Interestingly, I noticed the opposite effect... Seems to me that credits were once short and snazzy, but for the past 10-15 years are an art form in themselves (I'm not talking about effects like Hitchcock's Psycho or Penn's Bonnie and Clyde; I'm talking about length per se). After the break of the studio system, I think, freelancers came on board to replace teams under contract. This is my off-the-cuff explanation that may be completely bogus. Then credits began to be the time for setting the stage for the rest of the film, so that today many films tell us by the time the credits have rolled more than we ever wanted to know--or teased us into a mind-set totally at odds with the movie (sometimes a clever and sometimes an annoying thing.) Now we have credits for casting, which again, under the studio system, were redundant. Another thing I've noticed is that the order of importance of those credited has changed over the years. Liora Moriel Comparative Literature Program University of Maryland 2107 Susquehanna Hall College Park, MD 20742-8825 [log in to unmask] "We have cooperated for a very long time in the maintenance of our own invisibility. And now the party is over." - Vito Russo ---- To sign off SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]