History of Film, A

Description

Substantially revised for the Seventh Edition, A History of Film is a comprehensive international survey of film from its beginnings to the present.

This text highlights the contributions of major film-producing countries, significant filmmakers, and their films within social, artistic, economic, and technological contexts. This Seventh Edition incorporates major revisions designed to improve the book’s focus and update its coverage.

• Features balanced coverage of the nations and periods most important in film history–including American, French, Italian, German, British, Soviet and Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Latin American and Eastern European cinemas–helping students come to terms with the crucial issues and events of the past that have made cinema what it is today.
• Provides critical interpretation of the work of filmmakers and specific films supported by images illustrating key interpretive issues, thereby helping students understand the importance and influence of historically significant individuals and cinematic works.
• Incorporates substantial coverage of minority and female directors and audiences as well as third-world, Asian, Latin American and gay cinema, providing students with a fuller picture of the variety of world cinema and making the text more relevant to the backgrounds of minority and female students.
• Provides information on avant-garde and documentary film as well as narrative film, broadening the coverage of film history beyond the narrative fiction film.
• Illustrates the text primarily with frame enlargements– images taken from the actual films, not production stills– so students see the correct lighting, camera angles, and aspect ratio of the film.
• Covers the role of production personnel, including actors, producers, screenwriters, and cinematographers, conveying the collaboration that takes place to shape a film’s final form.

Preface.

1. Birth and Childhood of a New Art * 1895–1914

Brief Motion-Picture Records of Actuality and of Performances

Telling Stories through Staged and Filmed Pantomime

Telling Stories through Filmic Means

The Language of Film

Increasing Films to Feature Length

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

2. Rise of the American Film * 1914–1919

The First American Epics

A Tradition of Screen Comedy Is Established

Emerging Patterns of Industry

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

3. Great German Silents * 1919–1928

Predominant Types and Themes

Principal Technical and Stylistic Advances

Influence on Hollywood

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

4. Art and Dialectic in the Soviet Film * 1925–1929

Historical Setting

Beginnings

Three Silent Masters

Montage: Theory and Practice

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

5. Hollywood in the Twenties * 1919–1929

Movies Become Big Business

Ascendancy of the Director

Popular Genres

Sound Arrives

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

6. France in the Twenties and Thirties * 1919–1939

The First Avant-Garde: Impressionism

The Second Avant-Garde: Pure Cinema

The Golden Age of the 1930s

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

7. Hollywood in the Thirties and Early Forties * 1929–1945

The Industry

Censorship, Self-Regulation, and Pressure Groups

Color

Notable Directors of the 1930s

Emergent Genres in the 1930s

Wartime

A 1940s Genre: Film Noir

Orson Welles: Boy Genius

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

8. Italian Neorealism * 1945–1952

Theory and Practice of Neorealism

Three Major Directors of the Neorealist Era

Period of Transition: 1952–1960

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

9. The Documentary Impulse: British Film after the War * 1945–1963

Postwar Comedies

Free Cinema and Social-Realist Features

The Gothic Strain

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

10. Hollywood in Transition * 1945–1962

Television

New Screen Processes

Fall of the Studios, Rise of the Independents

Internationalization

Loosened Controls on Content

Liberalism, Communism, and Anti-Communism: The House Un-American

Activities Committee and Blacklisting

Major Genres

American Directors of the 1950s

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

11. Japanese Film: A Pictorial Tradition and a Modernist Edge * 1951–

The Japanese Style

Three Japanese Masters

Japanese New Wave

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

12. Films of the Auteurs: The French New Wave * 1954–1968

Auteurism

Precursors to the New Wave

The New Wave Arrives

New Wave Directors

Left Bank Directors and Others

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

13. Other Western European Cinemas: National Cinemas or Eurofilms? * 1945–

Scandinavia

Germany

Spain

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

14. Eastern European Cinema: Film Making for the State and Beyond * 1954–

Poland

The Czech Republic

The Soviet Union and After

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

15. India: A People’s Cinema * 1956–

State of the Industry

Auteurs of the Golden Age

New Indian Cinema

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

16. Modernism and Metaphor: Italy * 1960–

Emergence of a New Style: Three Directors of the 1960s

Neo-Neorealism: Three Directors of the 1960s and 1970s

Industry Tavails

The 1970s and Beyond: A Metaphoric Cinema

Popular Genres

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

17. American Reemergence * 1963–1974

Popular Genres

The American New Wave

Independent Voices

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

18. Art Cinema Lite: British Film * 1963–

State of the Industry

British Comedy Flourishes

New Social Critiques

British Postmodernism

Americans Abroad

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

19. New Theories, New Films: France * 1968–

A Radicalized Godard

After the New Wave

Generic Continuities

A New Crop of Auteurs

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

20. A Blockbuster Mentality United States * 1975–1993

State of the Industry

Technological Advances

Emerging Genres

Studio Stalwarts

Independent Voices

Representing Diversity

Multinationalism

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

21. China: Three Cinemas * 1984–

Mainland China

Hong Kong

Taiwan

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

22. Latin American: Progressive Politics with a Tropical Beat

Cuba

Brazil

Mexico

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

23. Recent National Movements * 1959–

Africa

Australia and New Zealand

Canada

Iran

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

23. The Digital Future: United States * 1994–

Technology on Fast Forward

State of the Industry

Bigger Blockbusters

An Auteur for the Fin de Siècle

Representing Diversity, Part 2

A New Life for Documentaries

Films of the Period

Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period

Index.

Substantially revised for the Seventh Edition,A History of Film is a comprehensive international survey of film from its beginnings to the present.

This book highlights the contributions of major film-producing countries, significant filmmakers, and their films within social, artistic, economic, and technological contexts. This Seventh Edition incorporates major revisions designed to improve the book’s focus and update its coverage.

Details

• A print text
• Free shipping

• Includes a new chapter on Latin American cinema, focusing on Cuba, Brazil, and Mexico (Ch. 22).
• Provides new sections, “ Political and Cultural Milestones of the Period,” at the end of each chapter
• Adds significant material to update coverage, especially in chapters on China, Eastern Europe and contemporary American film.
• Expands coverage of women and minority filmmakers.
• Incorporates more extended analyses of individual films, helping students grasp large historical questions by presenting them within specific cases rather than in abstract generalities.
• Offers numerous images illustrating specific points made in discussions of particular films, ensuring that the images will be valuable learning tools for students.

Additional information

Dimensions	1.00 × 6.90 × 9.20 in
Imprint	Pearson
Format	gen
ISBN-13	09780205625284
ISBN-10	0205625282
Author	Virginia Wright Wexman
BISAC	PER011000
Subjects	communication, social sciences, PER011000, higher education, Humanities and Social Sciences, History of Film