Winner of the Theatre Library Association's Annual Book Award.
Illustrations
Preface
Note to the 1998 Edition
Acknowledgments
Note on Terms
1. Turn-of-the-Century France
2. The French Cinema Industry, 1896-1914
The Big Four, 1896-I902
Pathé Comes to Power, 1902-1907
Strategies of Dominance, 1907-1911
Strategies of Survival, 1911-1914
3 The Cinema of Attractions, 1896-1904
Trick Films and Féeries
Comic Films
Diverging Paths: From Actualités to Historical and Realist
Films
4. The Transition to a Narrative Cinema, 1904-1907
The Bricolage Model
The Comic Chase Film and Company
The Pleasure and Pain of Just Looking: Erotic Films and
Others
The Dramatic and Realist Films
Dissemination and Difference
The Cinema of Attractions (continued)
5. The Pre-Feature, Single-Reel Story Film, 1907-1911
Contemporary Melodramas: Light and Dark Variants
Comics Come in Series
Film d'Art and Films d'Art: The Historical Film and the Literary
Adaptation
Trick Films and Féeries
6. The Rise of the Feature Film, 1911-1914
The Historical Film Comes of Age
Life As It Is: In and Out of Fashion
Crime Pays: Detectives Versus Criminals
The Comic Series in Full Swing
Afterword
Filmography
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Richard Abel is National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of English at Drake University. His books include French Cinema: The First Wave, 1915-1929 (1984), winner of the Theatre Library Association Award, and French Film Theory and Criticism: A History/Anthology, 1907-1939 (1988), winner of the Jay Leyda Prize in Cinema Studies.
"Just the sort of history text that should satisfy nearly everyone. [Abel] relies on original archival archaeology and connects that inquiry to shifts in early French film style and culture, all the while keeping an eye on the theoretical implications of his own historiography. . . . The attention to detail, the importance of the scholarship, and the excellent production quality are evident at every level. . . . Abel not only worked hard in the archives, he also worked at writing a lively, teachable history that allows us to marvel at all these wonderful movies. . . . Abel's history is a great success."--Richard Neupert, "Film Quarterly
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