The cine goes to town : French cinema, 1896-1914 / Richard Abel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Abel, Richard, 1941- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion picture industry--France--History.

Motion picture industry.

Motion pictures--France--History.

Motion pictures.

Silent films--France--History and criticism.

Silent films.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxiii, 568 p. ) ill. ;

Edition:

Updated and Expanded edition.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, California : University of California Press, 1998.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Richard Abel's magisterial new book radically rewrites the history of French cinema between 1896 and 1914, particularly during the years when Pathé-Frères, the first major corporation in the new industry, led the world in film production and distribution. Based on extensive investigation of rare archival films and documents, and drawing on recent social and cultural histories of turn-of-the-century France and the United States, his book provides new insights into the earliest history of the cinema. Abel tells how early French film entertainment changed from a cinema of attractions to the narrative format that Hollywood would so successfully exploit. He describes the popular genres of the era--comic chases, trick films and féeries, historical and biblical stories, family melodramas and grand guignol tales, crime and detective films--and shows the shift from short subjects to feature-length films. Cinema venues evolved along with the films as live music, color effects, and other new exhibiting techniques and practices drew larger and larger audiences. Abel explores the ways these early films mapped significant differences in French social life, helping to produce thoroughly bourgeois citizens for Third Republic France. The Ciné Goes to Town recovers early French cinema's unique contribution to the development of the mass culture industry. As the one-hundredth anniversary of cinema approaches, this compelling demonstration of film's role in the formation of social and national identity will attract a wide audience of film scholars, social and cultural historians, and film enthusiasts.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Preface

Note to the 1998 Edition

Acknowledgments

Note on Terms

1. Turn-of-the-Century France

2. The French Cinema Industry, 1896-1914

3. The Cinema of Attractions, 1896-1904

4. The Transition to a Narrative Cinema, 1904-1907

5. The Pre-Feature, Single-Reel Story Film, 1907-1911

6. The Rise of the Feature Film, 1911-1914

Afterword

Filmography

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Filmography: p. 433-461.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 07. Jul 2020)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780520912915

0520912918

9780585176338

0585176337

OCLC:

1163878232