Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

Class
some analysts have pointed out) but for their ability to
provide simple entertainment. Among the formulas
dusted off and repackaged was the Horatio Alger narrative.
In Rocky (1976) and Saturday Night Fever (1977),
working-class men make better lives for themselves
through sheer determination and hard work, with littleto-no
discussion of the institutionalized forces that, in the
real world, work to inhibit such mobility. Such optimistic
messages would continue in popular American film
for the rest of the century, from teen comedies such as
Risky Business (1983) or Pretty in Pink (1986) to biopics
such as Erin Brockovich (2000) or Ray (2004).
Certain trends in European cinema also began celebrating
old-fashioned ideas of glamorous wealth and
happy workers. Most particularly, the rise of British
‘‘heritage films’’ exuded nostalgia for the era before
World War I, reveling in well-groomed manor grounds,
lavishly appointed drawing rooms, and tuxedos and satin
ball gowns. A number of similarly glossy films from other
countries, such as Nuovo cinema Paradiso (Cinema
Paradiso, Italy, 1989), Mediterraneo (Italy, 1991), Como
agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate, Mexico,
1992), and Belle Epoque (Spain, 1993) portrayed peasant
life in a golden hue of romanticism. Such films often
seemed like cinematic postcards, packaging the country
(and its quaint working-class customs) for tourists to
purchase.
By the start of the twenty-first century, the communist
government of the Soviet Union had collapsed, and
China had begun integrating itself into the international
economy. A new era of triumphant capitalism (dubbed
‘‘late capitalism’’ by philosopher Herbert Marcuse
[1898–1979]) seemed to have dawned. Much of contemporary
cinema (and mass media generally) reflects the
increased commodification of life. From Hollywood
summer blockbusters to Japanese anime, modern cinema
functions simultaneously as a product and as an advertisement
for related products—the video, the soundtrack
CD, the computer game, the collectible figures, the
theme park ride. Hollywood studios (and many media
companies worldwide) were subsumed into larger international
corporate identities toward the end of the twentieth
century. Thus, many films were meant to keep the
profits flowing from all the various arms of a conglomerate
rather than to expose how the rich were getting
richer and the poor were getting poorer.
Yet some filmmakers wished to expose the class
struggles that remained. Often focusing on groups rather
than Horatio Alger protagonists, directors like Mike
Leigh (b. 1943) (Life Is Sweet, 1990) in Britain, Denys
Arcand (b. 1941) (Les Invasions Barbares [The Barbarian
Invasions], 2003) in Canada, John Sayles (b. 1950)
(Matewan, 1987) in the United States, and Hou Hsaio-
Hsien (b. 1947) (Beiqing Chengshi [City of Sadness],
1990) in Taiwan depicted the complex nature of economics
and class, and how they interrelate with issues
such as gender and sexuality, national identity, history,
and religious belief. While their work was often overlooked
by audiences, such efforts kept the spirit of such
early cinema as The Kleptomaniac alive as the new millennium
began.
SEE ALSO Ideology; Marxism; Neorealism; Populism;
Propaganda
FURTHER READING
Bergman, Andrew. We’re in the Money: Depression America and Its
Films. New York: New York University Press, 1971.
Ceplair, Larry, and Steven Englund. The Inquisition in
Hollywood: Politics in the Film Community, 1930–1960.
Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1980.
Compaine, Benjamin M., and Douglas Gomery. Who Owns the
Media? Competition and Concentration in Mass Media
Industry. 3rd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2000. Originally
published in 1982.
Downing, John D. H., ed. Film and Politics in the Third World.
New York: Praeger, 1987.
Harvey, Sylvia. May ’68 and Film Culture. London: British Film
Institute, 1978.
Hill, John. Sex, Class and Realism: British Cinema, 1956–1963.
London: British Film Institute, 1986.
Overbey, David, ed. Springtime in Italy: A Reader on Neo-Realism.
London: Talisman, 1978.
Ross, Steven J. Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the
Shaping of Class in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1998.
Ryan, Michael, and Douglas Kellner. Camera Politica: The
Politics and Ideology of Contemporary Hollywood Film.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988.
Youngblood, Denise J. Soviet Cinema in the Silent Era,
1918–1935. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1985.
Sean Griffin
310 SCHIRMER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM