Top Cinema 2026 Movies 2025 Movies 2024 Movies Action Horror Comedy Thriller

American Cinema

American Cinema

1994 1 Seasons 13 Episodes ⭐ 8.3 Documentary

13 episode series created by PBS to commemorate 100 years of movie-going. The history of Hollywood and filmmaking comes alive in this spectacular celebration of movie magic. It's a mesmerizing, epic analysis that combines rare archival film, key scenes from immortal movies, interviews with leading filmmakers and commentary from noted film scholars and critics. As seen on PBS, this series is the definitive chronicle of the American cinema, from its beginning to today. Includes interviews with Robert Altman, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Spike Lee, George Lucas, Sidney Lumet, Julia Roberts, Martin Scorsese, Gene Siskel, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, and many more.

13 episode series created by PBS to commemorate 100 years of movie-going. The history of Hollywood and filmmaking comes alive in this spectacular celebration of movie magic. It's a mesmerizing, epic analysis that combines rare archival film, key scenes from immortal movies, interviews with leading filmmakers and commentary from noted film scholars and critics. As seen on PBS, this series is the definitive chronicle of the American cinema, from its beginning to today. Includes interviews with Robert Altman, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Spike Lee, George Lucas, Sidney Lumet, Julia Roberts, Martin Scorsese, Gene Siskel, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, and many more.

Seasons & Episodes

EP 1

The Hollywood Style

In the classical Hollywood film, the story is primary. Filmmakers rely on style — structure, narrative, and visual ele

EP 2

The Studio System

This program surveys Hollywood's industrial past during the era of contract players and directors, studio police forces,

EP 3

The Star

Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Dustin Hoffman — these among many others are names synonymous with Hollywood. Early on, Holly

EP 4

The Western

The western is an American myth that has been translated by other cultures and reinterpreted time and again, but never d

EP 5

Romantic Comedy

Breezy and silly to witty and intelligent, romantic comedies have been with us since the 1930s. But the surface humor ha

EP 6

The Combat Film

Beginning with World War II combat films — produced under directives from the federal government — this program exam

EP 7

Film Noir

These cynical and pessimistic films from the 1930s and '40s touched a nerve in Americans. Historians link the genre's ov

EP 8

Film in the Television Age

Television first arrived in American homes just as the Hollywood studio system was collapsing. As the new medium took ho

EP 9

The Film School Generation

Maverick filmmakers of the 1960s and '70s, including Brian DePalma, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg, capitalized o

EP 10

The Edge of Hollywood

While many of the old rules are still in force, independent filmmakers today often add their dissenting voices to the fo

EP 11

Film Language

"Film Language" illustrates basic terms such as tracking shots and zooms and also provides a primer on editing technique

EP 12

Writing and Thinking About Film

"Writing and Thinking About Film" provides a formal and cultural analysis of a classical film sequence. It serves as a c

EP 13

Classical Hollywood Today

"Classical Hollywood Today" offers interviews with contemporary directors, European filmmakers, scholars, and critics, a

Popular Cast

John Lithgow

John Lithgow

Self - Host