Hollywood's Greatest Directors

The art of making motion pictures matured in the Silent Era from 1895 - 1927. Program one examines the Silent Era's most outstanding directors - D.W. Griffith, Mack Sennet, Lois Weber, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin - who created Hollywood and laid the foundation for the great American cinematic tradition.

When Warner Brothers Studios released The Jazz Singer, the first 'talkie', in 1927, it spelled the end of the Silent Era. Program two shows how sound revamped Hollywood, creating the 'studio system' and introducing spectacular cinematic techniques by acclaimed directors Howard Hawks, Oscar Micheaux, George Cukor, Dorothy Arzner and Orson Welles.

It is called the Golden Age of Hollywood because great directors, great actors, and great technical talent combined to make great movies. Program three discusses the Golden Age of American Cinema and how internationally acclaimed directors such as John Huston, John Ford, Vincente Minnelli and Frank Capra gave the world unparalleled films for over twenty years.

In the 1950s with the arrival of television, the Studio System began a decade long decline that brought Hollywood to its knees. In program four, we'll see how a few great directors, including Mike Nichols, Sam Peckinpah, Terence Malick, Mel Brooks, Martin Scorsese, and Sydney Lumet, revitalized Hollywood and American Cinema, producing some of the greatest movies of all time.

"In The Modern Era Hollywood studios are owned by global conglomerates, and directors have become adept at both big-budget blockbusters and small budget independent gems. Program five shows how in the 21st Century a New Wave of American cinema introduces the movie director as the novelist and how this new kind of author has propelled film into the world's greatest art form.