One Of The Most Influential Figures In The Study Of Classical Hollywood Cinema Examines Various Paradigms For Reading Hollywood And Its Cinema. Thomas Elsaesser Considers The Applicability Of Classical Film Theory And Alternatives To It. Flashback: Of Objects Of Love And Objects Of Study. Film Studies In Britain: Cinephilia, Screen Theory And Cultural Studies -- The Name For A Pleasure That Has No Substitute: Vincente Minnelli -- All The Lonely Places: The Heroes Of Nicholas Ray -- Sam Fuller's Productive Pathologies: The Hero As (his Own Best) Enemy -- Cinephilia: Or The Uses Of Disenchantment -- Genius Of The System. The Persistence Of Hollywood, Part I: The Continuity Principle -- Why Hollywood? -- Narrative Cinema And Audience Aesthetics: The Mise-en-scène Of The Spectator -- Film As System: Or How To Step Through An Open Door -- Gangsters And Grapefruits: The Public Enemy -- Studio And Genre: Auteurs Maudits, Mavericks And Eminent Europeans. -- Transatlantic Triangulations: William Dieterle And The Warner Bros Biopics -- Welles And Virtuosity: Citizen Kane As Character-mask -- The Dandy In Hitchcock -- Too Big And Too Close: Alfred Hitchcock And Fritz Lang -- Robert Altman's Nashville: Putting On The Show -- Stanley Kubrick's Prototypes: The Author As World-maker -- Genie Out Of The Bottle: The Return Of The System As Auteur? -- The Pathos Of Failure: Notes On The Unmotivated Hero -- Auteur Cinema And The New Economy Hollywood -- The Love That Never Dies: Francis Ford Coppola And Bram Stoker's Dracula -- The Blockbuster As Time Machine -- Auteurism Today: Signature Products, Concept-authors And Access For All: Avatar -- The Persistence Of Hollywood. Digital Hollywood: Between Truth, Belief And Trust -- The Persistence Of Hollywood, Part Ii: Reflexivity, Feedback And Self-regulation. Thomas Elsaesser. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.