentration of top talent in the world of film making
have a somewhat superior view of their values and ride on the global
acceptability of these values to sell their products across national and
cultural boundaries (Waterman and Jayakar, 2000). However, despite these
protectionist measures, the domestic national cinemas have continued to fade in
the face of an ever increasing dominance by Hollywood to an extent that these
domestic cinemas are virtually inexistent. Italy has also not been spared from
the onslaught by Hollywood on the European domestic film industries. Having
begun in the early 19th century, the Italian film industry has
largely played the role of an underdog when compared to the American film
industry in the international markets (Sorlin, 1996). The Italian domestic
market has been dominated by Hollywood incrementally with its market share
rising from 33% in the 1970s to over 65% in the 1990s (Sorlin, 1996).
The early stages of the Italian film industry were
greatly influenced by the contribution of three organizations namely Itala
film, Cines, and Turin (Mancini, 1985). These early production houses which
were soon after joined by Naples and Milan refined their production quality and
were able to market their films both domestically and internationally (Mancini,
1985). Some of the earliest productions in Italy included the 1905’s La presa di Roma ‘capture of Rome’ which
was produced by Filoteo Alberini (Mancini, 1985). Other films included the
1908’s Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei
‘the last days of Pompeii’ by Arturo Ambrosio whose fame necessitated its
re-production three times (Mancini, 1985). This was later followed by Enrico
Guazzoni’s ‘Mark and Anthony Cleopatra’ in 1913 (Mancini, 1985). The early
developments in the Italian film industry were influenced by the prevailing
philosophy of futurism which was dominant in that country between 1911 and 1919
(Landy, 2000). This philosophy entailed the use of an ideal form of art which
could be manipulated through special effects, speed and editing. Most of the films
produced in this futuristic era have since been lost. Another milestone in the
Italian film industry was facilitated by the Italian fascism through the
creation of a review board for popular culture. This board recommended the
creation of crucial structures for Italian cinema and resulted in the creation
of a town known as ex novo for
exclusive use by film industry players (Morandini, 1997). This city was
popularly known as Cinecitta.
The creation of Cinecitta facilitated film
production by providing the amenities needed such as theatres, and training
facilities for amateurs. The use of Cinecitta gained prominence with some of
the productions being as recent as in the 21st century. Some of the
directors that contributed to the success of Cinecitta include Michelangelo
Antonioni, Roberto Rossellini and Federico Fellini (Morandini, 1997). The
influence of political propaganda dominated the early 1940s era in the film
industry dubbed the neorealism era. In this era, the bulk of the production in
the industry served the purpose of propagating propaganda that would serve the
political powers ahead of the approaching war. Some of the influential
directors in this error include Rossellini Roberto who produced ‘Rome, Open
City’ (1945), ‘Paisa’ (1946) and ‘Germany Year Zero’ (1948) (Wagstaff, 2000). After
the war, the works of art assumed a lighter tone presumably with the improving
conditions in the country. This era was dubbed the pink neorealism. This short
lived era was replaced by comedy that generally replaced humor with the earlier
films that we characterized by serious tones (Wagstaff, 2000).
Directors such as Mario Monicelli and Pietro Germi
greatly influenced this era through their productions of ‘Big deal on Madonna
Street’ and ‘Divorce Italian Style’ respectively (Bondanella, 2002). The
growing popularity of Peplum significantly contributed to the popularity of
Italian films across Europe and in America in the 1960s. This prominence was
triggered by Hercule’s film released in 1958 (Bondanella, 2002). The Peplum was
closely followed by the Spaghetti Western which basically referred to Western
style films that were being short on limited budgets in Italy. The Italian film
industry reached one of its high points in the late 1960s and the 1970s as a
result of the production of thriller and horror classics that became very
popular in Europe and America (Sorlin, 1996). The iconic movies in this
category include ‘Castle of blood’, ‘black Sunday’, and ‘Twitch of the death
nerve’. The Italian film industry would soon after be synonymous with violent
horror movies in the 1970s and the 1980s and is credited with fueling the video
nasty era that engulfed the UK film industry in the 1980s (Sorlin, 1991). The
1980s saw a decline in the Italian cinema characterized by the isolation of the
art films from the rest of the cinema. This period was also characterized by
the birth of ‘trash films’ (Sorlin, 1991).
These films were of little artistic value which were
mainly comedies geared towards confronting various cultural beliefs and practices
in the Italian society with most of them directed towards the sexual sphere.
These films were behind the popularity of some actors such as Alvaro Vitali,
Barbara Bouchet, and Diego Abatantuono (Sorlin, 1996). Despite these pitfalls,
a new generation of film industry players has emerged in Italy that has
contributed to the return of the industry to healthy levels. The relative
success of some of the directors in recent times has played a significant role
in placing the Italian film industry back to healthy levels. For instance,
Giusppe Salvatore through his production ‘Nuovo Cinema Paradiso’ won the Best
Foreign Film prize (Celli, et al, 2007). Other award winning directors include
Gabrielle Salvatore (Best Foreign Film prize 1992), Roberto Benigni (Best
Foreign Film prize 1998), and Naomi Moretti (Palme d’Or in 2001) (Celli, et al,
2007). A more recent award winning production by Paolo Sorrentino named ‘II
Divo’ in 2008 won the Jury Prize. Beside the award winning production mentioned
above, Roberto Benigni’s track record spans across three decades starting with
a 1970s TV series called Onda Libera. His
further works include the film Berlinguer
to voglio bene of 1977, a TV show named l’altra
domenica of 1978, and a film named Tu
mi turbi of 1983 among others (Celli, et al, 2007). Apart from being a
director, he also starred in several key films and was also instrumental in
industry events such as the 40th Berlin International Film Festival
of which he was a member of the jury. His contribution to the Italian film
industry was further underscored his recognition by the University of Malta
where he was accorded a degree of Doctor Honoris in 2008, 1 year after a
similar honor by the university of Leuven (Hope, 2010).
Another iconic contributor to the performance of the
Italian film industry is Nanni Moretti who doubles up as a producer, a film
director, a screenwriter and an actor. His first two films were produced in
1973 with subsequent productions in 1976, and 1978 (Marcus, 1986). But it would
not be until 1985 when he would produce an award winning production La messa e finita which won the
prestigious silver Bear at the 36 Berlin International Film Festival (Marcus,
1986). He was a politically aware individual who often went out of his way to
contribute to the political reforms in Italy. These cited cases of excellence
by Italian directors give a likely indication that the industry is gearing up
for improvement in relation to the domineering Hollywood productions. However,
despite the immense contribution by these directors towards the revitalization
of the film industry, the Italian film industry still pales in comparison to
the American film industry. Analysts have viewed these cases of excellence as
highly isolated in an industry that is largely characterized by monotonous
themes that fail to appeal to the preferences of the target population.
The film industry in Italy has had its ups and downs
relative to Hollywood since the 1970s. Having reversed the dominance of
Hollywood since the 1920s in Italy, the popularity of thrillers and horrors
that characterized Italian films during this period saw Italian films recapture
their lost market share hitting the highs of 65% of the domestic share in the
1970s (Waterman and Jayakar, 2000). However, this figure saw a steady decline
to reach a feeble 33% in the 1990s. Similar trends were observed in the
American market where the revenues from Italian films steadily declined from
the 1970 levels to almost 0% in the 1990s (Waterman and Jayakar, 2000). However,
the developments in the Italian film industry have seen a marginal resurgence
of the industry both domestically and internationally. For instance, La vita e bella ‘life is beautiful’, a
1998 Italian production had managed to earn over $57 million, a revenue rarely
collected by any foreign film in history of the United States. This film alone
accounted for 0.5% of the US box office in 1999 (Waterman and Jayakar, 2000).
However, despite these remarkable achievements,
analysts hold the opinion that the Italian film industry is dying out slowly.
They view the success stories as isolated cases that should not be used to back
the view that the Italian film industry is on a recovery path. The dominance of
Hollywood productions is not unique to Italy. Other European countries since
the World War I have been under American films dominance with most of these
countries experiencing serious declines in the domestic film industries
(Sorlin, 1991). This has been accompanied by a growing preference for American
films in the American market which to a significant extent discourages the good
performance of European films in the US (Sorlin, 1991). Other media products
such as the television dramas and news in the US have also gained prominence on
a global scale. The dominance by the US film industry is therefore viewed by
analysts as being detrimental to the process of self-definition by the
countries whose film industries are on the brink of collapse. This loss of
definition is believed to spread to other spheres of life such as trade and
political engagements on a global scale (Dale, 1997). This dominance has
culminated into what is seen as a one-way flow of information from the US which
is seen as a significant contributor to their global influence in the
distribution of power and resources.
On a nutshell, the US film industry has outperformed
its Italian counterpart due to a number of reasons. Key among the reasons is
the economic model that has been adopted in the United States that have
resulted in a highly developed media that enables producers to make high
returns and therefore engage in more quality productions (Dale, 1997). These
higher revenues of course help the industry to attract the highest talent from
the film industries across the world leading to a situation where most of the
world’s top film directors and actors/actresses are based in Hollywood (Motion
Picture Association of America, 1998). This may be the strongest reason yet for
the dominance of Hollywood over other film industries in the world. This
strategic strength has enabled Hollywood to cash in on the increasingly
liberalized media industries across the world in a manner that is unrivalled by
their Italian counterparts.
Few if any scholars seem to advance the view that
the imminent strength of Hollywood is as a result of the US government’s
intervention in the film industry (Dale, 1997). A majority of analysts seem to
concur that the success witnessed in this industry can be attributed to a range
of cultural, economic, political and sociological factors. One of the main
reasons fronted by analysts is that the US film industry services a wealthy
home market. American citizens are generally wealthy as compared to the rest of
the world and are therefore able to provide the film producers with the demand
levels needed to sustain high quality productions. The relatively high returns
strengthen these producers who are in turn able to spend their acquired
resources to push their products across the global markets. The fact that
English is widely spoken also contributes greatly to their success of Hollywood
productions. This is as opposed to the Italian industry where the bulk of the productions
are done in Italy which is not as widely spoken on a global scale (Waterman and
Jayakar, 2000).
Other factors that may have contributed to the
success of American films may include the aggressiveness of the MPA (Motion
Picture Association of America) geared at opening up the media freedoms and
establishing supporting structures that can improve the access of their
productions to both the foreign and domestic markets (Motion Picture
Association of America, 1998). The European auteurs have also been criticized
for their lack of emphasis on market-orientation in their production. Movies
that are geared towards the tastes and preferences of the target market tend to
perform better than those that are not. Moreover, the strategic position of the
US as a melting pot has resulted in the immigration of top talent in the movie
industry that has often contributed to the production of high quality films
that tend to resonate with the markets worldwide (Waterman and Jayakar, 2000).
This is of course buoyed by Hollywood’s aggressive marketing approaches which
tend to be better planned and executed than their European counterparts; and
the Italian film industry in particular. The Hollywood productions not only
dominate the global markets but are also the undisputed leaders in the domestic
market with most members of the American population generally staying away from
foreign productions. Analysts attribute this performance to the preferences of
the American population who see their productions as superior to the foreign
ones, the poor quality of the foreign films and the inadequate distribution
channels for these films within the US (Waterman and Jayakar, 2000).
The disparities in the performance of the film
industries between the United States and Italy can therefore be attributed to
the movement of top talent to the US which generally leads to the production of
relatively high quality of films that resonate well with the populations in the
US and Italy (Waterman and Jayakar, 2000). The presence of inadequate legal
frameworks that could promote the Italian film industry may also have led to
this persisting disparity. The American film industry has also been known to
advocate for increased liberalism in all spheres of life. These include the
freedom of speech and expression, human rights and other crucial elements such
as the emphasis on the rule of law, democracy, transparency, and integrity both
at a personal level and at organizational levels (Waterman and Jayakar, 2000).
These are values that generally gain wide acceptance across the world including
in Italy. American values, even where they happen to be radically different
from other countries’ they are largely acceptable and this translates to the
acceptability of their films which in turn results in enhanced demand (Cones,
1998). However, with the input of the emerging young directors, the Italian
film industry could be on a steady rise if the enabling mechanisms are put in
place by the governments.
The film industry in Italy has developed over a span
of slightly over 100 years with the earliest contributions to the industry
coming as early as 1905 in the form of a film by Filoteo Alberini dubbed La presa di Roma. Other ancient films
that shaped the Italian film industry include Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei which was produced in 1908 by Arturo
Ambrosio and Mark and Anthony Cleopatra by
Enrico Guanzzoni in 1913. The film industry subsequently developed to reach its
peak in the 1970s when it influenced the developments in the European film
industry and marginally edged out the Hollywood productions. However, the
American film industry has continued to dominate the European market since the
1920s. Despite the slight gains made by some of the domestic national cinemas
such as those in the UK, Germany, Russia, and Italy, the Hollywood productions
essentially remained dominant. The view assumed by the American film makers is
radically different from the one taken by the European countries that treasure
their domestic film industries and seek to shield and revitalize them. The
American film makers on the other hand see Europe as a unit that only serves to
provide the much needed global demand for their products. The penetration of
Hollywood productions has basically fragmented the European film industry and a
constant movement towards the demise of the national film industries.
For more theory and case studies on: http://expertresearchers.blogspot.com/
Bondanella,
P., 2002. Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present. 3RD
Ed. New York and London: Continuum
Celli,
Carlo, Cottino-Jones, Marga. 2007. A New
Guide to Italian Cinema. New York: Palgrave MacMillan
Cones,
J. W., 1998. The role of movies in a
democratic society. (Online) Available at: http://www.filmreform.org/crimes.htm
(Accessed 29 May 2011)
Dale,
M., 1997. The movie game: The film business in Britain, Europe, and America.
Herndon, VA: Cassell
Hope,
W., 2010. Italian Film Directors in the
New Millennium. (Online) Available at: http://www.c-s-p.org/flyers/978-1-4438-2075-2-sample.pdf
(Accessed 29 May 2011)
Landy,
M., 2000. Italian Film. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Mancini,
E., 1985. Struggles of the Italian Film Industry during Fascism 1930-1935.
Ann Arbor: UMI Press
Marcus,
M., 1986. Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism. Princeton: Princeton
University Press
Marcus,
M., 1993. Filmmaking by the Book. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press
Morandini,
M., 1997. Italy from Fascism to
Neo-Realism. Nowell-Smith Geoffrey Ed : Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Motion
Picture Association of America, 1998. U.S. Economic Review. Washington,
DC: Author
Sitney,
P. A., 1995. Vital Crises in Italian Cinema. Austin: University of Texas
Press
Sorlin,
P., 1991. European Cinemas, European Societies, 1939-1990. New
York: Routledge
Sorlin,
P., 1996. Italian National Cinema. London: Routledge
Wagstaff,
C., 2000. Rossellini and Neo-Realism.
Forgacs, David , Lutton, Sarah and Nowell-Smith Geoffrey. Eds. Roberto Rossellini: Magician of the Real.
London: BFI
Waterman,
D., Jayakar, K. P., 2000. The competitive
balance of the Italian and American Film Industries. (Online) Available at:
http://www.google.co.ke/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CD8QFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fciteseerx.ist.psu.edu%2Fviewdoc%2Fdownload%3Fdoi%3D10.1.1.24.4644%26rep%3Drep1%26type%3Dpdf&rct=j&q=how%20the%20Italian%20domestic%20film%20industry%20compares%20to%20Hollywood&ei=YfThTf_RAcG2hQfQw7HzBw&usg=AFQjCNGgBdVwtCB6U_qKluYEhLMY-IvtCw&cad=rja
(Accessed 29 May 2011)
No comments:
Post a Comment