A World History of Film

Front Cover
Harry N. Abrams, 2002 - Business & Economics - 600 pages
Winner of a prestigious Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Book Award in 1996, "Film: An International History of the Medium," now in its second edition, presents the entire history of motion pictures, from pre-cinema to the present. Providing a complete analysis of the principal films, directors, and national cinemas, it supplies a thorough grounding in the social, economic, and political circumstances critical to an understanding of film as both art and industry.

In a highly readable narrative, Robert Sklar, one of the field's most eminent scholars, covers all significant periods and styles--not only commercial films and classical Hollywood cinema but also animation, documentaries, international art cinema, and the cinematic avant-garde. With emphasis on the international relationships among film communities, chapters are devoted to such critical nodes of film history as early cinema, Soviet silent cinema, Hollywood genres, Italian neorealism, and the French New Wave. Substantial sections are also devoted to the films of Eastern Europe, Latin America, Japan, China, Africa, the Middle East, and India. Informative sidebars complement the main text, and cross-cultural timelines introduce the book's seven main parts. Four totally new chapters on English-language art cinema, new European film, world cinema, and Hollywood bring the book's content up to the present.

"Film: An International History of the Medium" is beautifully designed and illustrated by more than 750 film stills, frame enlargements, production shots, and diagrams. The 212 color plates include rare examples of early hand tinting, pre-cinema technology, two- and three-color Technicolor, as well as almost 100 new imagesfrom contemporary films. These stunning and instructive illustrations further illuminate the author's cogent analyses and wide-ranging perspective. Chapter endnotes, a selected bibliography, a filmography, and a complete glossary of terms complete this extraordinary volume.

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Contents

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
12
PART
15
Magic Lanterns Motion Toys Théâtre Optique
19
Copyright

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About the author (2002)

ROBERT SKLAR received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. Currently Professor of Cinema Studies at New York University, he has been chairman of the Department of Cinema Studies there and has also taught in New Zealand and Japan. The author of several books on film, including City Boys: Cagney, Bogart, Garfield (1992) and the critically acclaimed, award-winning, international best-seller Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies (1975), Dr. Sklar is a member of the National Society of Film Critics as well as the National Film Preservation Board. He is also a member of the American Studies Association, a member and former president of the Society for Cinema Studies, and the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships.

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