In the twenty years preceding the First World War, cinema rapidly developed from a fairground curiosity into a major industry and social institution, a source of information and entertainment for millions of people. Only recently have film scholars and historians begun to study these early years of cinema in their own right and not simply as first steps towards the classical narrative cinema we now associate with Hollywood.The essays in this collection trace the fascinating history of how the cinema developed its forms of storytelling and representation and how it evolved into a complex...
In the twenty years preceding the First World War, cinema rapidly developed from a fairground curiosity into a major industry and social institution, ...