The Genius of the System

“The Genius of the System explodes the notion that studio films were bland or monolithic. He explores the individual styles of each studio. A Warner Brothers movie and a Universal movie and an MGM movie were all distinct. Schatz shows how the house style at each studio evolved over from the 1920s into the 1950s, and adjusted to a changing world. It’s a great book for anybody interested in studio filmmaking at its strongest from 1928, which was the beginning of sound, to 1960. For all the oppressive elements of the studio system, Schatz shows that structure unquestionably allowed for real artistry and the production of fantastic foundationally important work. But, by the early 1960s, that system was outliving its usefulness.” Read more...

The best books on American Film

Mark Harris, Film Critics & Scholar

“This is an amazing book. It’s an academic book, but it reads like a novel. It was a very important book for me when I was studying film and television. Film theory was dominated for many years by the idea of the auteur, the single visionary director who managed, in the hell of the industrial system that was Hollywood’s studio system, to nonetheless produce amazing individual work. Thomas Schatz’s book is a complete antidote to that.” Read more...

The best books on Where Good Ideas Come From

Jane Root, Broadcaster

“The story of his book is that by the 70s these really incredibly well-oiled machines were looked at as stifling creativity and hemming in artists and making them all play to type and so on. Everybody thought that these auteurs who came along with these huge productions, and really just used studios as somewhere they rented space, were the right thing, that they were the future and that movies should be made like this and that the old ways never produced anything good – but that’s nonsense. The studios turned out some of the greatest movies in history.” Read more...

The best books on Hollywood

Marina Hyde, Journalist