On Classical Hollywood Cinema: Beyond the Clash between Style and Canon

Abstract

This paper explores the clash between the style of classical Hollywood cinema and the canon of films and filmmakers associated with it. It considers how other authors have sought to resolve this issue, what is really concealed behind the tension, and how film historiography can address it with a view to developing a deeper and clearer understanding of cinema in general and classical Hollywood cinema in particular. The divergence between the descriptive dimension, associated with style, and the prescriptive dimension, related to the canon, is thus revealed to be an enriching source of discussion in the interests of refining the methods used to analyse classical Hollywood cinema.