Feature Films As History

Bringing together the work of leading film historians, originally published in 1981, this book illustrates the breadth of methodological approaches adopted by the field and the variety of its interests. Dealing with a period from about 1924-1945, it considers feature films in particular, showing their potential as historical source material, and discussing how they provide a clearer understanding of the societies and intellectual trends they both reflected and affected. By using films as historical documents, the articles demonstrate how important new insights may be gained into the history of the Soviet Union, France, Germany, Great Britain and the United States. They provide both detailed in-depth studies and a general introduction on the problems of the type of documentation appropriate to the study of film history.

This study looks at how the movie industry organisation functioned between the late '40s and 1983 when it was originally published. It describes the changing role of domestic exhibition through this time and analyses the wider film industry to provide a model of the exhibition structure in relation to production, distribution and outside factors. It addresses the growing issues of the cable and video markets as competition to the film exhibition business at that time and looks forward into a highly turbulent environment. With particular interest now as the film industry address a new range of threats and adaptations of its working structure, this book offers and integral understanding of a key stage in cinema history.