American Cinema 1890-1909: Themes and Variations

by Andre Gaudreault

Overview

At the turn of the twentieth century, cinema was quickly establishing itself as a legitimate form of popular entertainment.

The essays in American Cinema 1890-1909 explore and define how the making of motion pictures flowered into an industry that would finally become the central entertainment institution of the world. Beginning with all the early types of pictures that moved, this volume tells the story of the invention and consolidation of the various processes that gave rise to what we now call "cinema." By examining the battles over patents, production, exhibition, and the reception of film, readers learn how going to the movies became a social tradition in American society.

In the course of these two decades, cinema succeeded both in establishing itself among other entertainment and instructional media and in updating various forms of spectacle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813544434
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	01/13/2009
Series:	Screen Decades: American Culture/American Cinema
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

ANDRÉ GAUDREAULT is a professor in the Département d’histoire de l’art et d’études cinématographiques at the Université de Montréal. He is the author of From Plato to Lumière: Narration and Monstration in Literature and Cinema and Cinéma et attractions: Pour une nouvelle histoire du cinématographe.

Table of Contents

American cinema emerges (1890-1909) / Andre Gaudreault, Tom Gunning
1890-1895: movies and the kinetoscope / Paul C. Spehr
1896-1897: movies and the beginnings of cinema / Charles Musser
1898-1899: movies and entrepreneurs / Patrick Loughney
1900-1901: movies, new imperialism, and the new century / Jean-Pierre Sirois-Trahan
1902-1903: movies, stories, and attractions / Tom Gunning
1904-1905: movies and chasing the missing link(s) / Andre Gaudreault
1906: movies and spectacle / Lauren Rabinovitz
1907: movies and the expansion of the audience / Eileen Bowser
1908: movies and other media / Matthew Solomon
1909: movies and progress / Jennifer M. Bean
Sources for films

Editorial Reviews

"This impressive volume—all of it immensely readable, fascinating, and coherent—leads one to appreciate the breadth and scope of global cinema. Gaudreault and his talented contributors provided a fresh, lively, informative, engaging chronological survey of the first decades of American film. Highly recommended."

CHOICE

There is nothing like this series. Screen Decades firmly situates American cinema in the realms of material culture, popular culture, cultural narrative, reception analysis, and industrial history.”

American Quarterly

“There is nothing like this series. Screen Decades firmly situates American cinema in the realms of material culture, popular culture, cultural narrative, reception analysis, and industrial history.”

From the Publisher

This impressive volume—all of it immensely readable, fascinating, and coherent—leads one to appreciate the breadth and scope of global cinema. Gaudreault and his talented contributors provided a fresh, lively, informative, engaging chronological survey of the first decades of American film. Highly recommended.

Choice