A History of Narrative Film

This volume combines a comprehensive and chronologically organized film history with an introduction to the theory and aesthetics of the cinema. The focus of the book is the study of motion pictures as the complex product of both institutional forces - economic, technological, social and political - and individual artistic vision. For the second edition the book has been thoroughly revised and updated to include films released in 1989. There is increased coverage of the major directors, both past and present, and film-making in Australasia, Canada, South America, India, Russia and Eastern Europe is studied in greater detail. It includes more in-depth information on the technical aspects of film-making and on the business side of cinema, for example the rise of independent production in the 1930s, the impact of Goldcrest and Channel 4 as producers in recent cinema and the corporate mergers of the 1980s.

There are other one-volume histories of the international film out there, but this is the one to own. Now in its third edition, this book covers the history of the medium from its early photographic experiments to the present day. What it lacks in theoretical insight or close specificity is more than made up for by its sheer comprehensiveness. Exhaustively illustrated with stills in color and black and white, it describes film of every genre, from every imaginable country, and in every era of the century in lively and illuminating fashion.