Film History: An Introduction

Film History: An Introduction
By K. Thompson
second edition 2002, softcover 788 pages
film, moviesfilm, movies
Offers a comprehensive survey of film - from the backlots of Hollywood, across the United States, and around the world. As in the authors' "Film Art", the concepts and events in this title are illustrated with frame enlargements, aiming to give students realistic points of reference.
Kristin Thompson is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She holds a masters degree in film from the University of Iowa and a doctorate in film from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has published Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible: A Neoformalist Analysis (Princeton University Press, 1981), Exporting Entertainment: America in the World Film Market 1907-1934 (British Film Institute, 1985), Breaking the Glass Armor: Neoformalist Film Analysis (Princeton University Press, 1988), Wooster Proposes, Jeeves Disposes, or, Le Mot Juste(James H. Heineman, 1992), Storytelling in the New Hollywood: Understanding Classical Narrative Technique (Harvard University Press, 1999), Storytelling in Film and Television (Harvard University Press, 2003), Herr Lubitsch Goes to Hollywood: German and American Film after World War I (Amsterdam University Press, 2005), and The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood (University of California Press, 2007). She maintains her own blog, "The Frodo Franchise. In her spare time she studies Egyptology. David Bordwell is Jacques Ledoux Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds a master's degree and a doctorate in film from the University of Iowa. His books include The Films of Carl Theodor Dreyer (University of California Press, 1981), Narration in the Fiction Film (University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema (Princeton University Press, 1988), Making Meaning: Inference and Rhetoric in the Interpretation of Cinema (Harvard University Press, 1989), The Cinema of Eisenstein (Harvard University Press, 1993), On the History of Film Style (Harvard University Press, 1997), Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (Harvard University Press, 2000), Figures Traced in Light: On Cinematic Staging (University of California Press, 2005), The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies (University of California Press, 2006), and The Poetics of Cinema (Routledge, 2008). He has won a University Distinguished Teaching Award and was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Copenhagen.

Table of Contents

PrefaceIntroduction: Film History and How It Is DonePART ONE: EARLY CINEMA1 THE INVENTION AND EARLY YEARS OF THE CINEMA, 1880s-1904The Invention of the CinemaPreconditions for Motion PicturesMajor Precursors of Motion PicturesAn International Process of Invention Early Filmmaking and ExhibitionScenics, Topicals, and Fiction Films Creating an Appealing Program The Growth of the French Film Industry England and the "Brighton School" The United States: Competition and the Resurgence of Edison Notes and QueriesIdentification and Preservation of Early Films Reviving Interest in Early Cinema: The Brighton Conference ReferencesFurther Reading2 THE INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION OF THE CINEMA, 1905-1912Film Production in EuropeFrance: Pathe versus Gaumont Italy: Growth through Spectacle Denmark: Nordisk and Ole Olsen Other Countries The Struggle for the Expanding American Film IndustryThe Nickeodeon Boom The Motion Picture Patents Company versus the IndependentsSocial Pressures and Self-Censorship The Rise of the Feature Film The Star System The Movies Move to Hollywood The Problem of Narrative ClarityEarly Moves toward Classical Storytelling Intertitles Camera Position and Acting Color Set Design and Lighting The Beginnings of the Continuity System An International Style Notes and QueriesGriffith's Importance in the Development of Film Style ReferencesFurther Reading3 NATIONAL CINEMA, HOLLYWOOD CLASSICISM, AND WORLD WAR I, 1905-1919The American Takeover of World MarketsThe Rise of National CinemasGermany Italy Russia France Denmark Sweden The Classical Hollywood CinemaThe Major Studios Begin to Form Controlling Filmmaking Filmmaking in Hollywood during the 1910s Films and Filmmakers Streamlining American Animation Small Producing CountriesNotes and QueriesThe Ongoing Rediscovery of the 1910s Further ReadingPART TWO: THE LATE SILENT ERA, 1919-19294 FRANCE IN THE 1920SThe French Film Industry after World War ICompetition from Imports Disunity within the Film Industry Outdated Production Facilities Major Postwar GenresThe French Impressionist MovementThe Impressionists' Relation to the Industry Impressionist Theory Formal Traits of Impressionism The End of French ImpressionismThe Filmmakers Go Their Own Ways Problems within the Film Industry Notes and QueriesFrench Impressionist Theory and Criticism Restoration Work on Napoleon ReferencesFurther Reading5 GERMANY IN THE 1920sThe German Situation after World War IGenres and Styles of German Postwar CinemaSpectacles The German Expressionist Movement Kammerspiel German Films Abroad Major Changes in the Mid- to Late 1920sThe Technological Updating of the German Studios The End of Inflation The End of the Expressionist MovementNew ObjectivityExport and Classical StyleNotes and QueriesGerman Cinema and German Society Expressionism, New Objectivity, and the Other Arts ReferencesFurther Reading6 SOVIET CINEMA IN THE 1920sThe Hardships of War Communism, 1918-1920Recovery under the New Economic Policy, 1921-1924Increased State Control and the Montage Movement, 1925-1930Growth and Export in the Film Industry The Influence of Constructivism A New Generation: The Montage Filmmakers The Theoretical Writings of Montage Filmmakers Soviet Montage Form and Style Other Soviet FilmsThe Five-Year Plan and the End of the Montage MovementNotes and QueriesFilm Industry and Governmental Policy: A Tangled History The Kuleshov Effect The Russian Formalists and the Cinema ReferencesFurther Reading7 THE LATE SILENT ERA IN HOLLYWOOD, 1920-1928Theater Chains and the Structure of the IndustryVertical Integration Picture Palaces The Big Three and the Little Five The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of AmericaStudio FilmmakingStyle and Technological Changes Big-Budget Films of the 1920s New Investments and Blockbusters Genres and Directors Foreign Filmmakers in Hollywood Films for African-American AudiencesThe Animated Part of the ProgramNotes and QueriesThe Rediscovery of Buster Keaton ReferencesFurther Reading8 INTERNATIONAL TRENDS OF THE 1920s"Film Europe"Concrete Steps toward Co-operation Success Cut Short The "International Style"Carl Dreyer: European Director Film Experiments Outside the Mainstream IndustryDocumentary Features Gain ProminenceCommercial Filmmaking InternationallyJapan Great Britain Italy Some Small Producing Countries Notes and QueriesDifferent Versions of Silent Classics ReferencesFurther ReadingPART THREE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOUND CINEMA, 1926-19459 THE INTRODUCTION OF SOUNDSound in the United StatesWarner Bros. and Vitaphone Sound-on-Film Is Adopted Sound and Filmmaking Germany Challenges HollywoodDividing the International Pie The Early Sound Era in Germany The USSR Pursues Its Own Path to SoundThe International Adoption of SoundFrance Great Britain Japan Wiring the World's Theaters for Sound Crossing the Language Barrier Notes and QueriesFilmmakers on the Coming of Sound Sound and the Revision of Film History ReferencesFurther Reading10 THE HOLLYWOOD STUDIO SYSTEM, 1930-1945The New Structure of the Film IndustryThe Big Five The Little Three The Independents Exhibition Practice in the 1930sContinued Innovation in HollywoodSound Recording Camera Movement Technicolor Special Effects Cinematography Styles Major DirectorsThe Older Generation New Directors Emigre Directors Genre Innovations and TransformationsThe Musical The Screwball Comedy The Horror Film The Social Problem Film The Gangster Film Film Noir The War Film Animation and the Studio SystemNotes and QueriesThe Controversy over Orson Welles ReferencesFurther Reading11 OTHER STUDIO SYSTEMSQuota Quickies and Wartime Pressures: The British StudiosThe British Film Industry Grows Export Successes Alfred Hitchcock's Thrillers Crisis and Recovery The Effects of the War Innovation within an Industry: The Studio System of JapanPopular Cinema of the 1930s The Pacific War India: An Industry Built on MusicA Highly Fragmented Business Mythologicals, Socials, Devotionals Independents Weaken the System China: Filmmaking Caught between Left and RightNotes and QueriesJapanese Cinema Rediscovered ReferencesFurther Reading12 Cinema and the State: The USSR, Germany, and Italy, 1930-1945The Soviet Union: Socialist Realism and World War IIFilms of the Early 1930s The Doctrine of Socialist Realism The Main Genres of Socialist Realism The Soviet Cinema in Wartime The German Cinema under the NazisThe Nazi Regime and the Film Industry Films of the Nazi Era The Aftermath of the Nazi Cinema Italy: Propaganda versus EntertainmentIndustry Tendencies A Cinema of Distraction A New Realism? Notes and QueriesThe Case of Leni Riefenstahl ReferencesFurther Reading13 FRANCE: POETIC REALISM, THE POPULAR FRONT AND THE OCCUPATION, 1930-1945The Industry and Filmmaking during the 1930sProduction Problems and Artistic Freedom Quality Studio Filmmaking Emigres in France Everyday Realism Poetic RealismDoomed Lovers, Atmospheric Settings The Creative Burst of Jean Renoir Brief Interlude: The Popular FrontFilmmaking in Occupied and Vichy FranceThe Situation of the Film Industry Films of the Occupation Period Notes and QueriesRenewed Interest in the Popular Front ReferenceFurther Reading14 LEFTIST, DOCUMENTARY, AND EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA, 1930-1945The Spread of Political CinemaThe United States Germany Belgium and the Netherlands Great Britain International Leftist Filmmaking in the Late 1930s Government- and Corporate-sponsored DocumentariesThe United States Great Britain Wartime DocumentariesHollywood Directors and the War Great Britain Germany and the USSR The International Experimental CinemaExperimental Narratives and Lyrical Films Surrealism Animation ReferencesFurther ReadingPART FOUR: THE POSTWAR ERA, 1946-1960s15 AMERICAN CINEMA IN THE POSTWAR ERA, 1946-19601946/1947/1948The HUAC Hearings: The Cold War Reaches Hollywood The Paramount Decision The Decline of the Hollywood Studio SystemChanging Lifestyles and Competing Entertainment Wider and More Colorful Movies Hollywood Adjusts to Television Art Cinemas and Drive-ins Challenges to Censorship The New Power of the Individual FilmRoadshow Distribution and Exhibition The Rise of the IndependentsMainstream Independents: Agents, Star Power, and the PackageExploitation Independents on the Fringes Classical Hollywood Filmmaking: A Continuing TraditionComplexity and Realism in Storytelling Stylistic Changes New Twists on Old Genres Major Directors: Several GenerationsVeterans of the Studio Era Emigres Stay On Welles's Struggle with Hollywood The Impact of the Theater New Directors Notes and QueriesWidescreen Formats in Subsequent History ReferencesFurther Reading16 POSTWAR EUROPEAN CINEMA: NEOREALISM AND ITS CONTEXT, 1945-1959The Postwar ContextFilm Industries and Film CultureWest Germany: "Papas Kino" Resistance to U.S. Encroachment Art Cinema: The Return of Modernism Italy: Neorealism and AfterItalian Spring Defining Neorealism Beyond Neorealism A Spanish Neorealism?Notes and QueriesControversies around Neorealism ReferencesFurther Reading17 POSTWAR EUROPEAN CINEMA: FRANCE, SCANDINAVIA, AND BRITAIN, 1945-1959French Cinema of the Postwar DecadeThe Industry Recovers The Tradition of Quality The Return of Older Directors New Independent Directors Scandinavian RevivalEngland: Quality and ComedyProblems in the Industry Literary Heritage and Eccentricity Arthouse Success Abroad Notes and QueriesPostwar French Film Theory The Powell-Pressburger Revival ReferencesFurther Reading18 POSTWAR CINEMA BEYOND THE WEST, 1945-1959General TendenciesJapanIndustry Recovery under the Occupation The Veteran Directors The War Generation Postwar Cinema in the Soviet Sphere of InfluenceThe USSR from High Stalinism to the Thaw Obstacles of the Postwar Years Stalin's Death and the New Humanism Postwar Cinema in Eastern Europe People's Republic of ChinaCivil War and Revolution Mixing Maoism and Tradition IndiaA Disorganized but Prolific Industry The Populist Tradition and Raj Kapoor Swimming Against the Stream: Guru Dutt and Ritwik Ghatak Latin AmericaArgentina and Brazil The Mexican Popular Cinema Notes and QueriesDe-Stalinization and the Disappearing Act ReferencesFurther Reading19 ART CINEMA AND THE IDEA OF AUTHORSHIPThe Rise and Spread of the Auteur TheoryAuthorship and the Growth of the Art CinemaLuis Bunuel (190-1983)Ingmar Bergman (1918- )Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)Federico Fellini (1920-1993)Michelangelo Antonioni (1912- )Robert Bresson (1907-1999)Jacques Tati (1908-1982)Satyajit Ray (1921-1992)Notes and QueriesThe Impact of Auteurism Auteurism and the American Cinema 1950s and 1960s Modernist Cinema ReferencesFurther Reading20 NEW WAVES AND YOUNG CINEMA, 1958-1967The Industries' New NeedsFormal and Stylistic TrendsFrance: New Wave and New CinemaThe New Wave French New Cinema: The Left Bank Italy: Young Cinema and Spaghetti WesternsGreat Britain: "Kitchen Sink" CinemaYoung German FilmNew Cinema in the USSR and Eastern EuropeYoung Cinema in the Soviet Union New Waves in Eastern Europe The Japanese New WaveBrazil: Cinema NovoNotes and QueriesCensorship and the French New Wave New Film Theory ReferencesFurther Reading21 DOCUMENTARY AND EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA IN THE POSTWAR ERA,1945-MID-1960sToward the Personal DocumentaryInnovative Trends The National Film Board and "Free Cinema" France: The Auteurs' Documentaries Jean Rouch and Ethnographic Documentary Direct CinemaThe United States: Drew and Associates Direct Cinema in Bilingual Canada France: Cinema verite Experimental and Avant-garde CinemaAbstraction, Collage, and Personal Expression Underground and Expanded Cinema Stretching the Limits of Taste and the Medium Notes and QueriesWriting the History of the Postwar Avant-garde ReferencesFurther ReadingPART FIVE: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL TRENDS SINCE THE 1960S22 HOLLYWOOD'S FALL AND RISE, 1960-19801960s: The Film Industry in RecessionThe 1960s Crisis Styles and Genres in the 1960s Modifying the Classical Studio Style Identifying the Audience The New Hollywood: Late 1960s-Late 1970sToward and American Art Cinema The 1970s: Hollywood Strikes Gold The Return of the Blockbuster Hollywood Updated Scorsese as Synthesis Opportunities for IndependentsNotes and QueriesThe American Director as Superstar Film Consciousness and Film Preservation Exploitation Films and Connoisseurs of "Weird Movies" ReferencesFurther Reading23 CRITICAL POLITICAL CINEMA OF THE 1960S AND 1970SPolitical Filmmaking in the Third WorldRevolutionary Aspirations Political Genres and Styles Latin America Black African Cinema China: Cinema and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution Political Filmmaking in the First and Second WorldsEastern Europe and the USSR Political Cinema in the West Political Modernism The Politicization of Mainstream Narrative and the Art Film New Cinema in West Germany: The Political Wing Notes and QueriesDefining Third World Revolutionary Cinema Film Studies and the New Film Theory ReferencesFurther Reading24 DOCUMENTARY AND EXPERIMENTAL FILM SINCE THE LATE 1960sDocumentary CinemaDirect Cinema and Its Legacy The Questioning of Documentary From Structuralism to Pluralism in Avant-garde CinemaStructural Film Reactions and Alternatives to Structural Film New Mergers Notes and QueriesRethinking Documentary The Idea of Structure The Avant-garde and Postmodernism ReferencesFurther Reading25 NEW CINEMAS AND NEW DEVELOPMENTS: EUROPE AND THE USSR SINCE THE 1970sWestern EuropeCrisis in the Industry The Art Cinema Revived: Toward Accessibility The Arresting Image Eastern Europe and the USSREastern Europe: From Reform to Revolution The USSR: The Final Thaw and Its Aftermath Notes and QueriesThe New German Cinema ReferencesFurther Reading26 NEW CINEMA IN LATIN AMERICA, ASIA, THE PACIFIC RIM, AND AFRICA SINCE THE 1970sLatin America: Accessibility and DeclineBrazil Argentina and Elsewhere Mexico Cuba and Other Left-Wing Cinemas Recent Trends India: A Parallel CinemaNew Cinemas in East Asia and the Pacific RimThe PhilippinesHong Kong Taiwan Mainland China: The Fifth Generation and Their Successors Japan Australia New ZealandNotes and QueriesPinning the Tail on Pinochet Storytelling in Third World Cinema PART SIX: CINEMA IN THE AGE OF ELECTRONIC MEDIA27 AMERICAN CINEMA AND THE ENTERTAINMENT ECONOMY: THE 1980s AND AFTERHollywood, Movies, and VideotapeConcentration and Consolidation in the Film IndustryThe Megapix Mentality The Bottom Line Prime Packagers New Revenue Streams Megaplexing: The New Face of ExhibitionArtistic TrendsForm and Style Directors: Coming to Terms with Megapix Genres A New Age of Independent CinemaSupport Systems The Arty Indies Off-Hollywood Indies Retro-Hollywood Independents Digital CinemaNotes and QueriesVideo Versions George Lucas: Is Film Dead? ReferencesFurther Reading28 TOWARD A GLOBAL FILM CULTUREHollyworld?The Media Conglomerates Cooperation and Cooptation Battles over GATT Multiplexing the PlanetRegional Trends and the New International FilmEurope and Asia Try to Compete Media Empires Global Films from Europe East Asia: Regional Alliances and Global Efforts Global Diasporas The Festival CircuitGlobal SubculturesVideo Piracy: An Efficient Distribution System? Fan Subcultures: Appropriating the Movies Digital ConvergenceThe Internet as Movie Billboard Digital Moviemaking Notes and QueriesAkira, Gundam, Sailor Moon, and Their Friends Auteurs on the WebReferencesFurther ReadingBibliographyGlossaryIndex
Written by two leading film scholars, Film History: An Introduction is a comprehensive survey of film-from the backlots of Hollywood, across the United States, and around the world. As in the authors' bestselling Film Art, concepts and events are illustrated with actual frame enlargements, giving students more realistic points of reference than competing books that use publicity stills.