Front cover image for The ciné goes to town : French cinema, 1896-1914

The ciné goes to town : French cinema, 1896-1914

Presents the history of French cinema between 1896 and 1914, particularly during the years when Pathe-Freres, the first major corporation in the industry, led the world in film production and distribution. This book tells how early French film entertainment changed from a cinema of attractions to the narrative format that Hollywood would exploit.
Print Book, English, 1998
Updated and expanded ed View all formats and editions
University of California Press, Berkeley, 1998
Criticism, interpretation, etc
xxiii, 568 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm
9780520079366, 9780520079359, 0520079361, 0520079353
39176609
1. Turn-of-the-Century France
2. The French Cinema Industry, 1896-1914
The Big Four, 1896-1902
Pathe 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 Feeries
Comic Films
Diverging Paths: From Actualites 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 Feeries
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
"A Centennial book"--Page preceding half-title page
"For this paperback edition ... I have made numerous corrections and changes in the text, some of them significant ... [including] an extensive revision of the Filmography."--Note to the 1998 edition