Golden Age of Film blog 2

Women’s roles in movies changed when movies changed from silent films to talkies. Women started playing more important roles, they played powerful, influential characters and women actors started becoming well known. I think a reason for this change may be the fact that women were becoming more equal to men; just before the golden age of film the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote was ratified.
A director during the golden age was Michael Curtiz, I read a short biography on him on IMBd.com that stated that during the golden age he made several movies consisting of nearly every genre imaginable. He was most well known for Casablanca and Mildred Pierce. He mainly made movies for Warner Bros. but in the 1950’s made some films for other studios. Directors like Michael Curtiz tend to influence other directors and movies. A director influenced by the work of Curtiz is Peter Chan, Peter Chan stated in an article on Hong Kong Cinematic that he was very influenced by Michael Curtiz and his film Casablanca.
Remakes of films are happening all the time. A remake from the golden age would be Psycho. Its original was released in 1960 but was remade in 1998. When remakes are done for modern days they are dramatized and horror movies add several special effects and a lot of blood. The plot gets altered and the acting seems to get worse. This tells us that in modern times people just look for the most special effects or the most visually entertaining movies and are losing respect for acting and storylines.
During the Golden Age different techniques and elements of film were used. On wordiq.com I read that Walt Disney had created his first cartoon with a fully synchronized soundtrack. It was a gamble but it paid off as his film Steamboat Willie was a huge success at the box office. A technology that most would not have thought came up in the 1950’s was 3-D films. Wikipedia states that 3-D has been around since 1950 but was not common due to the cost of the hardware. The entertainment business lacked the standardized format for the films as well but some were still featured in American cinema. 3-D filmmaking seems new to us now because now its getting big and a lot of movies are being made in 3-D but it’s something that has been around since the 1950’s.
There were many changes in film during the Golden Age of film starting from sound and ranging from changes in acting to changes in viewing the film. Film history is very interesting and it’s amazing to think of the success people have had in it. The Golden Age is a time of change and success and I think it would be fun and educational to do more research and learn more about how film has changed throughout history. It’s interesting to see how film changed as did America, from war to depression film changed and it can be seen in the movies and in the technology.