A Short History of the Movies

TLDR: In this paper, the authors present an overview of the history of movies in the early 20th century, focusing on three categories of movies: The Birth of a Nation, The Last Laugh, and The Gold Rush.

Abstract: 1. Introductory Assumptions. For Further Reading and Viewing. 2. Birth. Frames per second. Pictures on Film. Speed. Flicker and the Continuous Signal. Persistence of Vision and Other Phenomena. Seeing with the Brain. Visual Masking and Retinal Retention. Early Observations. Separating and Integrating Frames. The Phi Phenomenon and Beta Movement. Short-Range Apparent Motion. Constructing Continuity. Scientific Toys. Aemile Reynaud. Photography. Muybridge and Marey. Thomas Edison. W. K--L. Dickson and William Heise. Early Cameras and Films. The Kinetoscope. A Sound Film and Studio. Projection. The Magic Lantern. The Loop and Other Solutions. The Lumiere Brothers. R.W. Paul. The Vitascope. The First Films. For Further Reading and Viewing. 3. Film Narrative, Commercial Expansion. Early Companies. Narrative. George Melies. Cohl and Others. Edwin S. Porter. From Brighton to Biograph. Business Wars. The Film d'Art. For Further Reading and Viewing. 4. Griffith. Apprenticeship. Biograph: The One-Reelers. Two Reels and Up. The Birth of a Nation. Intolerance. 1917-31. Broken Blossoms and Way Down East. The Struggle. For Further Reading and Viewing. 5. Mack Sennett and the Chaplin Shorts. Krazy Keystones. Charlie. For Further Reading and Viewing. 6. Movie Czars and Movie Stars. Stars over Hollywood. The First Stars. California, Here We Come. The Emperors and Their Rule. Major Studios. Movie Palaces. Morality. Sermons and Scandals. The Hays Office. Films and Filmmakers, 1910-28. Thomas Ince. Douglas Fairbanks. DeMille and von Stroheim. Greed. Henry King. Oscar Micheaux and the Race Movie. Webber and Watson. Weber and Women. King Vidor. Lubitsch and Others. Flaherty and the Silent Documentary. The Comics. Laurel and Hardy and Hal Roach. Harold Lloyd. Harry Langdon. Buster Keaton. The Gold Rush and The General. Hollywood and the Jazz Age. Modernism. Jazz, Booze, and It. For Further Reading and Viewing. 7. The German Golden Age. Expressionism, Realism, and the Studio Film. Fantasy. Caligari. Destiny and Metropolis. Nosferatu and Others. Psychology. The Last Laugh. Pabst and die neue Sachlichkeit. The End of an Era. Beyond the Studio. Exodus to Hollywood. Using Sound. Lei Riefenstahl. For Further Reading and Viewing. 8. Soviet Montage. The Kuleshov Workshop. Sergei M. Eisenstein. Battleship Potemkin. October. Sound and Color. Vsevolod I. Pudovkin. Mother. Later Works. Other Major Figures. Alexander Dovzhenko. Dziga Vertov. Socialist Realism. For Further Reading and Viewing. 9. Sound. Processes. Problems. Solutions. For Further Reading and Viewing. 10. France between the Wars. Surrealism and Other Movements. Gance and Dreyer. Abel Gance. The Passion of Joan of Arc. Rene Clair. Jean Renoir. Grand Illusion. The Rules of the Game. Vigo and Others. Jean Vigo. Carne and Prevert. For Further Reading and Viewing. 11. The American Studio Years: 1930-45. Film Cycles and Cinematic Conventions. The Production Code. Cycles. Studios and Style. The Comics. Late Chaplin. Disney's World. Lubitsch and Sound. Frank Capra. Preston Sturges. George Cukor. The Marx Brothers. Mae West. W.C. Fields. Masters of Mood and Action. Josef von Sternberg. John Ford. Howard Hawks. Alfred Hitchcock. Orson Welles. For Further Reading and Viewing. 12. Hollywood in Transition: 1946-65. The Hollywood Ten and the Blacklist. 3-D, CinemaScope, Color, and the Tube. Films in the Transitional Era. Freedom of Speech, Preminger, and the Blacklist. Message Pictures: Kazan and Others. Adaptations and Values: John Huston and Others. Film Noir and Other Genres. The Freed Musicals. Surfaces and Subversion. Samuel Fuller . Late Hitchcock. Nicholas Ray. Late Ford. Douglas Sirk. Finding the Audience. For Further Reading and Viewing. 13. Neorealism and the New Wave. Italian Neorealism. Roberto Rossellini. De Sica and Zavattini. Luchino Visconti. Romantics and Antiromantics. Federico Fellini. Michelangelo Antonioni. Pasolini and Bertolucci. Germi, Leone, and Others. France---Postwar Classicism. Cocteau and Others. Max Ophuls. Robert Bresson. Tati, Clouzot, and Clement. 1959 and After. The New Wave. Francois Truffaut. Jean-Luc Godard. Alain Resnais. Chabrol, Rohmer, and Rivette. Varda, Marker, and the Documentary. Malle and Others. For Further Reading and Viewing. 14. National Cinemas: 1945-. Sweden and Denmark. Ingmar Bergman. England. Postwar Masters. Another New Wave. From A Hard Day's Night to Masterpiece Theatre. Central and Eastern Europe. The Czech Golden Age. Poland. Hungary. The Balkan States. Cinemas East. Japan. India. China. Taiwan. Hong Kong. Korea. For Further Reading and Viewing. 15. Hollywood Renaissance: 1964-76. The New American Auteurs. John Cassavetes. Woody Allen. Robert Altman. Francis Ford Coppola. Martin Scorsese. Malick, De Palma, and Others. Stanley Kubrick. The Independent American Cinema. Early History. The New Film Poets. For Further Reading and Viewing. 16. National Cinemas 2: 1968-. Das neue Kino. Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Werner Herzog. Wim Wenders. Von Trotta and Others. Third World Cinemas. Emerging Cinemas, Emerging Concerns. Instructive Dramas. Documentaries. Alex and Sembene. Other English-Language Cinemas. Australia. New Zealand. Canada. Ireland and Elsewhere. Russia and the Former Soviet Union. Paradjanov, Tarkovsky, and Others. Glassnost and After. Iran. The New Internationalism. Luis Bunuel. For Further Reading and Viewing. 17. The Return of the Myths: 1977-. Star Wars and the New Mythology. Supermen, Slashers, and Cops. Feelgood Movies and Bummers. Popular Heroes and Postmodern Irony. Leading Directors. Lucas and Spielberg. Dark Satire: Lynch, Waters, and Others. The Comic Edge: Burton, Zemeckis, and Others. Politics, Insight, and Violence: Lee, Carpenter, and Others. For Further Reading and Viewing. 18. Conglomerates and Cassettes: 1975-. It's A Wonderful Deal. Sequels and Blockbusters. Conglomerates. For Sale: Studio. The Budget Explosion. Executive Decisions. Theatres. Studio Shake-ups. Movies in the Age of Video. Tape and Videotape. Analog and Digital Information. Sampling and Conversion. Videotape Recorders. Cassettes and Discs. DVDs. Out of the Vaults. Pixels and Lines. Film and Video Frames. Changes on the Set. Nonlinear Editing. Copies and Originals. Colorization. Electronic Cinema. For Further Reading and Viewing. 19. Digital Cinema: 1999-. Doing without Film. Beginnings. Production and Distribution. The Look of the Future. For Further Reading and Viewing. Distributors. Glossary. Acknowledgments. Index.