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This course is an introduction to the aesthetic history of film. It examines how types of films and their styles have changed in relation to how they are made, shown, and distributed. It traces the major developments in the medium across the 20th century in an international context, ranging from the silent era to the increasing globalization of media industries near the end of the century. The course introduces students to the elements of film style and basic analytical concepts to treat masterpieces of cinema in relation to their immediate historical context.
This book introduces the history of films. It divides film history into five large periods: early cinema (to about 1919), the late silent era (1919-1929), the development of sound cinema (1926-1945), the period after World War II (1946-1960s), and the contemporary cinema (1960s to the present). This book does not limit itself to the most famous films and live-action fiction films, but also include small countries and little-known films as well as documentary and experimental cinema. Rather than simply presenting a chronological narrative of national cinema, this book also relates developments in one nation to parallel developments elsewhere.
