A Short History of the Movies

The eleventh edition of A Short History of the Movies continues its long-standing tradition of scrupulously accurate details, up-to-date information, and jargon-free writing style that has made it the most widely adopted film history textbook.

This edition offers students a panoramic overview of the worldwide development of film. From the early experiments with motion photography, through the American studio years of the 1930’s and 1940’s, from Neorealism and the New Wave, up to the present age of digital cinema, A Short History of Film provides a comprehensive presentation of the history of cinema. This eleventh edition has been revised and updated to include current scholarship, recent industry developments, and new films and filmmakers.

1. Introductory Assumptions.

For Further Viewing.

2. Birth.

Frames per second.

        Pictures on Film.

        Speed.

        Flicker and the Continuous Signal.

Persistence of Vision and Other Phenomena.

        Seeing with the Brain.

        Visual Masking and Retinal Retention.

        Early Observations.

        Separating and Integrating Frames.

        The Phi Phenomenon and Beta Movement.

        Short-Range Apparent Motion.

        Constructing Continuity.

        Scientific Toys.

        Émile Reynaud.

Photography.

        Muybridge and Marey

Thomas Edison.

        W. K–L. Dickson and William Heise.

        Early Cameras and Films.

        The Kinetoscope.

        A Sound Film and Studio.

        Projection.

        The Magic Lantern.

        The Loop and Other Solutions.

        The Lumière Brothers.

        R.W. Paul.

        The Vitascope.

The First Films.

For FurtherViewing.

3. Film Narrative, Commercial Expansion.

Early Companies.

Narrative.

        George Melies.

        Cohl and Others.

        Edwin S. Porter.

        From Brighton to Biograph.

        Complexity in Early Film

Business Wars.

The Film d’Art.

For Further Viewing.

4. Griffith.

Apprenticeship.

        Biograph: The One-Reelers.

        Two Reels and Up.

The Birth of a Nation.

Intolerance.

1917-31.

        Broken Blossoms and Way Down East.

        The Struggle.

For FurtherViewing.

5. Mack Sennett and the Chaplin Shorts.

Krazy Keystones.

Charlie.

For FurtherViewing.

6. Movie Czars and Movie Stars.

Stars over Hollywood.

        The First Stars.

        California, Here We Come.

The Emperors and Their Rule.

        Major Studios.

        Movie Palaces.

Morality.

        Sermons and Scandals.

        The Hays Office.

Films and Filmmakers, 1910-28.

        Thomas Ince.

        Douglas Fairbanks.

        DeMille and von Stroheim.

        Greed.

        Henry King.

        Oscar Micheaux and the Race Movie.

        Webber and Watson.

        Weber and Women.

        King Vidor

        Lubitsch and Others.

        Flaherty and the Silent Documentary.

The Comics.

        Laurel and Hardy and Hal Roach.

        Harold Lloyd.

        Harry Langdon.

        Buster Keaton.

        The Gold Rush and The General.

Hollywood and the Jazz Age.

        Modernism.

        Jazz, Booze, and It.

For Further Viewing.

7. The German Golden Age.

Expressionism, Realism, and the Studio Film.

Fantasy.

        Caligari.

        Destiny and Metropolis.

        Nosferatu and Others.

Psychology.

        The Last Laugh.

        Pabst and die neue Sachlichkeit.

The End of an Era.

        Beyond the Studio.

        Exodus to Hollywood.

        Using Sound.

        Lei Riefenstahl.

For FurtherViewing.

8. Soviet Montage.

The Kuleshov Workshop.

Sergei M. Eisenstein.

        Battleship Potemkin.

        October.

        Sound and Color.

Vsevolod I. Pudovkin.

        Mother.

        Later Works.

Other Major Figures.

        Alexander Dovzhenko.

        Dziga Vertov.

Socialist Realism.

For Further Viewing.

9. Sound.

Processes.

Problems.

Solutions.

For Further Viewing.

10. France between the Wars.

Surrealism and Other Movements.

Gance and Dreyer.

        Abel Gance.

        The Passion of Joan of Arc.

Rene Clair.

Jean Renoir.

        Grand Illusion.

        The Rules of the Game.

Vigo and Others.

        Jean Vigo.

        Carné and Prévert.

For Further Viewing.

11. The American Studio Years: 1930-45.

Film Cycles and Cinematic Conventions.

        The Production Code.

        Cycles.

        Studios and Style.

        Women in the Studio Era.

The Comics.

        Late Chaplin.

        Disney’s World.

        Lubitsch and Sound.

        Frank Capra.

        Preston Sturges.

        George Cukor.

        The Marx Brothers.

        Mae West.

        W.C. Fields.

Masters of Mood and Action.

        Josef von Sternberg.

        John Ford.

        Howard Hawks.

        Alfred Hitchcock.

        Orson Welles.

For Further Viewing.

12. Hollywood in Transition: 1946-65.

        The Hollywood Ten and the Blacklist.

        3-D, CinemaScope, Color, and the Tube.

Films in the Transitional Era.

        Freedom of Speech, Preminger, and the end of the Blacklist.

        Message Pictures: Kazan and Others.

        Adaptations and Values: John Huston and Others.

        Film Noir and Other Genres.

        The Freed Musicals.

Surfaces and Subversion.

        Samuel Fuller .

        Late Hitchcock.

        Nicholas Ray.

        Late Ford.

        Douglas Sirk.

Finding the Audience.

For Further Viewing.

13. Neorealism, New Wave, and What Followed

Italian Neorealism.

        Roberto Rossellini.

        De Sica and Zavattini.

        Luchino Visconti.

Romantics and Antiromantics.

        Federico Fellini.

        Michelangelo Antonioni.

        Pasolini and Bertolucci.

        Germi, Leone, and Others.

France---Postwar Classicism.

        Cocteau and Others.

        Max Ophüls.

        Robert Bresson.

        Tati, Clouzot, and Others.

1959 and After.

        The New Wave.

        François Truffaut.

        Jean-Luc Godard.

        Alain Resnais.

        Chabrol, Rohmer, and Rivette.

        Varda, Marker, and the Documentary.

        Malle and Others.

For Further Viewing.

14. National Cinemas: 1945-.

Sweden and Denmark.

        Ingmar Bergman.

England.

        Postwar Masters.

        Another New Wave.

        Leigh, Loach, and Others

Central and Eastern Europe.

        The Czech Golden Age.

Poland.

Hungary.

The Balkan States.

Cinemas Asian

        Japan.

        India.

        China.

        Taiwan.

        Hong Kong.

        Korea.

For Further Viewing.

15. Hollywood Renaissance: 1964-76.

American Auteurs.

        John Cassavetes.

        Woody Allen.

        Robert Altman.

        Francis Ford Coppola.

        Martin Scorsese.

        Malick, De Palma, and Others.

        Stanley Kubrick.

The Independent American Cinema.

        Early History.

        Film Poets.

For Further Viewing.

16. National Cinemas 2: 1968-.

Das neue Kino.

        Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

        Werner Herzog.

        Wim Wenders.

        Von Trotta and Others.

Third World Cinemas.

        Emerging Cinemas, Emerging Concerns.

        Instructive Dramas.

        Documentaries.

        Gutierrez Alea and Sembene.

Other English-Language Cinemas.

        Australia.

        New Zealand.

        Canada.

        Ireland and Elsewhere.

Russia and the Former Soviet Union.

        Paradjanov, Tarkovsky, and Others.

        Glassnost and After.

Iran.

The New Internationalism.

        Luis Bunuel and Spain

For Further Viewing.

17. The Return of the Myths: 1977-.

Star Wars and the New Mythology.

        Superheroes, Slashers, and Cops.

        Myth and Anti-Myth.

        Popular Heroes and Postmodern Irony.

Leading Directors.

        Lucas and Spielberg.

        David Lynch

        Jim Jarmusch

        John Waters

        Joel and Ethan Coen

        Jonathan Demme

        Terry Gilliam

        Carl Reiner and Others

        Robert Zemeckis

        Tim Burton

        Oliver Stone

        Quentin Tarantino

        Robert Rodriguez

        John Sayles

        Charles Burnett

        Spike Lee

        Luis Valdez

        Gus Van Sant

        Julie Taymor and Others

        Ridley Scott

        Christopher Nolan and Others

For Further Viewing.

18. Conglomerates and Videos: 1975-.

It’s A Wonderful Deal.

        Sequels and Blockbusters.

        Conglomerates.

        For Sale: Studio.

        The Budget Explosion.

        Executive Decisions.

        Theatres.

        Studio Shake-ups.

Movies in the Age of Video.

        Tape and Videotape.

        Analog and Digital Information.

        Sampling and Conversion.

        Videotape Recorders.

        Cassettes and Discs.

        DVDs.

        Out of the Vaults.

        Pixels and Lines.

        Film and Video Frames.

        Changes on the Set.

        Nonlinear Editing.

        Copies and Originals.

        Colorization.

        Electronic Cinema.

For Further Viewing.

19. Digital Cinema: 1999-.

Doing without Film.

Beginnings.

Production and Distribution.

The Look of the Future.

For Further Viewing.

For Further Reading.

Distributors.
Glossary.
Acknowledgments.
Index.