BackThe Ciné Goes to Town
French Cinema 1896 - 1914 (book in English)
by Richard Abel
- Type
- Encyclopedias
- Subject
- Silent Cinema
- French cinema, pioneer, early cinema, France
- Publishing Date
- 1998
- Publisher
- University of California Press
- Collection
- (no collection)
2nd Revised edition - Language
- English
Relative size
- Physical desc.
- Paperback • 574 pages • 45 €
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm) - ISBN-10
ISBN-13 - 0-520-07936-1
978-0-520-07936-6 - User Ratings
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Book Presentation:
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.
About the Author:
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.
Press Reviews:
"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
See the publisher website: University of California Press
> From the same author:
Menus for Movieland (2015)
Newspapers and the Emergence of American Film Culture 1913-1916
by Richard Abel
(in English)
Subject: Silent Cinema
Early Cinema and the National (2008)
Dir. Richard Abel, Giorgio Bertellini and Rob King
(in English)
Subject: Silent Cinema
Americanizing the Movies and Movie-Mad Audiences (2006)
1910-1914
by Richard Abel
(in English)
Subject: Silent Cinema
French Film Theory and Criticism 1929-1939 (1988)
vol.1: 1907-1929 - vol. 2: 1929-1939
by Richard Abel
(in English)
> On a related topic:
Les vingt premières années du cinéma français (1995)
Colloque international de la Sorbonne-Nouvelle, 4-6 novembre 1993
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Louis Feuillade (2006)
Maître du cinéma populaire
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Subject: Director > Louis Feuillade
Histoire encyclopédique du cinéma 1 (1965)
Histoire du cinéma 1895-1929
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Le Cinéma français et les écrivains (2002)
Histoire d'une rencontre, 1906-1914
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Cinéma des premiers temps (1996)
Nouvelles contributions françaises
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Subject: History of Cinema
Les Premiers ans du cinéma français (1986)
Actes du Ve colloque international de l'Institut Jean Vigo
Collective
Subject: Silent Cinema
Alice Guy, Léon Gaumont et les débuts du film sonore (2012)
Dir. Maurice Gianati and Laurent Mannoni
Subject: Silent Cinema
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