Includes bibliographical references (p. 767-784) and index.

COINTENTS:

1. Silent cinema, 1895-1930 : The early years : Origins and survival / Paolo Cherchi Usai ; Early cinema ; Transitional cinema / Roberta Pearson -- Rise of Hollywood : The Hollywood studio system / Douglas Gomery ; The world-wide spread of cinema / Ruth Vasey ; The first world war and the crisis in Europe / William Uricchio -- The silent film : Tricks and animation / Donald Crafton ; Comedy / David Robinson ; Documentary / Charles Musser ; Cinema and the avant-garde / A.L. Rees ; Serials / Ben Singer = -- National cinemas : French silent cinema / Richard Abel ; Italy: spectacle and melodrama / Paolo Cherchi Usai ; British cinema from Hepworth to Hitchcock / John Hawkridge ; Germany: the Weimar years / Thomas Elsaesser ; The Scandinavian style / Paolo Cherchi Usai ; Pre-revolutionary Russia / Yuri Tsivian ; The Soviet Union and the Russian émigrés / Natalia Nussinova ; Yiddish cinema in Europe / Marek & Malgorzata Hendrykowski ; Japan: before the great Kanto earthquake / Hiroshi Komatsu -- Silent cinema experience : Music and the silent film / Martin Marks ; The heyday of the silents / Geoffrey Nowell-Smith --

2. Sound cinema, 1930-1960 : Sound : The introduction of sound / Karel Dibbets -- Studio years : Hollywood: the triumph of the studio system / Thomas Schatz ; Censorship and self-regulation / Richard Maltby ; The sound of music / Martin Marks ; Technology and innovation / John Belton ; Animation / William Moritz -- Genre cinema : Cinema and genre / Rick Altman ; The western / Edward Buscombe ; The musical / Rick Altman ; Crime movies / Phil Hardy ; The fantastic / Vivian Sobchack -- Engaging with reality : Documentary / Charles Musser ; Socialism, fascism, and democracy / Geoffrey Nowell-Smith -- National cinemas : The popular art of French cinema / Ginette Vincendeau ; Italy from fascism to neo-realism / Morando Morandini ; Britain at the end of empire / Antonia Lant ; Germany: Nazism and after / Eric Rentschler ; East Central Europe before the second world war / Malgorzata Hendrykowska ; Soviet film under Stalin / Peter Kenez ; Indian cinema: origins to independence / Ashish Rajadhyaksha ; China before 1949 / Chris Berry ; The classical cinema of Japan / Hiroshi Komatsu ; The emergence of Australian film / Bill Routt ; Cinema in Latin America / Michael Chanan -- Post-war world : After the war / Geoffrey Nowell-Smith ; Transformation of the Hollywood system / Douglas Gomery / Independents and mavericks / Geoffrey Nowell-Smith --

3. Modern cinema, 1960-1995 : Cinema in the age of television : Television and the film industry / Michèle Hilmes ; The new Hollywood / Douglas Gomery ; New technologies / John Belton ; Sex and sensation / Linda Williams -- American movies : The Black presence in American cinema / Jim Pines ; Exploitation and the mainstream / Kim Newman ; Dreams and nightmares in the Hollywood blockbuster / Joseph Sartelle -- Extending the boundaries : Cinema verité and the new documentary / Charles Musser ; Avant-garde film: the second wave / A.L. Rees ; Animation in the post-industrial era / William Moritz ; Modern film music / Royal Brown ; Art cinema / Geoffrey Nowell-Smith -- Cinemas of the world : New directions in French cinema / Peter Graham ; Italy: auteurs and after / Morando Morandini ; Spain after Franco / Marsha Kinder ; British cinema: the search for identity / Duncan Petrie ; The new German cinema / Anton Kaes ; East Germany: the DEFA story / Hans-Michael Bock ; Changing states in East Central Europe / Marek Hendrykowski ; Russia after the thaw / Vida Johnson ; Cinema in the Soviet Republics / Jean Radvanyi ; Turkish cinema / Yusuf Kaplan ; The Arab world / Roy Armes ; The cinemas of Sub-Saharan Africa / P.Vincent Magombe ; Iranian cinema / Hamid Naficy ; India: filming the nation / Ashish Rajadhyaksha ; Indonesian cinema / David Hanan ; China after the revolution / Ester Yau ; Popular cinema in Hong Kong / Li Cheuk-To ; Taiwanese new cinema / June Yip ; The modernization of Japanese film / Hiroshi Komatsu ; New Australian cinema / Stephen Crofts ; New Zealand cinema / Bill Routt ; Canadian cinema/cinéma Canadien / Jill McGreal ; New cinemas in Latin America / Michael Chanan -- Conclusion : New concepts of cinema ; The resurgence of cinema / Geoffrey Nowell-Smith.